Meaning
- more value for money
- more firepower for the money spent
- better result than the effort put into something
- a good deal
Example Sentences
- We tried that new Indian restaurant last night. The food was excellent, and the prices weren't too bad either, so we got a lot of bang for our bucks.
- If you are prepared to do some work yourself, there are still a few older properties for sale that would give you more bang for your buck.
- It's better to get a BOGOF deal. Much more bang for the buck.
- I recommend purchasing grocery online. You'll get maximum bang for your buck.
- This choice gives you the best bang for your buck.
- My dad had taught me how to get the best bang for the buck.
- You are always finding new opportunities that deliver more bang for your buck.
- Comparing unit pricing labels at the grocery store is a great way to get the more bang for your buck.
- I was searching online for how to get the best bang for the buck.
- Everyone wants the more bang for their buck. But sometimes it's hard to find the right deals.
Origin
The idiom has a political origin. It was used in quite a literal sense with 'bang' - meaning excitement, bombs (or weapons), and buck meaning money.
The first recorded use is in 1954 during the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration, when his Defense Secretary, Charles Erwin Wilson, used this phrase as the title of New Look policy of depending on nuclear weapons. Instead of increasing the men in the regular army, the US relied more on nuclear arms to keep the threat from Russia at bay during the cold war.
It continued to be used in the US military into the 1960s to suggest that the national defense budget was good value for the higher destructive power they could produce. Today, the idiom is used to mean more worth for the money used.
"More bang for the buck" was preceded by "more bounce to the ounce," an advertising catchphrase used in 1950 to market the carbonated soft drink Pepsi.
