Quality Over Quantity

This is a guest post from Beth at Smart Family Tips. Beth blogs about saving valuable time and money while helping the planet out too.

I tend toward frugality as a natural habit. If I can save money on the items I buy, I get excited. Whether it’s buy one get one free on food or toiletries or clothing items, or scoring a significant discount by shopping around for a major purchase, saving money makes me smile. I also, especially in the last few years, tend towards greener, more conscious shopping. I try not to buy new unless I really need something; when it comes to food, I’m buying more locally and more organically grown. But even though I love to save money, there are many times when the cheapest (or least expensive, to put it nicely) isn’t the most frugal, nor is it the most green.

For example, this summer I’ve been spending more, instead of less, on sunscreen. I read a report put out by the Environmental Working Group which found the “cheaper” sunscreen I had been using on my young children not only isn’t very effective in blocking the sun’s rays, it also contains lots of chemicals that can be toxic to humans, especially children. I could spend less money, but if the product doesn’t work, and is likely poisoning us in the process, where’s the savings?

I’m also spending a bit more per item on food because of my choice to eat more organic, locally grown products. Some would argue that chemical-laden processed foods, while they may have a cheaper sticker price, cost much more down the line in terms of poor health. Either way, to me, being frugal is about getting the most value for my dollar and value doesn’t always translate into “least expensive.”

For example, I’m all for coupons, especially when I can combine them with store sales. But I know enough by now about what my family likes and which products I feel good about, that I won’t use a coupon for a brand or item I don’t like and don’t normally buy. I see no value in saving 50 cents if the product will go to waste because no one likes it. However, due to a strange series of circumstances involving a closing store’s clearance and some coupons, I was recently able to buy 4 bottles of our new, expensive sunscreen for what I normally pay for 1 bottle. Now that’s what I call a deal.

If I need to purchase an item that will get a lot of use, I find there’s little value in buying the cheapest thing I can. What normally happens is the cheap item breaks or wears out after only a few uses and then I have to go buy another. If I do some research and buy a quality product up front, even if it costs a bit more, I save the cost of purchasing the cheaper item over and over. It’s also much more eco-friendly to buy one product rather than 2 or 3 or 10.

Recently Time magazine’s Cheapskate Blog (one of my favorites) ran a blurb about Ellen Ruppel Shell’s new book, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. Time’s Brad Tuttle writes,

The author is right on the money, excuse the pun, that, when it comes to saving, just plain buying less is a much smarter approach than buying lots of cheap stuff. Also, it’s often smarter to spend more to get quality that lasts—because in the long run, buying cheap stuff that needs to be replaced winds up costing you big time.

The best ways I’ve found to be both frugal and green are listed below.

1. Buy as little as possible. You’ll spend less money while consuming fewer resources.
2. When you must buy new, go for quality.
3. Do your homework when making purchases. With a little research, it’s often possible to score a higher quality item for little more than the cheap stuff.
4. Take care of your stuff so it will last. The longer we can keep using the things we have, the less we’ll have to buy.

I’m all for being frugal, and I certainly want to do my part to conserve resources. That doesn’t mean that I have to sacrifice quality, or safety, though. Quite often, being truly frugal and green, go hand in hand. How do you save money while helping the planet?

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:
A Testiment to Quality Over Quantity
Best Quality Meat at the Best Price
Meat Price vs Quality Comparison
What I’m Reading 7/3
What I’m Reading 6/4

Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | learn more about subscribing