Quality and Value

Look for quality and value when you shop. All of us have different spending habits - but sometimes, it's easy to identify a better value. If you need a toaster, go online and research toasters. People from all over give honest reviews. If someone says that they bought toaster brand 'x', because it was cheap - but unfortunately it got just as hot on the outside as it did on the inside, brand 'y' that cost just $5 more, might have been a better value.

I've looked for values and good quality for almost as long as I've been old enough to buy my own things. I've slipped up a few times, and it reminded me to pay more attention.

I'm not an economist, and I know there must be thousands of reasons some items cost more or less than other items that seem to serve similar purposes.

For certain things, it still seems like you get what you pay for. This seems to apply mostly when you're comparing items that haven't been imported - because some things can't be made somewhere else, or it's not cost effective to ship them.

If you buy over-the-counter medicine, sometimes the cheaper ones have the same active ingredients as the ones that cost a lot. I don't know why people would buy the more expensive brands. That doesn't make any sense to me. But people must be buying them, since they're on the shelves. Same with shampoo. You go to the store and there are three-thousand types. About a third of them do exactly the same thing, but the cheapest one cost way less than the most expensive one.

Some of us aren't as careful as others. Don't spend a lot of money on something you know you can't take care of. Some things that are high quality are easily broken, and you're just gonna break it. Ask someone else what time it is. Don't buy expensive wine glasses if you're always knocking over your glass of wine. Don't buy expensive sun glasses if you're always sitting on them.

It's your hard-earned money that you've already had taxes taken out of. When you go out and spend it on something you need, pay attention!