Cheap can be expensive. Buying the cheapest items/products/etc just because they are cheap may not save you any money if you'll from time to time have to replace whatever you bought. Those who do, don't realize they're spending more money — what they are buying is cheap after all! Question: how important is quality [to you] when you are buying something? Do you look at the price and move on? - when doesn't the quality of anything you are buying not matter?
If quality do matter as much as price tag, there is no reason preventing to find good deals on products that are yet good quality. It's all about doing price comparison first to find them out. Even though when it comes to choose quality or low price, it depends on budget and underlying circumstances, because there are time it's of one's best interest get a quality product, but your pocket says it's not possible. Here the two scenarios would be wait to buy what you want without sacrifice quality, or get it at the cost that low-quality products involve, but there might not be other option then. In example, my mother receives an annuity after my father passed away, but such annuity is paid on a monthly basis and there are times when money is not enough to pay for the food she likes. Being food, she can't wait till the next month to buy it, so occasionally she has to buy similar foods of less quality but within the budget she can spend at a given moment.
Cheap can be expensive if it breaks or isn't good quality, so quality does matter. It depends on what it is like food or cosmetics. With food you can look at the percentage of ingredients to see the quality and to compare the price, the same with cosmetics. Even if it is cheaper, the effect, taste or nutritional quality will determine how much of a product you need to buy. It's like buying cheap thin bleach, you end up using more than a thick bleach and it's less effective.
There's a saying that "You get what you pay for" and I think that it's so true. That's why prices of items vary, because the ingredients or materials that they are made from differ. If you're not that finicky though, I think buying the cheapest clothes, shoes, food or detergent is one thing that isn't necessary to be of the highest price. When it comes to electronics though, the more expensive the better.
Quality matters to me a great deal. Buying cheap quality stuff can be like the lottery; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose big. When you lose, you end up spending much more than you would have, had you just spent more in the first place. I was being cheap and bought a no-name iron as I was a little short on money. Hardly a few months on, and the thing keeps tripping my electricity. I'm now having to chuck it and go and buy a trusted and more expensive brand. Such a waste of time and money!!
Incidentally while this saying tends to be true when it comes to the real-life world, many times fails to be true in the virtual world of the Internet. I have always heard that I'm going to get what I will be paying for when I share the fact of having find a bargain service, but many times I'm surprised to get a good quality for a fraction of the price that I would be paying elsewhere, place at which may not find the same high quality despite of their high price tag. Online or offline, many times the secret is about comparing prices and do a research on the background history of a company or consumers opinion on products.
I'm a "in moderation" type person about most things and this is no exception to that rule. I like a fair mix of quality versus priceline.
@MyDigitalpoint, I guess items being sold online are cheaper because they aren't paying for the lease and of course there's less staff to pay as well, so they can afford to lower their prices. I also noticed that items are cheaper if you buy them online, and the shipping fee compensates for the price difference, so you take your pick where to buy.
Without any hesitation or doubt - I can honestly say that regardless of the situation or the type of item - I will always choose quality - even if it means that I have to save a for a while first - especially as choosing inferior products is not the most cost effective way of buying anything - as you generally land up - actually paying more than you would if you had bought the quality items in the first place.
Quality is extremely important in the long run.. but I'm hard pressed to find much of anything that is of such great quality I'm willing to spend all that much more. The items in my house that I've spend more on, were actually dead/broken/worn out long before the cheaper items in the same category. When I was a kid, everything was made to last forever.. now with everyone competing with each other, that's just not where the money is. I haven't seen a really awesome quality product in many years. Depends what it is of course, but price does not always speak for the quality of something.
Quality is very important to me because it means it will be durable and I will not have to buy the same thing over for a while. The one thing that I may buy cheap are some toys for babies that I know will get broken in no time flat.
