How do I shop more cheaply without buying rubbish?
Telling a genuine saving from a false economy, and the categories where buying cheap costs more over time.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 30 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
Judge on cost per use rather than purchase price. For things that wear out — shoes, tools, mattresses, cookware — buying better usually costs less over time. For things that go out of use before they wear out, cheap is often the rational choice.
Buying cheap is sometimes right and sometimes expensive, and the distinction is predictable. If the item will wear out through use, durability matters and cheap is usually false economy. If it will become obsolete or unwanted first, durability is irrelevant.
Step by step
- Work out roughly how long you will use the item.Not how long it could last — how long you will actually want it. Those are different for fashion, technology and children's things.
- Divide the price by that expected use.Cost per year, or per use. It is the only comparison that makes a cheap and an expensive option comparable.
- For things that wear out with use, weight quality heavily.Shoes, mattresses, tools, cookware, outerwear. These have a floor below which the item fails quickly and repeatedly.
- For things that become obsolete or unwanted, weight price heavily.Technology, trend-driven clothing, children's equipment. Durability beyond the period of use is wasted money.
- Check whether it can be repaired and whether parts are available.A repairable item with available parts has a far longer effective life, which changes the calculation.
- Buy second-hand for categories where it makes sense.Furniture, tools, children's equipment and books often lose most of their value immediately without losing function.
- Compare unit prices rather than pack prices.Shelf labels show price per kg or per litre. The larger pack is not always cheaper, particularly on promotion.
- Wait before buying anything non-essential above a set amount.24 hours for smaller purchases, a week for larger. A substantial proportion of wants simply evaporate.
Tips
- Own-brand basics are frequently produced in the same facilities as branded equivalents. The difference is more noticeable where recipe and processing matter.
- Price-tracking browser extensions show whether a 'sale' price was ever genuinely higher.
- The cheapest option in categories with a durability floor — shoes, tools, mattresses — is frequently the most expensive over five years.
Common mistakes
- Buying the cheapest of something that wears out — It fails and is replaced repeatedly, costing more than one better item would have.
- Buying premium quality for something that will be obsolete — Durability beyond the period of use is money spent on nothing.
- Comparing pack prices rather than unit prices — Different pack sizes make headline prices meaningless.
Questions people ask
When is buying cheap a false economy?
When the item wears out through use and there is a quality floor below which it fails quickly — shoes, tools, mattresses, cookware and outerwear are the classic categories.
How do I know if a sale price is genuine?
Check the price history with a tracking tool or browser extension. Products whose price rose briefly before a 'sale' are common.