Hrqls: You may do either move as you see fit. Nothing compells you to be efficient in the usage of the pips or in baring pieces off. Perfectly fair and part of the strategy of the game. Especially if your opponent has pieces in your home base.

Another example similiar to this is when your opponent has a piece on the bar and you're bearing off. Say you have two pieces on your 2 point and one on your 1 point and no others and roll 6-1. You have some choices here. You could bare off two pieces on the 2 and 1 point leaving one piece on the 1 point. Better is to move one piece from the 2 point to the 1 point and bare off the other piece on the 2 point.

The rules that I've read of Backgammon say moving the pieces around in your home base instead of baring off is allowed and they also say you needn't use the most pips possible. This is different than the maximum usage of the dice because you have used both dice.