When is buying cheap better than buying quality?
Posted by Lise on 22 Jul 2008 at 06:00 pm | Tagged as: frugality
Right now I’m wearing a cheap black cardigan with shiny buttons that I inherited from my mother. I can be seen wearing it most days, even in summer, as my hedge against overambitious air conditioning. Since I wear it most of the work day, the elbows rub against my desk constantly, and right now there’s a thin spot on the elbow which will soon become a hole. At that point I’ll have to stop wearing it to work.
If this only happened to cheap black cardigans, my story would end there. But I’ve also destroyed not-so-cheap cashmere and wool sweaters in the same way. My elbows + my desk are lethal to clothing.
In Pants Don’t Need a Mission Statement I wrote about the dangers of buying cheap, poorly made clothes. But here are two examples of when it’s better to shop by price than to shop by long-term quality:
1. Heavy duty wear and tear. The wear and tear I put on the elbows of my sweaters is above and beyond normal usage. I love Lands’ End products, but it’s not worth buying a $40 cardigan from them when a $10 cardigan from Target is going to last just as long. Short of finding a sweater made of Kevlar, in fact, I don’t think that spending more will net me a sweater that will last longer. If the wear and tear you put on an item is greater than can be accommodated by buying a higher-quality product, buying cheap will save you money in the long run.
2. Limited time use. I’m at a phase in my life where I’m changing weight a lot (unfortunately, mostly increasing). There was a point in time where I could not fit into clothes I bought six months previous. Thankfully, I had purchased those clothes on sale at Marshall’s. I’m at the point now where if I gain anymore weight, however, those $100 Lands’ End wool pants are not gonna fit, and that’s a depressing thought.
Similarly, I purchased an electric lawn mower for $20 at a garage sale. It’s not heavy duty by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s light and easy to use and will last until I manage to eradicate all traces of my lawn with permanent plantings or hardscapes. In this case the amount you spend should be in proportion to how long you can expect to use the tool.
Readers: are there any other circumstances you can think of when it’s better to buy cheap than to buy quality?
Related Posts:
Join In!
- Share your thoughts on this article in the comments.
- Introduce yourself: Make New Friends, But Keep the Old
- Subscribe to the Frugal in the Fruitlands RSS feed to have new articles delivered to you immediately. (What's RSS?)
- Sign up for the Frugal in the Fruitlands email newsletter and receive a free copy of "3 Tips to Shave Over $300 Off Your Monthly Bills (Without Feeling Deprived)."
- Share this article on PFBuzz, del.icio.us, Digg, or StumbleUpon.
Hmm. Food for thought, for sure. I like nice pens. I own a not too expensive fountain pen. A regular pen would write as well and equating refills to bottled ink, could last as long, costing far less. But the experience would be different. So buy the $40 cardigan, if you like the qualities it has above those of the $10 one, but don’t wear that one at work. Perhaps this is best wrapped up in understanding the full functions and purposes behind an item. The fountain pen should not be compared to the ballpoint, unless you derive no value or pleasure from the fountain pen experience.
Also, there may be times when quality does last longer. But not longer enough to make up the difference. That’s sort of embedded in your statements, but your examples don’t.
And as always, sometimes there’s quality in cheap that isn’t seen. To see that quality usually involves some sort of time and/or effort. As an illustration, cooking your own meal will be less costly than an equivalent dinner out, and can actually be of higher quality, if you choose quality ingredients and invest in the preparation. My best bookcases are ones I made myself. Cost me half of what solid wood bookcases normally would, and I was able to build them to my design.
Trends in clothing is also another example. Wal-Mart and Target trendy tops will hold together till that babydoll top goes out of fashion. And when it just looks like another maternity top, you can give it to your favorite preggo and not feel like its money wasted.