Buy cheap, buy twice?

My mother's mantra was 'You get what you pay for' and I generally find that she was right - damn her!

The only thing on which i would disagree with her is face creams etc. As has been mentioned on Gn before, Aldi's versions of those are good!

No, you are not alone. You do get what you pay for. I buy cheap every day clothes in Asda and they last one season, which suits me as the tops get covered in sun cream and the trousers are used daily for beach and garden and get really messy. However, when it comes to the 'big' things, I find it certainly pays to buy the best I can afford.

Another believer here for the 'you get what you pay for' on most things.

I have eventually after many many tries got DH to realise this. Recently we have had a crap ironing board from Wilkinsons, a crap pair of garden shears from a not very good nursery and a crap iron from Argos all of which lasted weeks that DH insisted on buying giving me a lecture on economy at the same time. After a flaming row we now have good solid items from JL and I overheard him telling his brother not to by cheap rubbish!!! I loathe pound shops, markets and cheap supermarkets and am really fed up with people telling me its snobby not to like these places. I just don't like buying crap.

I know you are a literary lady Soutra so here is John Ruskin on the subject:

“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The
common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a
lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well
to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will
have enough to pay for something better.”

One of my favourites which I frequently quote to MrA and which seems to have had the desired effect

It is true - when I buy the "cheap" version, I find I often still hanker after the better item - and if I were to eventually succumb and buy it - the first purchase would have been a total waste of money!

This is the explanation why so much outsourcing doesn't come up to scratch. They go for the cheapest not the overall best, too much short term thinking. When I was working they tried to persuade me to buy a cheap printer but when I showed them the lifetime costs I could prove the more expensive one was a better buy.

i do buy some cheap things, it depends what it is for. I just bought a really cheap pair of canvas shoes to wear in the sea on holiday and leave behind afterwards. Anything else would be a waste of money. I bought cheap tea towels in a charity shop because I wanted to give them the profit and I don't care about tea towels. On the other hand my iron is a very expensive one with a steam generator. Horses for courses is my mantra.

Also there has to be a limit on how much you would spend on, say, a pair of shoes, doesn't there?

I would never buy a 'cheap' string of pearls

Quite right Galen

I have just fallen victim to trying to save money by buying cheap. Since DD and the children moved in, the volume of washing has exploded and, in an effort to limit my use of the tumble dryer, I decided to buy a new airer. I fancied one of those old fashioned wooden ones that concertina up from a base. Having looked on the internet and at Lakeland, I decided to go for the cheaper, but seemingly identical one, on the internet. It is useless and must have trapped my fingers a dozen times and collapsed under the weight of washing twice. It's in the Oxfam pile

I saw what I thought were brilliant cheap canvas summer espadrilles in Sainsbury's this year. So I bought 3 pairs in different colours I also bought some blue and white canvas "gymshoes" - and next thing I knew a friend who had bought herself a pair and found them uncomfortable gave me hers. So I have five pairs of summer canvas shoes of which 3 pairs will sit in the cupboard until next year. By next year I will probably have seen something I like better . Stupid or what?

It has taken me years to acknowledge that generally, buying cheap means buying twice. We bought a cheap shower caddy for £29.99 from a well known DIY store in our last house and within months it was all yucky and rusty. This time, new house, new bathroom, off to JL, took a deep breath and paid £95 for a shower caddy. Looks and feels so much better, no rusty bits. A cheap caddy would have ruined lovely new shower room. Kittylester I have bought several bargain clothes airers which collapse when they have less than a machine load on them. When you add up the time and frustration, I would have been better buying a decent one from JL or Lakeland and probably spent less in total!

Granny's mantra was, "your eyes are your merchant" and I still go along with that. I don't enjoy clothes shopping so tend to buy certain basics in two different colours then mix and match. Also, I stick to colours I know suit me.

I have never followed fashion dictates and prefer good quality classic clothes which never date and last for years. Items like jeans, denims or cords I buy in Zara or H & M and team them up with faithful old classics.

I too have done the cheap shower caddy thing. Now they are holding string and stuff in the greenhouse.

China. My bone china goes through the dishwasher and microwave, despite warnings not to, and is brilliant. Yet DBH loves more modern stuff (square plates, not bone china) and they are crazed within a few months. DS's cheap uni dinner service from Wilko is in a dreadful state - what's left of it. He loved the teal colour and was so pleased with it - it's really upset him!

We bought Denby pots when we had the kitchen done and I wish it wasn't quite so hardwearing! We bought Denby when we replaced the 'best' set too! I'm bored of all of it!

So is my sister! She's had hers since 1978!

Cheap is not always bad! I moved house and bought a new clothes airer and shower caddy from Dunelm and they have been brilliant. I wanted a more expensive iron and bought the one I wanted but was lucky enough to get it in Asda sale so had the right iron at a fraction of the full price. I buy basics of clothes as cheaply as possible and don't always mind if they last only one season ( such as T shirts, although some last longer) I will pay more for one off pieces of nicer clothes from places like Boden, Alexon and the like and you get what you pay for regarding their better quality.

With food I do a mix of Aldi shopping and Ocado online which is more expensive but you can save loads with their special offers of stuff you would regularly buy anyway. Mix and match is my motto.

I too believe you get what you pay for. I buy supermarket t shirts but posh clothes are always the best I can afford.

marmight I am the opposite re clothes..I pay for better quality everyday wear as it is washed more often and go for less expensive 'one off' outfits for a special occasion as it gets less wear!

kitty, I also bought Denby but went to the factory shop and got slight seconds which have lasted at least as long as the top quality. I've been gradually collecting a different pattern by the same manufacturer, using Ebay. So it is possible to save money and still get a good product.

I have de by as well chats worth for semi best. The plain white with dark blue borders for everyday.
I actually have china for best but never use it these days as I don't have to do 'posh' anymore.

I had Denby for a wedding present. Bits of it went to University with various offspring, returned and I now dine off it when visiting DD3 (while sitting on the sofa we got from my parents for a wedding present, using the cutlery which belonged to my in-laws and surrounded by many other items which used to be in our house - a surreal, deja vue experience They have obviously lasted well over the years .....

Anni most of my Denby is seconds but it's still good quality. Some things are not available in the se Inca shop - the gravy boats never are!

I do not think you can make a blanket statement buy cheap buy twice. It depends. I will always walk through my local £land. They are great for bits and pieces of craft materials for the children, Every year I get huge buckets of chicken manure from Wilkinsons, it is far cheaper there than elsewhere and just as good.

When we moved house 20 years ago I had a huge garden to clear and replant on a budget. I went into Woolworths to find they were having an end of season plant sale. With careful picking and choosing I bought 23 shrubs for £25. I treated them carefully, obeyed planting instructions and 20 years on have nearly 20 of them still in the garden.

Yes, generally it is better to buy to quality and not to price, but sometimes it is expensive tat and cheap quality.

kitty which gravy jug are you after? I never use mine