Too Poor to Buy Cheap!

I was wandering aimlessly through the net today and I saw these articles that I found fascinating.

"I heard my grandmother grumble she was "too poor to buy cheap" for years before I understood she wasn't contradicting herself. Experience taught her when price is the primary consideration in a purchase decision, the cost of ownership will probably be much higher. Grandma knew replacing shoddy merchandise or getting poor service would always cost more in the long run; she understood the concept of value."

"I remember reading a story once about an octogenarian discussing her most prized possessions with a researcher. She shows the researcher an iron that’s been going for over 40 years and explains how she had to scrimp and save to buy the product and how it ended up out living even her husband. Quizzed on why she spent so much money on the iron she said “I’m too poor to buy cheap!”

Too poor to buy cheap. That simple phase really resonated with me and has stuck with me ever since.

Cheap is quick. Cheap is dirty. Cheap is disposable.
Cheap breaks.
Cheap costs money. It costs money to fix, it costs money to replace.
Cheap seems like a good idea at the time but cheap fails when you most need it.
Cheap is flimsy and unsatisfying.
Cheap is inefficient.
Cheap gets in your way.
Cheap costs you time and it costs you customers.
Cheap always cost you more in the end. That’s why I can’t afford to buy cheap. Can you?"

I immediately related to these articles/blogs because of my own buying philosophy mirrors it. I counter my lack of cash to buy excellent kitchen equipment by utilizing every venue of the secondary market for my excellent quality equipment.

Somebody said to me, "I have not done the yard sales partly due to the thought that it is someone else's junk and after all these years, I have plenty of my own, but I am always envious when I hear about the great buys you all mention."

I told her, "I used to feel the same way myself. I shopped antique shops like a maniac until I saw the antiques dealers at auctions and garage sales! That's when I thought..........why should I pay the dealer a large markup when I can search out the stuff myself?  I love real jewelry, and discovered that pawn shops have fabulous jewels at a tiny fraction of the jewelry store prices. I thought to myself, do you really care if your diamonds are second hand? Nope, I sure didn't and this opened the door to used merchandise of all kinds.   Yep, it is someone else's junk, but in that junk, there are treasures to be found!"

I have bought wonderful pieces on online with Ebay, Etsy, Ruby Lane, and Shop Goodwill; thrift shops, garage sales, used restaurant supply stores, church sales, antique shops, and even metal salvage yards. Spending a weekend disinfecting filthy pots and pans was not unusual for me and I now have about everything a person could use in the kitchen.