When making purchases, buy the best you can afford. Always take your budget into consideration to avoid living beyond your means.
This is one of the stylish secrets of Madame Chic in Jennifer L. Scott’s first book, and I’ve been thinking about this concept, and seeing it other places.
It makes so much sense to me–I went through a little phase where I saw numerous bloggers wearing cute clothes from discounters. I typically shop at my favorite department store, but only during their best sales of the year. I ventured out and started shopping at different places, scoring bargains at unbelievable prices.
I thought I was really onto something–everything looked great, and I had saved so much money. However, as time went on, my discount clothes wore out really quickly. They pilled and stretched, and some didn’t hang right after they had been washed a few times. Now I’m back to my old strategy–buying the best quality I can afford (preferably on sale), and taking care of it so it will last as long as possible.
Another example: my blender recently quit working, and so I foolishly replaced it with an extremely inexpensive one. I use my blender a lot–I drink smoothies for breakfast regularly and I use it for falafel which we usually eat weekly. The very first time I used the new blender, I knew I had made a mistake. It was extremely difficult to put together, and it wouldn’t blend everything uniformly.
My husband was perceptive enough to take note of the situation, and he guided our sons in picking out a new blender for me as a Christmas gift. Had I made a wiser decision the first time around, our household wouldn’t have purchased two blenders in a month. The new blender isn’t a Vitamix, it’s a middle of the line blender, but it functions SO much better than the one I purchased.
This particular principle of Madame Chic has two sentences, and they balance each other out perfectly. It’s unwise to buy the cheapest item all the time, yet it’s also unwise to overspend, buying the most expensive item, if you can’t afford it.
It also goes hand in hand with buying less–purchase only the things you need and use often. Scott encourages her readers to cultivate a 10 item wardrobe, for example. I used to read a fashion magazine that had a regular article which itemized 5 different ways to spend $500 on clothing. They would show 25 items for $20 per item, and one item for the full $500, and everything in between.
There is no one right or wrong dollar amount–it’s going to be different for every person and every situation. But by paring down the items we own, and buying the highest quality we can afford for the things we need and use often, our homes will be freer of clutter, our pocketbooks fatter, and our lives more streamlined.
Is this concept something that works in your life? Why or why not?
The post Why It Pays to Buy the Best You Can Afford appeared first on Lessons From Yesterday.