This is a guest post from Amanda, a Colorado tech writer and an activist for children with congenital heart disease.
I grew up poor: single-wide trailer-house, shared-a-room-with-two-sisters, garage-sale-wardrobe, government-cheese, worked-full-time-in-high-school, and paid-for-my-own-cap-and-gown poor. You might think that growing up poor would have made me frugal. Not so. While I do have an overwhelming urge to get the “most” for my money, I often see “most” as only quantity, and that’s not smart financially.
Quality trumps quantity
There was a time in my life when I thought fifteen pairs of $10 shoes purchased over a year at Target or Wal-Mart were great. But I had a closet full of shoes that hurt my feet, so I never wore them. Plus I was out $150. Back then, it would have appalled me to spend $150 for a single pair of shoes, but this spring I did just that. I was sold the minute I tried them on. They didn’t hurt my feet anywhere — a rare find. I waited for my tax refund to arrive, and then called to order a pair in my size and color. (This was all I spent from my tax refund; I saved the rest.)
My daughter sleeps on my old bed. The bed is about 100 years old, but not the kind of quaint antique that people love. It actually fell apart once when I was reaching for a toy, and I hurt myself pretty badly. She’s safe for now because she’s so little, but the bed has got to go before she gets much bigger. I’ve decided to buy a $800 captain’s bed with room for clothing storage. She also had my old dresser, but it too broke this summer, so we’re using an old craft caddy for her clothes for now. When choosing the bed, I went to the store and abused the floor model, checking for dovetail joints and solid wood.
I don’t have the bed yet, but I just sold some stock options on Friday, and will buy it when my check arrives. If I didn’t have any stock options and had to just save for it, I would do that. If my daughter’s current bed became entirely unusable, it would go to the curb, and I’d put her mattress on the floor until I could afford the $800. I could buy a cheap bed that would fall apart, or find another used bed that I hate, but eventually it would be replaced, so better to have her sleep on the floor and keep her PJs in a craft caddy for a few months until we can get something that meets our long-term needs.
The difference between frugal and cheap
Does this mean I would never buy used furniture or garage sale finds? No, I absolutely would buy a used desk or dresser in good condition. But my daughter’s room is small, and she’s only three, so she’ll be using this bed for a long time in limited space. I don’t have the time or the skill to repair badly damaged furniture, and I don’t have the space to store it. Keeping something around that I couldn’t use would only make me feel depressed and frustrated. I did originally repurpose all of my old furniture for her, but it’s past its usefulness.
A free piece of furniture that falls apart is no bargain; it’s a danger and a waste of space. A free piece of furniture that is an eyesore just makes you feel poor and unhappy. A free piece of furniture that looks nice with a little paint and is very useful is a treasure. So is an $800 extremely functional bed that will survive the childhood of one very sweet little girl and eventually allow room for a desk in a crowded little bedroom.
By the same token, my husband and I are taking $20 to set aside every time we get “paid” in our cash allowance to save for some nice sheets. We only have two sets of sheets, and the nicer fitted sheet ripped earlier this summer. So we have one fitted sheet, and we wash the bedding and return it on Saturdays. I am committed to buying expensive sheets, using my Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupon, and sleeping comfortably for several years. Expensive sheets will cost up to $200, and it may take us a few months to get there, but unless our one remaining sheet tears first, I’d rather stash the cash then spend $50 for cheap sheets that keep me from sleeping.
Making the most of your money, I believe, is surrounding yourself and your family with only things that are usable, comfortable, and give you pleasure. Whether it’s free or costs a fortune, if it’s unusable, uncomfortable, and gives you no pleasure, it’s junk. Quality is worth the wait.
This guest-post hits home for me. Like Amanda, I grew up poor. Like Amanda, this did not make me frugal. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to value quality over quantity. If you have an idea for a guest post, please drop me a line.
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I think generally when someone cites quaility as the reason for buying a particular item, it’s an excuse to justify buying that item.
By whittling away at the original poster’s choices, we can pare it all the way down to nothing. “Clearly” the poster could make other choices… find a used bed, get a different kind of bed altogether, not get the bed at all. Her judgment that she’s found the right choice for herself and her family is questioned. It’s “an excuse” to “justify” making the purchase… but I ask why in the world should a responsible adult be made to feel that they need to “justify” a purchase beyond establishing for him/herself that the item is needed/desirable/worth the cost?
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The whole article is aimed at justifying the choices.
She doesn’t have to justify them to me, but I wouldn’t call them frugal choices.
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She doesn’t have to justify them to me, but I wouldn’t call them frugal choices.
But that’s precisely the point! “Frugal” doesn’t have to mean “can never ‘justify’ expensive purchases”.
It seems that so many “frugal” means I can never buy the material item that I really want (and I’m defining “want” not as simply desire but as the thing that I’ve determined meets all my needs: it’s the item that is the right size, right material, right to meet my needs) because I can’t ‘justify’ the purchase. (Why can’t I get it on Craigslist or used somewhere? Why can’t I get something completely different that would be cheaper? Do I really need that thing when I could fix the old one/get a cheap one/get a used one?)
I understand that a lot of people are really proud about living “frugally” but I’m not interested in living in a state of constant denial. For me, that means that I’m keeping my debts down, paying for things responsibly, but *not* putting myself in a situation where I can’t ever “justify” the thing that I want if I’ve decided that thing is the right thing.
Getting Rich Slowly is only of interest to me if it means that I am actually able to enjoy the fruits of my labor, and that I can enjoy a lifestyle that is sustainable, responsible, and above the state of poverty and occasional deprivation of my youth.
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We just bought a 610 thread count duvet using our Bed Bath and Beyond coupon to go with our new down comforter. Now, my quality of sleep is unbeatable. After one night using the new duvet, my 10 year-old comforter from Target felt like sandpaper. The new duvet wasn’t even that expensive, but we had previously denied ourselves new furniture and bedding because we felt that it was a waste of cash. I realize that some small amounts of money spent is well worth it if it improves our quality of life that much.
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I think it’s OK to buy whatever you want as long as it makes you happy. Just be sure about the latter, and that you’re not spending money you don’t have.
For some people, furniture is a utility item. If it’s comfortable or useful, that’s all that matters. For these people, durability and ease of acquisition are going to be the main criteria. Others see furniture as “art,” beautiful artifacts which give pleasure not only from use but from their appearance as well. This person is going to pay more, and have a harder time finding what they want…but if it’s important to them, they’ll find a way.
I personally find the idea of a brand new car foolish, and I like cars (better to get them lightly used after they depreciate a bit). But I understand for others the “new” part is as important as the “car” part–walking into a dealer and checking option boxes, shaking hands with the dealer–is an important achievement, worth the hit they’re going to take. Some people are like this with houses, never considering anything other than “newly built.”
It could easily be that the psychological aspect of plunking down for quality sheets at BBB is just as important as the sheets themselves. There is no way to assign a price to that, and as long as it is within budget, more power to her.
I would caution, however, not getting absolutely fixated on the idea of a very specific thing (either a brand, or a model) as the bastion of quality. For example, certain brands of tools which were made in the US in the past, with a long tradition of craftsmanship and quality, are now merely brand names on cheaply made imported throw-aways. To an uneducated buyer, the assumption might be that they’re insuring themselves of a quality item by relying on the brand, and they’d be wrong. So always do your research, but by all means pull the trigger if it turns out to be what you want and you can afford it.
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I am so happy to read this article. So often frugality comes across as cheap and I think that is what turns people off saving. If more people understood that frugality could mean quality then I think more people would save.
Great article
Thanx
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Totally agree…been through shoes, beds, sheets and all. Curious about the bed as I have been in the market for quality captains beds for my girls and haven’t been able to find any and the garabe sale bunk beds they have a dangerous. (I am in Colorado. Can you tell me what store?
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What a great discussion! I consider myself to range from very frugal to barely frugal depending on the topic. Travel is high on our priority list and while we do always strive to get good deals, we probably spend far more than some people would ever consider spending on vacations. Our son learned from a very young age that he would not get all the latest gadgets throughout the year like the other kids, but he would go on some wonderful family trips within and outside the U.S. As a child he struggled with not having what so and so had, but as he got older, he loved the travel and really got the concept. We have bought new furniture and many new items over the years, but I’m always tickled pink when I can find what I want without purchasing new through finding used versions of what I want or looking at offers on Freecycle or posting wanted requests there. Amanda, I know I’d be looking for that bed or something similar on Freecycle. I got scuba gear for our son on Freecycle that had only been used twice. (It is name brand, high quality gear that is wonderful for him as a new diver.) Like Amanda, I do think there are times you want to specifically go for certain items, but I don’t think it is the best choice to buy an $800 bed for a child who may decide to go crazy with markers or some other typical childlike activity (it sure is easy NOT to freak out when it’s a used bed that already has some dings and dents) and I am pretty certain it would be upsetting for Amanda to find out that someone else had gotten an equivalent one free or used for almost nothing. I guess for the most part I am always seeking out the best deal and welcome insight others can offer me on how I can get that. Then from their input, I decide if their suggestions are right for me … worth the time, easy enough to implement, etc. I second what everyone is saying on the sheets. I do like really high quality sheets, but use Overstock or go for end of season sales in my favorite catalogs or online sites for sheets. Some purchases are one of a kind like the furniture you are eyeing, J.D.. I suspect one day you will end up buying those pieces and you won’t regret the purchase. However, you won’t do it impulsively and you won’t do it in any way to jeopardize your financial state–so that seems very reasonable. For one person, it’s travel, for another, it’s very fine furniture … and some place no value on any such items. We are all different … it’s all a balance, but we are here to learn from each other and I think some good points have been made.
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Thank you for making an excellent point. My friend the Emperor of Cheap raises his eyebrow at my definition of frugality because I resist buying every single darn thing at rock-bottom prices. To his dismay, I subscribe to the “penny-wise, pound-foolish” theory. Shoes and furniture in particular fall into this category.
After my family had spent ten years in Saudi Arabia, my parents decamped to the United States. My father, who made the Emperor look like a spendthrift, stayed behind for several months, and so my mother had an opportunity (for the first time in their marriage) to run amok in San Francisco unsupervised. She purchased an entire apartmentful of very handsome, Shaker-inspired 1950s-modern furniture. It was (still is) solid birch, exceptionally well made, and in a style so timeless that to this day people remark on its good looks.
My father had no clue what she spent on those pieces, but I can imagine. Today when I look at the Thomas Moser catalogs, I see chairs, tables, and bureaus that are very similar in design and construction. You don’t even want to know what Thos. Moser charges for the stuff!
If my mother had not bought that furniture, today I would be eating off vegetable crates. When she died, the set came to me, and when I left my own marriage, it came with me. It’s fifty years old now, and as good as it was when it was new. Now THAT’s frugality.
When the Emperor and I moved in together, I stupidly allowed myself to be herded into buying a Monkey Ward washer and dryer (love loses its marbles at the garden gate!). What junk. The dryer ran for a while and worked well enough for government work. But the washer croaked over as soon as the warranty ended — not that it would have mattered, because it worked so badly I would have dumped it anyway. Long & short of it: if I’d bought a decent appliance in the first place, fewer clothes would have been ruined and I would have paid less because a quality washer would have lasted three or four times as long as the junk did.
By all means look for the best price you can get (especially on those sheets!). But remember it’s often economical to buy mid-range to high quality goods.
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Sometimes a “high” price and a “name” brand doesn’t equate to quality. When I was single I used to purchase Levis jeans. After being a family man for just over five years, my budget doesn’t allow for Levis jeans. The interesting thing is that most of the cheaper and no-name brand jeans that I have tried over the past five years have given me better wear and tear than the Levis (which cost at least $100.00 retail in Australia)and at a fourth of the cost.
I have also found that sometimes paying a bit extra gives me longer usage. I wear workboots at work and at home and one brand that was $40.00 more than the first brand that I tried, has proven to me more durable.
I make it a habit to use the continual sales that the retailers, generally the department stores, have to purchase my family’s clothing and footware. I also do the same with kitchen appliances.
Everyone has a different take on frugality – and every take is eually vaild.
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I absolutely think that Amanda IS being frugal. Why? Because she’s prioritized spending money where it’s important to her, and going after a quality choice.
Of course, I am also thinking about the high thread-count sheets that *I* bought at BB&B with my 20% off coupon more than a decade ago for around $100 then. I’m still sleeping on those sheets! I sent them through the washer in hot water regularly, and they just get softer and softer.
I have two sets of sheets, both bought new from BB&B in the early 90s, both used for over a decade and both still in great condition.
And that fits my definition of frugal.
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I was thinking about the Vimes quote also! Thanks for saving me from looking for it in the book. I think about that quote a lot. I mostly buy used good things, but I have the time to look for them, which not everyone has. Our Goodwill sells ALL sheets at $3 a sheet, no matter what the quality. I have a RL sheet sitting in my sewing basket, the fabric is so nice I’m going to make a shirt out of it.
I had a captain’s bed as a child, and the only drawback was that the drawers were too small for my wardrobe when I was a teenager and my parents had to buy me a dresser.
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The $200 sheets! My God! The $200 sheets!!! I wasn’t going to respond to this, but my husband insisted! He wants you all to know that we did NOT buy the $200 sheets! That’s the short story, sorry the rest is so long, but there were a LOT of responses to this post . . . which I actually wrote back in July of 2007.
So . .
First regarding the $800 bed:
1. It actually cost roughly $350 for the bed and $350 for the underdresser (you could do a trundle instead if you wanted) and $50 for tax and $50 for delivery. I drive a VW sedan, so delivery was not optional. For the lady in Colorado, I bought it at Bedroom Expressions on Furniture Row. They have two different types of captain’s beds – one looks like camp furniture, and the other is more feminine.
2. Way back in July when I wrote this I DID look at all 7 local flea markets, Craigslist, GoodWill, AND ARC and did not find a white twin sized bed that was of sufficient quality BEFORE I decided on the bed I bought. I also looked for captain’s beds on every online site I could google, and I could not find a white one last July that was within my budget of max $1200.
I also looked at Big Lots – where I was very happy with my son’s bed that I bought for $130 the year before – but this time they only had a particle board white twin bed, and it was junky I would still need a dresser. Incidently, I also found a $1600 captian’s bed at Pottery Barn Kids – I can only imagine the fury that would have brought! lol!
3. A used captian’s bed was impossible to find in Colorado when I looked for one. Having one shipped from out of state easily would have brought something that big into the same price range as what I spent.
Also, the nonwhite nonused ones I found would require painting, and I suck at painting, and the price would have been ridiculous if I’d hired someone to paint it. Plus I really would have resented doing work on something that was brand new.
Yes, I COULD have bought an ugly used twin bed that was the wrong color and wrong style, and then a mismatched dresser that consumed too much space for about $400 less, but it would have annoyed me to no end to spend $400 on something I did not like. Yes, I *MIGHT* have found a nice piece of furniture or even two used, (I found a dresser at a flea market for my son’s room, so I’m not opposed to it), but I DID LOOK and I DID NOT FIND what I wanted despite wasting several hours and weekends away from my kids and my yardwork looking for it, and in the end I could afford what I liked so I bought it.
I work hard and am successful at my career. I have no consumer debt, our family is living well below our means on just one income, and if I want to spend my stock options that I earned at a time that was good to sell them, so my daughter’s bedroom doesn’t look like a swap meet, that is not extravagent.
4. I paid cash (my own cash) for the bed, my daughter loves it, I love it, and she has a lot more space in her bedroom now. I am SO happy I did not settle for something I did not like.
The whole point of what I wrote was, if you really want something, it IS frugal to find a way to pay for it that doesn’t impact your life in an adverse way. Also, if something truly matters to you, settling for less is cheap. My daughter’s captain’s bed has HUGE drawers and a cabinet, and could hold all of mine and my husband’s clothes; plus she has a closet that is virtually empty now that we have the dresser, so I’m not worried about her outgrowing it before college.
Second: the $200 sheets
We actually didn’t have a chance to save for the sheets because I had some serious stomach problems in July through October that resulted in an endoscopy (my dad died very young of eusphageal cancer, so I had to be screened; thankfully it was just spasms) and $120 worth of specialist visits and then our son had an unplanned surgery on his chest to remove the wires on his sternum from his fifth open heart surgery. He’s fine, but the copay was $200. YES, we do have an emergency fund that covers about 11 months of our living expenses, but we could mange to avoid dipping by paying the $320 in medical expenses $30/month of a new tummy medicine out of our discretionary spending – which meant no new sheets and fewer family outings for a few months, but we’re good at being flexible.
So, we DID get sheets on December 26th at bed bath and beyond with a gift card and Christmas money that we received. I spent $80 (originally $100) for 720 thread count sheets and I AM SO HAPPY!!!! When push came to shove, I couldn’t part with $200 for 1000 thread count sheets or even $150 for 800 coount. I DID look at overstock.com before I bought them, but I physically couldn’t touch them before I bought online, and that was important to me.
Also, we have a Macy’s, TG Max, etc. here in town, but we also had two blizzards and two smaller snow storms in December, and I didn’t want to run all over the icy parking lots with my small children to save a relatively small amount of money (and did I mention the gift card was for BB&B? – if you take that out of the equation, I spent $55 of Christmas gift cash for my sheets.) And we do only have this one set of sheets that we wash on Saturday mornings.
Regarding used sheets, my son has some used Thomas the Tank Engine sheets my mom got at a garage sale, so I don’t have a problem with that. However, I work a good 50 hours each week (my husband stays home with the kids), and while there are good deals to be found secondhand, there is a cost people don’t seem to be counting – THE TIME TO FIND THEM. For the people who just assume (especially in a state like Colorado without the high population density of other areas) that you can just easily walk into a thrift store or browse Craigslist and effortlessly find exactly what you WANT in good condition and of good quality; you’ve had far better luck or a whole lot more spare time to be treasure hunting than I have!
You know the expression, “You’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince?” I either sacrifice my limited time with my kids to shop unhindered with no guarantee of finding what I’m seeking, or I take them with me . . . taking a 3 and 4 year old to look through used sheets at several stores (and all the car seat in and out that entails gasoline) seriously detracts from the efficiency and “savings.” I put a premium on my time as well as my money, which is why I sometimes, but not always, will shop at the Box stores. There is a value people in many of the responses don’t seem to recognize; a value in being able to find what you want quickly.
Regarding sheets as a status symbol, in the past four years my husband and I have spent a few more than 100 nights either in the world’s most uncomfortable vinyl recliners in a pediatric cardiac ICU, its cousin the icy cold vinyl window bed in the cardiac recovery unit, or in the well-worn but welcoming beds of the Ronald McDonald House in two different states. All the time legitimately worrying about being sent home forever without our son. So, do we deserve a little luxury and a little peace? – I think so, I also think we appreciate the comfort of our own bed at a level most people cannot.
Am I using this hardship as a justification for the frugality of my purchase – no! My justification that it’s frugal is A. I REALLY WANTED IT SO I put other things (like new bath towels, clothes, a few meals out, curtains, etc. that I might have liked to have on hold for it); B. I SAVED AND PAID CASH by shifting my priorities, and C. When I had more urgent priorities (medical expenses) I reprioritized and delayed my gratification. THAT is frugal.
The fact that have we spent so much time away from the comfort of our own bed does not not make the purchase frugal, it simply llutstrates WHY nice sheets are more important to me than they might be to other people and how I chose my priorities for my money.
In an age when people will spend far more than $200 on a game system, tv, stand mixer, or $100 a month on a cell phone bill or cable tv, even if I had spent $200 for a set of sheets that I and my husband both use 355 days a year for 8 hours a day, it really doesn’t seem extravagent to me. If a married couple is spending 8 hours a day using their game system almost every single day of the year, I’d be not only shocked but concerned! Still, no one seems to cringe when someone buys a Wii or a Playstation, a house full of books, or a few nice dinners out. I don’t – to each his/her own! While I might think a Wii is frivolous and someone else might think my sheets are frivolous, the fact is as long as we each spend our own hardearned money wisely and enjoy the things we bring into our homes, then it doesn’t matter what we bought, just that we bought it without causing ourselve detriment or disatisfaction. Enjoy what you like, compromise with the things you don’t care as much about, and buy what you love, but make sure you have the money and some security in place first.
Personally, I deeply appreciate my home and being there with the people I love, so I probably value what I put in it more than the average person. I do have lots of used furniture and some cheap new furniture in my house, but I LIKE the used furniture I do have. Things I don’t care about like kitchen washclothes, coat hangers, bath mats, or even bedroom slippers, even the desk in my home office where I spend as little time as possible because I don’t want to be there I scrimp on. The point was if you care about something it’s actually a waste of money to buy something you don’t like just to save money!
Finally, my purchases WERE frugal because I did not incur any credit card debt for my sheets at $55 or $200 or the bed, but used cash that was not committed to any other cause, I do have an solid emergency fund, have not had credit card debt in almost 3 years, am about to pay off 100% of a student loan on Monday (by not blowing two tax returns and two annual bonuses), and I have a nice retirement account building. I have all of those things because for the past five years, I have been living to “Get Rich Slowly,” so I assert that I was indeed being frugal in my purchases. I believe being perpetually miserly just leads to misery; and clearly misery loves company!
I believe there must be rewards along with restraint, the trick is to choose your rewards wisely based on what matters most to YOU! If nice sheets and nice furniture don’t matter to you, that’s find spend YOUR money wisely on what matters to “YOU.” Just try respect that not everyone has the same priorities or values, but know the principals of wise and planned spending can apply regardless of what it is you are planning to purchase.
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To summarize Amanda’s comment: Do what works for you. This continues to be the best piece of advice I can offer. Find out what allows you to meet your financial goals and do it.
Also, her message reveals one of my dirty little secrets: there’s a huge lag time between when some of these guest posts are written and when they actually appear at GRS. I’m working to improve this, but there’s only so much I can do without flooding you all with guest posts.
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[...] JD says that frugality doesn’t have to mean sacrificing quality. [...]
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Amanda:
I’m so glad you got the bed — and the sheets — that you wanted and that make you happy.
And I’ll reiterate, in your circumstances you ARE being frugal. You did great!
I’m in Colorado too — and I shop at that same BBB where I’m betting you did (1st & Uni?). And I know the truth when you say that those great craigslist/thriftstore bargains aren’t so easy to find here. There is DEFINATELY a time/money premium to be factored into your choices as well.
P.S. — And you and the Mr. deserve every minute of luxury on your “bargain” $80 sheets…WOW, hugs to you and the kids.
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I want to highlight one of Amanda’s comments:
“The point was if you care about something it’s actually a waste of money to buy something you don’t like just to save money!”
I’d like the posters to this thread who got all self-righteous against Amanda to really contemplate and reflect on this statement. There’s a lesson in frugality here.
Frugality isn’t paying the minimum amount possible. It’s seeing what the real needs are in your life, and maximizing your value in how you address those needs. Value isn’t PRICE — it’s TIME plus USE-VALUE plus EMOTIONAL-SATISFACTION plus PRICE plus OVERHEAD-COST-OF-ACQUISITION.
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This is in such stark contrast to the new posting where people are buying 100 fruitcakes from Wal-Mart. What a waste of money. My money goes to high quality food and shoes. I look at quality food, free of corn syrup, unpronouncable perservatives and hydrogenated oils as a future money saver. High quality shoes keep me from being angry and tend to be easier to repair. When looking for good shoes, I always look for:
-Leather lining so my feet don’t sweat
-soles that are stiched instead of glued to the main part of the shoe, so that they can be easily reattached if needed
-heels that have a replacable plastic cap or are made from stacked leather
-leather soles, to which you add an external sole and can keep replacing.
AND, most importantly, do some preventative repairs–
if you’ve got a soft leather sole (or a hard slippery one), get a new sole put on
put a tap (not a metal one, just a little plastic one that the cobbler nails in) on the toe and the back of the heel, depending on how you wear your shoes down. This will make them last a lot longer.
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I agree, db.
Kudos to Amanda!
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Buying 600 thread count sheets sounds to me like the number one classic lifestyle creep.
One thing I have learned from this post is that it’s a mistake to buy the nice sheets in the first place you’ll never be able to go back.
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Why is it lifestyle creep?
Did you miss the post where I said I’m still using my two sets of high thread count sheets after over a decade? I’ll probably still be sleeping on these same sheets until they cart me off to the nursing home. I need to replace the mattress soon — the sheets are going strong.
OMG — I purchased two whole sets of quality sheets in my lifetime — oh the lifestyle creep.
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Amanda, I think your follow-up post was better at explaining how the bed purchase reflected economy in the use of resources.
I’m looking forward to J.D.’s purchase of the $2,500.00 chair. That post is going to be a doozy.
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First of all, I would start eating healthy food.
No GMO, no junk food.
The first think I didn`t like in the States was the number of obese people, even kids.
Why are you killing yourselves ?
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i thought i was extreme in buying pure oversized linen sheets at 500 dollars per flat sheet. Fergeson’s irish linen. Sturdy workhorses. They last 20 years or more…as long as I don’t use bleach or put them in the dryer.
in the old days when sheets were linen instead of cotton, sheets were bought as a dowry. the lady of the house would mend and turn and cut up oldest sheets to put on the childrens beds, then as pillowcases, and then rags. ultimate use of resources. the lady of the house would buy “one linen sheet per year” to restock the inventory. counting and mending the sheets happened every january, hence white sales.
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[...] GetRichSlowly keeps us in the mind that being frugal doesn’t have to mean sacrificing quality! No [...]
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“The whole point of what I wrote was, if you really want something, it IS frugal to find a way to pay for it that doesn’t impact your life in an adverse way. Also, if something truly matters to you, settling for less is cheap.”
That’s one of the best definitions of frugal buying I’ve heard to date.
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[...] Frugality Doesn’t Have to Mean Sacrificing Quality, a guest post by Amanda at Get Rich Slowly, points out that the least expensive option is not always the most frugal option – replacement and maintenance costs factor into the actual cost of a purchase. [...]
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[...] Frugality Doesn’t Have to Mean Sacrificing Quality This one meant alot to me considering the nature of my goals for the new year. Get Rich Slowly is one of my favorite blogs and, while this was a guest post, I found the quality and realism to be exceptional. I mentioned Get Rich Slowly once before in a prior entry. The owner is preparing this year to wean himself away from his full-time job at the family business to work online. [...]
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Great article (and followup)! I’m finally coming to realize the truth you’ve presented here. After 11 years of marriage, my husband and I are in a position to save up for a $900+ super-fabulous mattress, and we are looking forward to all the lovely nights sleeps we’re going to get out of it. We spent 11 years on a $100 mattress, and if our backs could talk, they’d cuss us out. So long story short, I concur 100%.
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[...] guest post on Get Rich Slowly considers frugality and quality and The Simple Dollar asks how much frugality is too [...]
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[...] it takes a while to get to know a good blog and I found the points I was looking for, both on the general idea of quality and addressing my need to continue to buy expensive organic products while knowing I really [...]
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Try bamboo sheets instead of cotton! I bought a set at Bed Bath & Beyond for about $70 (queen); they are incredibly smooth and comfortable. Meanwhile the 800-thread count cotton sheets I bought on Overstock.com for $50 got pilly within a few months.
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Sometimes buying cheap is false ecomony. For example I needed to buy some tires so went online and bought the cheapest made in China tires I could find. A year and less than 50% worn I had to replace them, this time with top quality (but only about 20 euros more per tire) pirellis. Even the guy at the gargage comment about how much life was left in them, but inspite of several attempts at balancing them I could never get rid of the shake.
Secondly we bought a cheap folding bike online so I could pick my wife up after work, guess what it was so bad I rode it once around the parking lot and threw it out. 250€ down the drain. Were in the process of ordering a Bike Friday folding bike instead. Starting price $1400 (love the strong Euro)but it’s something that will last for years and will be a replacement for a car.
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Most people don’t seem to be aware that most of the supposedly 400, 600, 1000, etc. threadcount sheets for sale at a discount, whether at Overstock.com, Bed Bath & Beyond, or any other large national chain store, are not nearly as high-threadcount as they claim. That’s not to say that some of them aren’t good quality, and if they claim 1000 tc but have only 600, and they cost only $100, then what’s the harm?
If you have found a set at a place like that that feels like quality and has lasted a long time, then you’ve got a good deal. But I was not surprised at the commenter who said her supposedly high-quality sheets from Overstock.com pilled — that’s what I’d be afraid of with a purchase like that.
Most so-called “outlets” — for clothing, bedding, furniture, or anything else — are selling lesser-quality goods that were produced just to be sold there, not the true overruns and end-of-season excesses that outlets were originally created to handle.
This is absolutely true of the big designers like Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, Anne Klein, Jones New York, etc. Don’t think when you buy clothes there you are buying as good quality as if you shopped in one of that brand’s full price shops or a department store.
LL Bean, Lands End, and Eddie Bauer all make fantastic-quality sheets, some with higher threadcounts, but even their 200-threadcount feel great, get softer with every wash, and last forever. You can easily get a set for under $100 when they’re on sale, and some are less than that at full price. I have sheets from each of those companies that I’ve had for ten years or more, used and washed regularly, that honestly show virtually no signs of wear. I expect them all to last another ten years.
LL Bean’s towels are great, too, by the way. Of course, everything of theirs is built to last, and does.
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[...] the difference between cheap and frugal. As we’ve discussed at Get Rich Slowly before, the cheapest option isn’t always the best. Sometimes the most expensive choice actually costs less in the long run. Cheap means focusing on [...]
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It’s easy to give up on looking good for the sake of money OR to overspend to look good. For me, the challenge is to set a budget, shop wisely (I’m a bargain hunter but when at T.J. Maxx or Marshalls try to buy only names I know to be the good stuff) AND look good while doing it. Otherwise, it’s like playing tennis without a net (someone else’s famous words). Oh, and $200 for sheets is way too much! In that case, price does not equal quality. Overstock is great for sheets!
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