Can You Afford to be Cheap?

“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem to lightly.” - Thomas Paine

In the posting Why I Can't Afford Cheap, blogger Andy Budd writes,

I remember reading a story once about an octogenarian discussing her most prized possessions with a researcher. She shows the researcher an iron that’s been going for over 40 years and explains how she had to scrimp and save to buy the product and how it ended up out living even her husband. Quizzed on why she spent so much money on the iron she said, “I’m too poor to buy cheap!”

My grandparents on my father’s side shared this philosophy also. They bought very few material items but what they did buy was always top quality. Grandpa was also serious about maintaining his belongings with proper care and repairs. As a result the items he owned lasted for decades. The one exception to this rule was cars; Grandpa liked new cars. Every few years he would give the old model one of his adult children who were happy to get it since it was a quality machine and well maintained.

Twenty years my wife was given a top-of-the-line VCR that still works and that we continue to use for selecting signals from our TV antenna and DVD player. Ten years ago when it ate a tape we figured it was reaching old age and tried to replace it with the cheapest model available. We gave the new VCR away because it produced so much digital signal noise that we could not view open-air channels 2 and 4. We discovered that quality did make a difference.

Bottom Line

Going cheap means being wasteful by definition. Cheap equals flimsy & breakable resulting in repair or replacement costs. Cheap is sometimes desirable for convenience and time saving but don’t fool yourself that you’re saving money in the long run.