Comments on: Shop for Quality or Shop for Price? Why not Both?

By: Shop for Quality or Shop for Price? Why not Both? | Budgeting Finance

Shop for Quality or Shop for Price? Why not Both? | Budgeting Finance — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:52:52 +0000

[...] Beingfrugal AKPC_IDS += [...]

By: Simple in France

Simple in France — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:26:13 +0000

Living in France where people don’t just cast off their lightly used clothes, furniture etc after a year or two, I miss Craigslist!!

But I do agree that buying something to last is generally better than buying something to throw away. I try to think in terms of cost per years of use.

By: Branson Log – About Us

Branson Log – About Us — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:09:53 +0000

[...] Shop for Quality or Shop for Price? Why not Both? [...]

By: Diana

Diana — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:44:22 +0000

Furniture –

Since this is most often a long-term investment, quality is key but you can get some great prices. Back in ’05, I needed to furnish a home and made some dumb mistakes but also found some great buys.

I found that, when I went into a furniture store (including on-going businesses as well as those “going out of business”), many desirable items were marked as “sold” when they were not sold out (plenty of inventory on same items). I found true out-let stores to be much better.

For those of you in the west, Stupid Prices is awesome. I stumbled upon it when I passed by it one day. Curiousity got the cat. I went in and looked at their wares. They were all high quality. I purchased a leather living room set for less than half of the same exact items sold by Costco! I went back several times to purchase small decorative itms and gifts for others.

By: Karen Foster

Karen Foster — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:44:07 +0000

I have a 2 year old daughter and a son due any day and Craigslist is the best thing for kids clothes since sliced bread!

I absolutely can not imagine paying retail (or even on sale) kids clothes. Only grandma’s are allowed to do that in our family :)

I love not worrying about stains if my daughter walks in mud-puddles or sits down and digs in dirt for hours like she did all last summer.

By: AngelSong

AngelSong — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:33:47 +0000

I quickly learned the value of Craigslist when we first moved into our home in 2007. We needed several pieces of furniture and a new bed, and we did not have the money to buy the items from a store, but we did find excellent furniture in really good shape for very reasonable prices. I was walking through a Goodwill store a few years ago, and found a crockpot for five dollars. It did not have a lid…but I had a lid that fit it perfectly at home. I used that crockpot for YEARS before it needed to be replaced.

Sometimes, it does make good sense to pay a little more for items that need to last for a long time.

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:10:50 +0000

We apply this to our car purchases as well. My previous car costs us around $7,000 in repairs in one year (yeah that killed us debt wise). So we make sure we buy hiqher quality vehicles to hopefully take down the repair costs. Then keep them for a really long time. Hoping to balance out the repair costs.

Shoes as well. I try and buy nicer shoes as they will last longer and be better for my feet.

And toilet paper and paper towels.

Hopefully over time you save money by buying higher quality. Short term can be tough on the wallet unless you are finding sales.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:56:12 +0000

I totally agree that you should find the best bang for your buck! Better quality lasts longer, saving you money but you don’t want to pay the high premium. A keen eye at wholesale places like BJ’s can get you great stuff for lower costs.