“A fool is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Oscar Wilde
This tale starts with my ankles – or more correctly, a recent attack of tendon pain. Serious enough to make me jack in jogging for a week or three, hoping that a bit of rest would allow it to heal. Guess what; it didn’t. I was approaching the point where I was about to start to try to get a doctor’s appointment for their professional view when my trusty hiking trainers – my usual footwear – decided it was all too much and fell apart on me.
Once I’d finished making the purchase decisions (and more importantly, punch my poverty mentality into the corner to get it to ‘allow’ the expenditure) I discovered almost immediately that the new footwear eased my ankles. And a few days later, I’ll cautiously say I think I’m on the mend.
The conclusion here is simple enough; it was my old trainers which was either the culprit or the aggravator. When looked at logically, this news isn’t surprising when my fag-packet told me I’ve clocked up perhaps sixteen-hundred miles in them, while footwear experts say you should look to replace after five hundred. Now, I did try to buy quality but there’s no way I could afford that level of it.
Conclusion; that in the desire to ‘save money’, I ended up injuring myself (hopefully, not permanently). That is, in my book a false economy – that not only did I cause myself pain, but also hindered my ability to do other stuff (like for example, jogging).
Big Picture
While most folks are aware of the term ‘false economy’ (when scrimping on up-front costs increases the spend in the long run, à la the ‘Vimes Boots Theory‘), I prefer to widen it’s definition somewhat; to represent the wastage of other finite resources (such as time, personal energy etc) or when the ‘cheap’ option costs more in intangibles (such as physical pain, in my shoes example). So, without further padding, is my list of personal ‘false economies’ – remembering that every rule has at least two exceptions…
#1: Footwear. The classic example. Most know the foolishness of buying cheap shoes which fail in their basic purpose and/or fall apart; but I’m sure the more common failure is in wearing footwear beyond it’s natural life – just because they’re still physically together doesn’t mean they’re still wearable. As I learned above.
#2: Underwear. One of those areas where women have the edge; most know the value of a good bra and the desires to avoid VPL leads to at least a cursory inspection of pants. Overuse is once again the most common ‘economy’ here; the wearing of them after they’ve stopped providing effective support (it’s said you should replace between six and twelve months… but doesn’t mention how many times you wear them before chucking).
Socks can often hit the ‘clean but still stinky’ point before physical decrepitude, which honestly isn’t doing you, or your shoes any favours. Yes, there are often ways to (hopefully) deal with this problem, but unless you’ve got a large load to treat I would class it as a waste of your time doing it and simply bin them.
#3: Clothing. Yeah, I’m not going to give you the ‘green’ bitch about it. Or the ‘fast fashion’ one. Or even the ‘wasting cash’ one. I’m just going to point out the simple fact that you’re paying for storage space of your collection, you shall spend time and effort maintaining the collection and lastly, you’ll spend time going through the collection trying to find something suitable, often at a time you don’t have that time to spare.
I think it was about five years ago I learned about the ‘capsule wardrobe‘ concept, and while the argument for it is strong, I’m not a huge fan. Too confining, too muted, too rigid. Hey, I’m not that hot on doing the laundry, okay? Nor do I live in a land where the weather’s that predictable. Instead, I’m much more the ‘simplified wardrobe’ sort; focusing on general compatibility, flexibility and practicality. Often I buy two, three or even more copes of the same item (once I realise it works); offering a happy medium between ‘not knowing what to wear’ and ‘not having anything to wear because your only pair of black jeans are dirty’. Oh, also wise to try to aim to have as many pieces able to be washed together too – specialist items are a pain.
#4: Mattresses. If playing The Sims only has one ‘life lesson’ in it, ‘buy the best bed you can afford’ is it (no, ‘have a bin in every room of your house’ is the other). For like the game, the better your bed (primarily your mattress, though the bed itself helps) the better your sleep shall be, which shall equal more energy, less grouchiness and improved health. After all, you’re gonna be spending almost a third of your time on the damn thing, it’s logical to put this right at the top of your purchases list.
My theory is; people don’t really realise how much time they spend in bed; something understandable, as we don’t recall most of it. And if you think I’m wrong on this one; tell me, why don’t we sleep on uncomfortable school chairs, park benches or bean-bags?
#5: Fresh Fruit & Vegetables. A controversial choice, I know, but I feel I’ve got a decent case to argue here. My argument is simple enough; that so much cheaper fresh produce is relatively tasteless, some to the point where you wonder why the hell you even bothered to buy it (like I did earlier this year). If you have produce which gives you poor experiences, the chances are you’ll be less inclined to eat it, ultimately increasing wastage (and so per-unit cost). And if you’re trying to get your five-a-day, it’s easier to do it if the items actually taste nice.
However, there are other options (though naturally, not all shall be open to you). A fresh produce box service to your door, greengrocers at markets, more high-end grocery stores. One option often overlooked is the ‘ethnic’ stores; they often stock fresh produce which sometimes can be much better. Sure, it’s more expensive… but it’s not like with like, here.
One last item I’ll mention here for consideration is the bulk purchase of close-dated items. Yes, I know I talked about doing home-frozen fruit and vegetables before, but when it comes down to it the often surprisingly long time of prep-work to sort/clean/chop/bag the stuff makes it a false economy – ending up spending an hour of my life doing something to ultimately save a couple of quid. These days, I normally only bother doing it if I can’t find the products already frozen.
#6: Bulk Buying. The first seemingly counter-intuitive example; ‘but bulk buying saves money in the long run!’. Well… perhaps. Many of the bulk-buying minuses are the same as the previous one; the costs of you storing, curating and searching through your ‘bargains’ to get what you actually need. Yet in this case there’s also the risk of ‘spoilage’; most things shall become unusable (one way or another) eventually – for example, damaged or deteriorate in storage.
Even if we assume you don’t buy a ‘dud’ (like say, a flavour you turn out to dislike) there’s also the issue that a portion of your cash is now locked in as ‘inventory’. Depending just how much buying you do, this could end up as a surprisingly large amount of funds (and space). Truth is; the money is only shown to be ‘saved’ by the time all the purchases have been consumed.
#7: Selling Items. I might write more on this at a later date, but for now, be satisfied with this maxim; if you are thinking of selling something second-hand, forget it – chances are, it’s effectively worthless. Of course, there’s exceptions (there is to all of these) – but not many. My rule of thumb; unless it’s an item which an average pawnbroker’s would be interested in or has a known market (such as near-mint genuine collectables, large electrical items or cars) it’s ultimate value is effectively zero.
The main culprit here is the costs of actually selling the damn thing. Be it in person or online, I’ve seen folks try and fail to sell stuff – ‘decent enough’ stuff too – for a price which would actually give them a return even half the minimum wage. I’ve even seen folks fail to give stuff away. And they wasted a hour or two of their lives trying to shift the fucking thing too. That’s hours you ain’t gonna get back.
#8: DIY. Okay, I’m no Hank Hill, but I’m competent enough to deal with flat-packs, making general repairs, decorating and so on. Generally speaking, most folks who have been poor end up being a bit ‘handy’ – there’s no other choice, it’s either you do it or nothing happens. Yet I would only paint a room or fit a carpet if I was genuinely unable to afford a tradesperson to do it.
My reasoning is twofold. Firstly, the tradesperson would do a better job – almost no doubt about that. The other is that chances are, they’d do it quicker than I would too; in fact, DIY projects can become serious time-sinks for the unwary or unlucky. It’s all about opportunity costs; it’s quite possible that you’d be better off in the whole by using those painting-hours to work elsewhere, to earn the cash to pay for the painter to do it right.
#9: Repairing/Maintaining Items. Similar gig as the previous point; completing the repairs shall often end up being quite a serious time-sink and may become even less economically viable if you need to buy a few specialist items to complete (even if said items are fairly cheap). That’s not even taking into account the issues of learning how to do it…
In my experience, there’s a kind of ‘gap’ in these tasks – items that aren’t ‘worth’ enough to warrant taking it to a ‘professional’ to sort out, but worth too much to simply dispose of (own personal example; coat with split pockets). Result; they end up being undone indefinitely, or you spend many a hour trying to sort it yourself. Examples of these can include clothing alterations, leather item refurbishment, garden tool maintenance, lawn-mower servicing, basic furniture repair and re-potting houseplants.
And the solution is also simple enough; find (and pay) someone else to do it. In times like these, most could do with a bit more cash in the pocket, and there’s quite a lot of folks out there who are relatively ‘time rich’; for example retirees. Ask around your personal network, there’s even freelancers sites out there (though they’ll be more expensive, but more professional). And if the repairs mean you can avoid more spend on replacement items, all the better.
#10: Cheap/Free Delivery. We’ve all been there; awaiting the drop-off of our precious purchases, watching the tracker on the screen… then for it to vanish, for the driver’s running late and has conveniently ‘had issues with the device’. Or you’re stuck at home, mentally bitching because they’ve missed their delivery slot and you’ve got shit to do, y’know. Even better, the delivery turning up when it wasn’t supposed to, being left in the rain and in full view of the street…
The seriousness of the situation, naturally depends on the circumstances; but if you’re getting a decent amount of parcels and/or grief (couriers seem to find it difficult to find my address, for a personal example) it is perhaps worth looking into alternatives – such as renting a parcel drop-off location at a mailbox company. Like above, it’s not exactly cheap, but if you’re relatively time-poor it’s something worth looking into (or simply your time is more productively spent elsewhere). Also going ‘upmarket’ for the better delivery option might be possible, though that’s often something which is in the hands of the sender, not you.
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Okay; some or perhaps most of these may not apply to you, and there’s always going to be exceptions to the rule. But the above are – in my opinion – at least worth considering. And not the same old ‘false economies’ listicles which most folks have worked out eons ago.
As everything on this blog, merely my own thoughts and opinions. Part of my Frugality and Essays series.
Tales From The Minority 