"...an action that saves money at the beginning but which, over a longer period of time, results in more money being wasted than being saved."
I want to be clear. I
love getting stuff on the cheap, but I hate cheap stuff. That is not an oxymoron. You can get excellent quality products for a
really, really great deal. That is what
makes me do a little dance of joy with sparkling eyes. The great finds. Buying a brand new $300 dress for just $11
(it’s pink and so soo pretty), or a cozy wool wrap that was $150 but ended up in
the clearance bin for $1.
That being said, cheap poorly made merchandise makes me
twitchy with irritation. There are times
when good quality is not needed. Items
that you only intend to use once or twice or items that will do just as good a
job but cost considerably less. Then
there are items you use everyday and the quality has a definite impact on the
job they do. For example my folly with
the can openers:
One of the many items we needed to buy after our recent move
was a can opener. Getting impatient with
spending so much money on setting up our new place I opted to buy a dollar
store can opener. This was a
mistake. We used it for about a year and
then one day as I was opening a can the twisty bit just twisted clean off. Chagrined I stood there looking at a half
open can before I remembered we had a spare one in our emergency preparedness
kit. Grabbing that one I finished
opening the can. As I started on a
second can the handle of my second can opener snapped clean off. I would like to attribute this to my having
freakishly powerful hands, but I don’t.
Both can openers came from the dollar store and we got exactly what we
paid for. Paying $2 for a can opener
that only lasts for 1 can is false economy.
You have to add up the cost of replacing the short lived can openers
verses how long a more expensive one of superior quality would cost.
Having learned my lesson I went out to buy a decent quality
can opener. This does not mean that I
ran out to a nice kitchen supply store and but the most expensive can opener I
could find. Rather, I went to Winners. It is my go to place for good prices on good
quality kitchen supplies. I walked out
of there with my sturdy KitchenAid can opener having paid $12. Although I have to add in the cost of my 2
cheap ones so it actually cost $16, beware of false economy. Considering the same item on Amazon costs $35.99 I think I still got a decent deal, but it would have been better
if I had just bought it from the start.
Side note: Our
emergency preparedness kit is still without a can opener. I do plan to fix this deficit, but in the
event that an earthquake/tornado/fire/terrorist attack/other terrible disaster
strikes before I do we will still be able to open our canned goods without
resorting to bashing them about with large rocks thanks to D’s somewhat
worrisome penchant for pocket knives.
(Wow, can you say run-on sentence?)
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