When bargains are not bargains

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Forum -> Household Management -> Budgeting & Bargains

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southernbubby

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 7:13 pm

So it isn't the biggest deal in life BH, but I bought Walmart brand coffee and it is half the price of the national brands but you need to use twice as much to make it taste like coffee and wake you up.

I can think of lots of times when bargains are actually a waste of money. Sometimes the dollar store food is actually more expensive than in other stores and many times cheap stuff gets thrown out much faster.

Anyone else here have that experience?

OOTforlife

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 7:24 pm

I bought some cheap Keurig cups on Amazon once and the "coffee" tasted mostly like water. They were also about half the price of most other ones.

ra_mom

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 7:38 pm

My late grandmother used to say "bilig is taiyer" (cheap is expensive).

thunderstorm

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 7:39 pm

ra_mom wrote:

My late grandmother used to say "bilig is taiyer" (cheap is expensive).

Lol. I was just going to write this and you beat me to it! We say this all the time.

Bsimcha

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 7:53 pm

I'm a big believer in assessing everything.

In general, certain companies' generic brands are overall better than others

southernbubby

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 8:15 pm

Bsimcha wrote:

I'm a big believer in assessing everything.

In general, certain companies' generic brands are overall better than others

Like Kirkland.

SuperWify

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 8:17 pm

Here’s a funny story:

Back in the day when my dad was still in kollel and my mother worked part time and we lived on a shoestring budget with four kids under the age of four and half, my mother looked for every possible way to save money.

One day a neighbor had a sale for shoes. Only $10 a pair for beautiful new girls shabbos shoes. (These shoes would go great with our bright colorful patterned puffy shabbos dresses that we’d wear with a short petticoat that grandma would pick up from Macy’s -one in each size - a few times a year.)

Great.

We ran to chap to bargain. Only... the shoes we’re more for older girls, they weren’t for our tiny little feet.

My mother, decided to buy a few pairs anyway. She figured eventually it would fit us. After all, a bargin is a bargain.

She shakily handed over a $100 bill (now that was tons of money!!) and picked out ten pairs of shiny shoes in various (big) sizes.

They were put away in her closet and we waited for our feet to grow. Every now and then we’d go admire those shiny patten shoes tucked away in the back of the closet. We’d try them on, wistfully wishing our feet to grow longer. We’d even try and walk around the block with them trying not to trip until Mommy inevitably found us and angrily made us take them off.

They years passed and eventually- to our shock- our feet did grow. We took the shoes out from the back of the closet eager to wear the fancy black patent flats with the lovely shiny buckles. Except it didn’t look very fancy anymore. The shiny patent has grown dull and the shoes looked embarrassingly outdated.

You guessed the sad end.

They were never worn.

ra_mom

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 8:17 pm

thunderstorm wrote:

Lol. I was just going to write this and you beat me to it! We say this all the time.

That is so cute! I can still hear her saying it. Very Happy

mandr

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 10:32 pm

The dollar bin at Target is a killer. Same with Five Below, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar etc. So many of the stuff sold for a dollar are not even WORTH a dollar! They are worth like 30 cents.

shanie5

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 10:34 pm

When my dad got his first job, he needed to buy a hammer. He had a choice of one for 50 cents, or one for $3. He chose the 50 cent one. A week later, he needed a new hammer-the 50 cent one was worn out. The $3 hammer he bought next lasted years. So which was the bargain?

southernbubby

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 10:38 pm

I got the cheaper phone at T mobile and now my pictures almost always come out blurry. I think it has to do with the quality of the camera.

ETA, and my DH who LOVES bargains was told by one of my sons never to fly economy again for long flights. It isn't worth the threat to health.

OutATowner

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 11:05 pm

Toilet paper!! You need sooo much of the cheap stuff at a time, it can't possibly be cheaper!
Eta: the Walmart brand French vanilla k cups are so good!

southernbubby

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 11:08 pm

OutATowner wrote:

Toilet paper!! You need sooo much of the cheap stuff at a time, it can't possibly be cheaper!
Eta: the Walmart brand French vanilla k cups are so good!

I have them and like them but now I need a new water filter because otherwise regular tap water makes the k cups taste bad.

Cheap toilet paper could wreck the plumbing and make your tushy sore.

essie14

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 11:49 pm

OutATowner wrote:

Toilet paper!! You need sooo much of the cheap stuff at a time, it can't possibly be cheaper!
Eta: the Walmart brand French vanilla k cups are so good!

Cheap toilet paper is such a pet peeve of mine! My mother refuses to buy anything but the cheapest toilet paper possible. You need to use so much of it and it still feels gross.

naturalmom5

Tue, Sep 04 2018, 11:57 pm

The school that will accept you without any hassle is usually ten times more stressful than the ones that you need to fight to "try" to get in..

Maybe the ones that ones that everyone curses out for being elitist are just more wysiwig...

A bargain school is no bargain at all

ra_mom

Wed, Sep 05 2018, 12:14 am

naturalmom5 wrote:

The school that will accept you without hassle is a place where you'll fit in and your child will thrive.
I don't know what a bargain school is. If you mean a school with a bad reputation who is eager to accept any paying client, no questions asked, then I agree with you.

naturalmom5

Wed, Sep 05 2018, 12:31 am

ra_mom wrote:

I mean what you said..

But I also mean, for example , my son went to YNJ, it was 14k a year (actually more like 25k for a Tclass, as he had special needs the State paid for)....

That 14k tuition provides your child at least, a hundred times more than any 4k a year Lakewood school

elaela

Wed, Sep 05 2018, 2:41 am

I guess it so depends on the country you live in.

where I live generic toilett paper, napkins, tampons, certain meds, washing powder, vacuumcleaner bags, ... are AT LEAST of the same quality but 30% cheaper than regular brands. )(for some reason here the cheap bin liners are much much better than the expencive ones, however the country I lived in before was pinkferahrt- exactly the opposite) so...yeah

BUT cheap shoes are generally (not always) not a bargain

BadTichelDay

Wed, Sep 05 2018, 5:48 am

I also reckon it's a country dependant thing. Here in Israel, I've generally had good experiences with cheap clothes. And before you laugh, yes, I really prefer cheap clothes. Whenever I bought something expensive, I ended up not wearing it because I subconsciously worry that it might get dirty/torn/ripped. I've got this whole collection of expensive things that I never wear... the cheapos on the other hand might last only for a year or two but at least I'm not afraid to wear them every day.
Cheap porcellain or glass dishes, bowls or drinking glasses also do a good job. Especially with kids around who smash things every other day.
Shoes are a different topic. Cheap shoes tend to be really rubbish...

asmileaday

Wed, Sep 05 2018, 8:55 am

Cheap junk prizes that I sometimes let my kids choose from the 99 cents toy section or they sometimes win in school, are so not worth it. They break after 5 seconds of use and then the kids are devastated.
Im ok with cheap shoes for myself. They usually cost about $20. I can't imagine spending more!
For my kids though- nope. I once bought $20 shoes from Fabco for them, it didn't last the week.

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