Being Cheap Burned Me
Remember how I just posted about the difference between being cheap and being frugal? Recently, I did exactly what I said not to do…I bought something solely based on price, as a cheap person would — and of course, it backfired.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
It’s funny how I just talked about the difference between being cheap and being frugal, and yet I went and bought something based on price alone. Over the past few months, I’ve often joked about needing to buy a new office chair since mine was worn out. So, I thought my recent 25th birthday would be a good excuse to finally get one.
So what did I do? I went on Facebook Marketplace to find one. I found some guy selling brand-new chairs in boxes out of the back of a warehouse. The only catch was that he didn’t have any assembled to test before handing over the $30 he was asking for. Still, I took the risk. I figured, how bad can a $30 chair be?
As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. I assembled the chair in about 20 minutes after getting home. However, let’s just say the chair was not made for someone of my stature. I’m not even that big! 6’0” and just under 180 lbs but the chair felt like it would be better suited for a 13-year-old. Not to mention, it feels like if I look at it wrong, it’ll break because of how cheaply it’s made.
The Dilemma
So, now I had this chair that I couldn’t really use the way I’d hoped to. I couldn’t return it, and I probably couldn’t get anyone to buy it either. What do you do? Thankfully, I was able to repurpose it in a different room that gets lighter use. But now, I had to go buy another chair that I actually wanted.
I ended up getting an Amazon Basics chair for $80. While it’s much better quality than the first and I think it’ll last a while, I honestly should have just done what I knew from the beginning — bought one good-quality $200 or $300 chair and called it a day. Now I have two okay chairs, but not the one I really wanted.
Being Cheap
As we talked about before, being cheap means only looking at goods based on their price point and not their quality. And that’s exactly what I did here, I looked for the cheapest option, and it ultimately burned me.
Now, this isn’t a big deal financially for me, but it reinforces the fact that being cheap rarely leads to the outcome I actually want.
Looking back, I can see other times I’ve been cheap, and it almost always leads to regret. Regret for not getting what I really wanted. Especially since I can usually afford to buy what I want, being cheap almost never works out in my favor.
Being Frugal
Being frugal, on the other hand, has benefited me greatly in life. Being frugal means making purchases based on value, not price. In the scenario above, a quality $200 chair is worth more than six $30 chairs because no matter how many cheap chairs I buy, they don’t serve the purpose I expect them to.
Being more value-driven has brought a lot of happiness to my life because I’m not always focused on the dollar amount. I care more about whether the item achieves the outcome I want.
There’s nothing worse than shopping based solely on price and being left disappointed because the item didn’t deliver what you hoped. There are plenty of cheap things you can buy, but that doesn’t mean they’re the best value for you.
Being Too Cheap Actually Costs More
Let’s use my Amazon Basics chair as an example. If my $80 chair lasts two years, but a $200 chair lasts five, six, or seven years — which is the better deal? I’d argue the $200 chair is, because it lasts longer per dollar and is likely more comfortable.
The point I’m making is that you should look at how often you have to replace an item compared to buying a higher-quality one. A lot of the time, you’re actually spending more over the same period and settling for lower quality the whole time. That doesn’t sound like much fun to me.
I’d much rather have a few nice, high-quality items than lots of low-quality junk. Sure, you could have three cheap winter jackets, or you could have one nice one that lasts forever. You could have two cheap office chairs, or one great one.
More Expensive Doesn’t Always Mean Better
On the flip side, buying items solely based on a high price doesn’t guarantee better quality either.
For example, you could buy cheap $2 Gildan t-shirts, or you could splurge on a $6 Bella + Canvas t-shirt, which is much nicer. But you could also spend $650 on a cotton Gucci t-shirt. So which is best? What I can guarantee is that the Gucci shirt isn’t 100 times better than the $6 shirt — or even 300 times better than the $2 shirt.
The power of branding and marketing is real. It’s great if you own the business, but not so great if you’re the consumer. In my opinion, the $6 shirt is the best value. It’s soft, comfortable, and affordable.
Another example: I know a young woman who’s obsessed with tumblers. She loves buying insulated tumblers from a specific brand that cost about $40 each. I found nearly identical ones online, unbranded, for $15. Is it worth paying $25 extra per tumbler for something that serves the exact same purpose? Especially if you’re broke and shouldn’t be buying fancy tumblers anyway? The value shopper in me says that extra $25 is for the branding, not the quality.
Lesson Learned
Another valuable lesson was reinforced today. Buying solely based on price almost never leads to satisfaction and buying solely based on brand can lead to spending too much. The happy medium is somewhere in between with quality and value being the most important.