December 26, 2004 I bought a very nice, small black leather Coach bag. It’s almost 5 years later now and I’ve used it almost every day and it’s still in fantastic condition. I believe I paid $130 for that bag new at Macy’s.
Before I bought that one quality Coach bag (and I do believe their leather bags are quality but I just don’t think they’re cloth bags feature the same durability), I was buying a couple new $20 bags a year. A $130 bag has now lasted me almost 5 years. That works out to $26 a year at this point. Buying a higher quality item and using it longer works out to a lower “cost per wear”.
For Christmas the next year, my parents bought my little sister (who was in high school at the time and I might consider her a bit spoiled because of this but I also suppose that if she’s spoiled then I am too) a very similar black leather Coach bag. I helped pick it out at the Coach outlet store. It’s a bit bigger than mine but has all the features I consider important like a short enough strap that I can feel it under my arm and it completely zips shut at the top so that A) I don’t spill things and B) it’s harder for people to steal things. My mom thinks we paid about $70 for it at the outlet-weekend-before-Christmas sale price, at the new Macy’s price it certainly would have cost more than mine.
Now I’ve had my purse for almost 5 years and my sister has had her purse for almost 4 years.
Saturday, my sister and I were eating lunch and she reached into her purse to show me some pictures on her digital camera and I made a comment about how nice all the free space in her purse looked. She made a comment about how her shoulder has been hurting her so she wishes her purse was smaller and she couldn’t put so much stuff in it. One of us suggested a trade (it all happened so fast that I can’t even remember who it was) and within seconds she was shoveling our stuff out of our purses so we could do this trade.
Went each went home from lunch with a new purse that easily has another 5 years of daily use in it at zero cost.
Related posts:
- Quality Over Quantity
- Best Quality Meat at the Best Price
- Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts from Years Past that I Still Use Today
- Meat Price vs Quality Comparison
- Reusable Grocery Bags
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{ 2 comments }
I really agree that it’s better for the environment to choose higher quality products that you’ll keep for several years, if not the rest of your life. It seems like people have more incentive to take care of things that are more expensive, so you’re less likely to throw something out or need to buy something new. I like the idea of the trade, too.
I’ll admit it. I used to buy knock off purses all the time. And also designer purses. But as I have gotten older and moved, I slowly got rid of all my knock off and now have a small collection of nice handbags which will last for quite a while. When I see knock offs, I sort of shake my head and think about how much money I used to spend on them. One day, I will get a LV and it will be a real one which I will be buried with
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