It can be difficult to choose spending a lot more money on a high quality item over saving money on a lesser quality one that can do the same job. This is a debate that my husband and I have frequently. There are times that he wins (he likes to get the high quality items) and times that I win (I don’t like to spend money unnecessarily on extra features we will never use). It really comes down to what we expect out of the product, how often we will use it, how long it will last, and how much it will cost to repair or replace it.
For example our vacuum recently broke down. My husband had recently repaired the belt, the light and the beater bar. He was understandably frustrated to realize that the fan blades on the vacuum had broken off. At first he was simply going to replace the part, until on a closer look, he realized that they had made it practically impossible. He also realized that several of the blades were cracked and ready to fall apart. We had the vacuum for seven years, and felt that we had gotten our money’s worth out of it.
My husband began to research out the different vacuums and the reviews on the board. He was torn between getting a nice vacuum with at least a five year guarantee, or getting a cheaper vacuum that would last about a year and a half before needing to be replaced. We added up the cost and realized that we would pay about the same amount if we had to replace the vacuum that often.
If you are having the debate about quality versus saving money you need to research the product with these three questions in mind.
1) Is the higher quality item going to save you money in the long run? You can look at repair rates, power usage and the length of the life of the item to determine these factors.
2) Do you really need all the extra features on this model? We opted for the higher quality brand with fewer features. We just didn’t need some of the available features and we were able to save $150.00 by not buying the highest model available.
3) Can you pay cash for the item? If not you should try to do without if you can, and if you can’t you will save money on interest if you buy a lower quality item now, and get the nicer item when it breaks down.
There are times when higher quality does end up costing less in the long run. There are times when it will just cost you more money for the name brand. A smart shopper will take these things into consideration, when making her choice. In addition you can watch for sales when making a major purchase.
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For ideas on how to save more money check out the Deals blog and Frugal Blog.