Ways to spend money that save money, and ways that don't

Hope this is what you mean

Many years ago I used to buy cheap can openers, they were poorly made and were only used 4-5 times before the parts would go out of alignment and they stopped working. They were cheap and available at every supermarket so we kept buying them.

One day I was in local hardware store and saw a can opener "as used by NASA astronauts" it was about 15 times the cost of tne cheap supermarket ones but I had the money in my pocket (unusual at that time) and bought one.

It is still in the kitchen drawer, probably 30 years old now, still works as well as the first time I used it.

And here is the lesson learnt - Quality pays for itself.

Yeah windmill, that's a great example. I've kicked myself many times after buying cheap stuff that breaks and finally buying the expensive version and being done having to buy stuff. Had I done that to begin with I would've saved a lot of money.

The key seems to be separating yourself from the lizard brain reward parts of money management. That can opener probably didn't give a dopamine hit, but buying the whole shelf of something because it is on sale does. I tend to not get much pleasure from kitchen items, so it takes a bit for me to spend the money, and that is probably why it took so long for me to get a good coffee grinder and water bottle. When I was buying up some basics for woodworking tools I realized that the cheap stuff isn't just not at nice... it often is just not functional at all. I've been this way at work, too. My nice radius blocks have paid for themselves in saved time, but it took me years to invest in them.

It does get annoying not being able to buy cheap, though. At some point this week I'm actually going to have to google spatulas to find one that will work. Bought a new one and it won't even flip a dang pancake or an egg. Old one was fine, but is shedding plastic pieces in a way I'm not comfortable with. I refuse to keep buying trash that I'll have to toss, but dang... spatulas? Really?

Had the same problem with hammers.

Local weekend market was selling old wooden handle hammers for $2 each. Bought one and after a couple of uses the handle broke. i would buy another, same thing. After about 5 times I went and bought a steel Estwing hammer. Haven't bought another hammer since.

While the thread is about saving money, the other side of the coin, so to speak, is the time you save by having something that does the job when you need it. When the cheap stuff breaks it means you can't do what you wanted do at that time, causing much annoyance !

HTH

Food, beverage, vitamins, paper products,consumables and such, most often the larger pack sizes are quite a bit cheaper per "each",
and most stores have the per each unit price on a tag on the shelf.

I've had a lot of times where I've gotten interested in something (brewing beer, boating, camping), gone out and bought older used but really cheap equipment, and then ended up upgrading later. I now subscribe to the "buy once, cry once" theory. If I'm gonna buy something, I spend time researching. In my experience, there's almost always a qaulity/cost graph that is very steep at lower prices and flattens out hard to the top end prices. In other words. spending more if you're considering buying entry level (used or low end new) almost always yields a significant benefit. At some point, you reach a point where the law of diminishing returns kicks in and spending a lot more yields only a marginal increase in value.

I try to buy at the top end of the steep part of the curve, just before it flattens out.

Saw a Fiskars machete at Ross for Less a few weeks ago for $10.  Almost bought it... had no idea what I'd do with it.  Thought it might be nice to have for a misbehaving guitar every once in a while.

Oh, here's another one.

With a lot of personal care products, the good stuff lasts longer. For a long time this was especially true of shampoo... buy the expensive bottle ("salon grade") and it will last so long you'll get off cheaper than the grocery store stuff, and have a higher quality product to boot. I don't think this is as true for men now, since there's an emerging market for mid-priced quasi-boutique shampoos which suit me quite well. I have kinda sensitive skin and buy the expensive face wash, and it is the same thing. It hurts when I have to buy a new bottle, but I can go so long between purchases I can't even remember the last time I bought any. A year maybe?

What about credit cards with benefits....cash back, miles, etc.? I got a cash back card a couple years ago. We put pretty much everything on that card and pay it off every month. I've earned over $8000 by buying things I'd buy anyway.

But am I screwing over the economy by doing so? I saw a blurb on the net talking about buying with cash vs a card. The gist was that, for every purchase with a card, some of the money spent goes to the credit card company. If you look at a dollar, over a series of purchases, more and more of it ends up in the hands of the credit card companies. If you make the same series of purchases, that doesn't happen.

Then you think...well, what about sales tax. Unless you're buying food or something not subject to taxes, after a series of purchases and lot ends up in the hands of the government too.

Then that always gets me thinking about how much we really pay in taxes...people think about income tax, maybe property tax, but when you think about how much stuff is taxed, what's the real percentage we pay in taxes per year? In addition to above, there's sales tax, vehicle registration, gas tax, taxes on utilites, etc. This list goes on and on.

Sorry, rambling train of though stuff there. Carry on....

I go to Costco liquors and spend $600 and that saves me about the same amount over the next few months, as they are close to half my local liquor store. But while at Costco I buy bulk items that just may not be smart decisions. I have a few years worth of Frank's Red Hot and L&P Worcestershire sauce because I couldn't resist the "deal."