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19

Why I Don’t Buy Cheap - Quality and Its Relationship to Price

As a rule of thumb, I prefer to own nice, quality things. I’ve always felt more secure and more valuable (yes, it is true) when I own something well-made. To me, nice things feel solid and like they mean something.

However, owning quality can mean a big price tag, and I spent many years going into debt to own “nice” things. Not all of the things I bought were as quality as I was led to believe. Some things I bought really were worth the price, but I wasn’t able to afford them and I “bought” them on credit cards. Some of my experiences purchasing will be explored below.

After all is said, while I regret the debt and many of the purchases I made, I don’t regret the lessons I learned from the experience. Over the past four years I have learned three things about price and quality, if nothing else:

Just because something is worth its asking price doesn’t mean it’s worth buying.
Just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s quality.
When you can buy quality, accept nothing less.

I’d like to expand on these three key observations. I am pretty detailed in my writing below - if you take nothing else with you, remember the list above.

1. Just because something is worth its asking price doesn’t mean it’s worth buying.

For the last two years I have been ferociously paying off my debt (I’m almost free!), all the while trying not to buy. I’ve realized the hard way that no matter what the quality - or the “steal” on said quality - it is not worth going into debt to buy the thing. The repercussions are enormous and devastating - living paycheck to paycheck and swimming in debt sort of overrides the glee of a new purchase. And while I still love to shop, I’ve had a shift of perspective toward shopping. It used to be just the owning that made me feel good, but I’ve since realized that it’s the deserving to buy that really makes me happy.

What do I mean by “deserving?” I mean earning the right to buy. I find now that when I can pay cash for something, and had to work hard to save up the cash for it, half the time I don’t want the thing once I can afford it. The process of working and saving for something makes me value my money a hell of a lot more, and makes me more selective in what I buy.

Manolo Purple Sketch 2004 During one of the really dark times when I was in debt, I bought two pairs of Manolo Blahnik heels. The price? $1200 for the two pairs. I absolutely LOVED the shoes, and they fit well, but they were not something I would wear regularly and were a completely frivolous purchase, considering the debt I was in. If I were making millions a year and had a budget for shoes that was around $1200, I might have been able to excuse buying them. Maybe. But they were on sale! They were 30% off! This is how I used to think.

The end point is this: if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it - no matter what the “steal.” Manolos are about the best-made heel you can buy, but they’re not worth the money until the money is there to pay for them (within reason).

2. Just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s quality.

Ford Focus Yellow 2007 This should go without saying, but the truth is that if something is pricey, we tend to assume it’s valuable.

In some cases this is true, like with some leather goods, some vintage cars, some schools and houses. In most other cases, however, the asking price for something has little to do with its ultimate value.

Cars are an excellent example; a car loses most of its value in its first few years. I bought a Ford Focus (what was I thinking?!) new in 2003. By the time I sold it - only two years later - it had depreciated over $5000 (the initial price was $17,000). Now, I understand that with some cars, such as Hondas and Subarus et al., the depreciation takes a much longer time, but this is always with cars a few years old and never with new cars. Even a new Honda will quickly lose its value the minute it leaves the dealership.

Other things which usually aren’t worth their initial price are basically all electronics. Cell phones, computers, most all computer-related things that are brand new will cost a third less to half as much within a year from their release.

As an example, I bought a new pink Motorola RAZR the month it came out in 2004. Granted, I needed a new phone because my previous one was falling apart, but I didn’t need a $300 phone. I also bought the Bluetooth headset to match. This was in the Year of Mindless Purchases, as I’ve named it. Within a year, my RAZR was already falling apart and displaying its bugs all the time, and by then RAZRs were selling for only $100 after rebate and headsets were ridiculously cheap (even new) on eBay.

The worst part? In only one year my phone’s cost had dropped over 60%, and it was already faulty and unreliable. And I wasn’t in any shape to buy yet another new one. Because I had chosen to buy an otherwise normal cell phone when it was brand new and all-the-rage, I was left with a phone just as faulty as my previous one for thrice the price. I begrudgingly decided stick with the RAZR for what ended up being three long years. While I loved the look of the phone, its functionality was not superior to any other Motorola phone I could have bought for a lot less money.

While the media will forever try and tell us what’s cool, I now realize I would much rather buy what works.

As a testament to this, I did NOT go out and buy an iPhone when they were released last year, no matter how much I would have just died to own one. (I am an avid Mac fan and have been since I was six - Apple is my drug of choice, if you will.) When the iPhone came out, I was still in debt-payoff mode and decided that I would buy one once I had paid off my debt and had saved enough for the purchase. As it goes, good things come to those who wait. I waited and waited and paid off debt, all the while eying iPhones and watching the price drop from $600 down to $400. And then, surprise! I got one for free for Christmas from my fantastic (and well-paid) boyfriend.

The lesson here? Most things devalue quickly after they’ve lost their cool factor. The things that are quality will maintain their high value long after the hype dies.

3. When you can buy quality, accept nothing less.

The reason for this is simple: quality things last longer, work better, and will save you from re-purchasing all the time. If you buy something truly worth the money it cost, you could potentially own it for the rest of your life. A good, quality item won’t lose its value quickly, will stay nice longer, and will be something that will genuinely give you “your money’s worth.”

I have a detailed post about determining how much you can afford to buy - a great read if you’re looking to learn more.

The value of something to you can be determined by a combination of how much time it took you to earn the money to buy it, how much you will use the thing, and how likely you are to need it for a long time. I said above I’ve had a shift in perspective; that shift was a choice to see long-term rather than short. In the long term, everyone wants to be prosperous and successful. One step to cutting expenses, and therefore (theoretically) gaining wealth, is to stop buying the same crap over and over again. Like cell phones.

Red Coat Nordstrom 2004 Short story: I bought two coats in 2004. They’re beautiful coats: wool, well-made, and perfectly fitted to me. These two coats have kept me warm through four winters now and they’re both in fantastic condition. I haven’t found a flaw with either one except for one loose button (easily fixed!). The total cost for both coats? Around $900.

Before buying these coats I had owned a great deal of crappy coats and jackets that had not looked good, kept me warm, or lasted longer than a year or two. So I decided to buy myself some nice coats, whatever the cost, and I couldn’t be happier about my decision. These are quality coats and I assume I will have them for most of my lifetime without problems.

On the other hand, last month I decided I wanted a black coat. I had a gift card from Christmas and so I ventured to the mall and got myself a very cute wool jacket in black. The coat seemed to be of an okay quality and it was warm, so with my gift money I bought the coat.

Damn.

Because the coat was essentially free (the drive to the mall wasn’t that far), I got it - it was only $25. Since then, I’ve had two buttons go loose, one sleeve basically come apart, and one pocket rip half off. Because I can sew well, the jacket is doing fine, but I know I can only keep it up for another year or so before the whole thing turns to dust.

End point: quality is always worth it in the long run. Learn by example Don’t buy crap.

Filed Under Just My Life - Stories, Etc., money and finance

Comments

One Response to “Why I Don’t Buy Cheap - Quality and Its Relationship to Price”

Smart Spending Blog: Money saving tips from around the web – MSN Money on August 1st, 2008 4:53 pm

Back to school: Learn the ABCs of frugality…

For every letter of the alphabet, Kelly at Almost Frugal has a matching frugal idea. Of course, “B” is for budgets, “L” is for leftovers, “V” is for vinegar (which has become our favorite cleaner), and “W” is for water, but not the bottled kind…

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