It is often said that you get what you pay for. Sometimes this statement is true, and sometimes it isn’t. I often find myself saving money at the grocery store because many store brand products, at least at the grocery stores where I shop, taste as good as or better than their pricier name brand counterparts. However, there are certain purchases where getting a good value does not necessarily mean going with the lowest sticker price.
Early last year, when it was time for my oldest son to transition out of his infant car seat (which is of high quality) and into a “big boy car seat”, I picked one up at Wal Mart for about forty dollars. After all, if a car seat is on the market it must be safe, right? Well, I used that seat for a few weeks but I just did not feel confident that it would protect Dylan very well in the event of an accident. It did not weigh much, and the plastic felt thin. The seat did not seem to wrap around him like I thought it should, and even though it was installed correctly it seemed to wiggle around quite a bit. I did a lot of research and ended up getting him a better seat that cost about a hundred and forty dollars. This seat can hold him until he weighs sixty five pounds, and it is built like a tank. Sure it takes up a lot of room in the back seat and it weighs a lot when I take it in and out of the car, but it has high sides and seems to wrap around him in a way that looks secure. It does not move around once it is strapped in, either. I am very low budget for most things, but I have found that I am willing to pay more when it is a matter of feeling confident that my son is safe.
Other items that it pays to pay more for include computers, appliances, mattresses, and linens. I can speak to everything but the mattress, because I have yet to buy a new one. I am sure that when I do, it will be amazing. I have found that this list is accurate – I have had cheap computers and I have had slightly more expensive ones and the cheap ones never fail to disappoint. Appliances are often better constructed and more efficient if you choose mid range ones instead of the lowest priced ones. Very cheap sheets need to be replaced much more frequently than ones that are of even slightly better quality. The take home message here is that sometimes cheap is okay, and sometimes it’s just, well, cheap.