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What are some things you can/should cheap out on? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by LunchEnjoyer@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I often hear, "You should never cheap out on a good office chair, shoes, underpants, backpack etc.." but what are some items that you would feel OK to cheap out on?

This can by anything from items such as: expensive clothing brands to general groceries.

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[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I don't think I got my point across clearly then, apologies:

I was answering the question "what products would you be okay cheaping out on?" with basically "out of non-consumables, only things I don't want to rely on if I can afford it". For me "cheaping out" means going for the low-end, cheapest option.

I then tried to explain why, that in a free-market economy, market forces ensure the low end will pretty much always be borderline-useless waste and therefore IMO not worth any amount of money for anyone expecting something reliable. This is not unique to a specific set of products, this applies to everything that has a choice between different models and brands of the same product, because nearly always, the cheaper and worse option is rewarded by increased profit margins and/or sales volume and reduced sales for competitors. This is because humans psychologically love the feeling of getting something for less even if what they're getting is worse, that feeling can short-cut a load of our usual reasoning and manipulate how we spend our money.

Back to my opinion again though: I personally can't think of anything really that I'd want to buy but not want to also be reliable, where the reliable option wasn't prohibitively expensive—so, I can't really give a more specific list of items. Tbh, unless I had an urgent need for something and lacked the funds for something that would last, I think I would most likely wait rather than cheap out.

edit: typo