Repeat after me, “never buy new if used will do.” Go ahead, no matter where you are while you are reading this, repeat that mantra. Whisper it if you must, but get it ingrained in your head. It is an important bit of advice to remind yourself of, if you want to save money.
You can apply this idea to practically any purchase, be it baby clothes or a small appliance. Sure there may be some things that you don’t want to buy used, food and underwear come to mind, but for the most part, anything you might buy brand new, you can buy used and save the difference. On average, you can probably spend a mere 10-25 percent of the price of new.
Over a lifetime, think about how much buying everything used instead of new will save you. If you buy one used hardcover book at $1.00 a month instead of $30 a month, you will save $348 in a year. A used dryer for $150 is a good deal stacked up against a new one at $600.
What about wear and tear on used items? Well, that can be a valid point. For some items, it just doesn’t apply. A set of used dishes, as long as they aren’t chipped, will have the same lifespan as if you bought them new, for example. For others, you can often afford better quality used than you would new, so it will naturally last longer. Clothing comes to mind.
The next time you need something that could be purchased used instead of new, put it on a list, then do some research to find it at a lower cost second hand. Yard sales, thrift stores, consignment shops and even Facebook are all good sources for finding gently used items.