Giving words a cost is a great way of thinking about how to write. Make expensive words pay their way - they must add enough value to the writing to justify their "cost".
It was a common vernacular figure of speech in Twain's time and for decades afterwards. I haven't ever heard of a writer budgeting a dollar figure for each paragraph and adding up the cost of each sentence.
I think what I wrote sounded a bit literal. I don't think anyone really does that "full time" as it were. I was just parroting Mark Twain's phrase really. :-)
