Should You Just Spend the Money?

Throughout my adult life thus far, I haven’t exactly been rolling in money. I’ve had enough money to buy the things I need and most of the things that I want, but I am money-conscious enough to know that I shouldn’t always buy the things that I want. I want to keep money around for emergencies, or for a down payment on a future house. This has led to me being a bit more discerning in my purchases, especially when it comes to electronics, camera equipment, and other high-ticket items.

But is my quest for finding the best value even worth it? Or should I have just spent the money and been happy?

If you find yourself in a similar conundrum, maybe you’ll find some solace in my arguments for each thought process! I’d love to hear your thoughts on spending money and how your financial goals inform your spending habits.

The Case For Buying the Cheap Item

Life is hard, and so is finance. Sometimes all you can afford is the budget-oriented item. And luckily, there are many creative fields where you can still get great results from inexpensive products.

When it comes to photography, it helps to have a nice camera, but ultimately a good photographer can make any camera work. You can easily spend over $1000 on a camera (not to mention lenses) but you can also buy an entry-level DSLR camera (maybe even with an extra lens) for less than $500. If you want to get into serious photography, this is the kind of purchase that can help you take the next step.

I have experienced plenty of instances where the cheap alternative was superior. My $50 mechanical keyboard from a relatively unknown brand has most of the same features as my $100+ mechanical keyboard from a big brand, and I prefer to use the less expensive one. I’ve also had good luck with my audio interface which cost a fraction of the price of the most popular audio interfaces.

Amazon Basics used to make cheap guitar pedals that were perfectly usable compared to the brand-name alternatives that were several times more expensive, even if the build quality wasn’t as high. Sure, there is a higher chance of running into a faulty product when you buy the cheap alternative. But that’s what returns are for, right?

It’s Easy to Lose Perspective

When you’re buying a car, and spending $30,000, it’s easy to lose perspective of how much money that is. But if you’re going to clip coupons to save 50 cents on lemons, or going with a small combo at the fast food drive-thru to save a couple of dollars, why wouldn’t you do the same on a large purchase? That money is still the same money, but the relative scale is completely different.

This is how car buyers get roped into getting leather seats, a moonroof, roof racks, and other extras that they might not need. The logic goes that if you’re already spending $30,000, what’s $500 more? But that’s simply illogical! $500 is $500, no matter what you’re buying!

It can be a slippery slope. The difference between a $300 camera and a $600 camera is huge. But if you’re already looking at the $600 camera, you might be tempted to go for a camera that’s $700. After all, what’s $100 more? You’re already spending a lot, so you trick yourself into thinking there isn’t much harm in spending even more. If your goal is to conserve your money while still buying a high-ticket item, you need to keep your priorities straight. This is why it can be best to buy the cheaper alternative.

The Case for Buying the Expensive Item

A major downside to buying an inexpensive item is of course the quality. If you compromise on your tech items, you might be stuck with non-premium materials that are prone to breaking, frustrating interfaces, and a lack of important features.

I’m speaking from experience here. That entry-level camera that I mentioned above is an actual purchase I made when I was getting into photography more seriously. It cost under $400, including a kit lens. But it turns out it misses the mark on video. It can do video, but it is missing a lot of features that I would love to have for recording video, and it doesn’t have the clean HDMI signal necessary for using the camera as a fully-functional webcam. Oh yeah, I bought a dedicated webcam, too. It’s convenient, but it looks terrible compared to a DSLR. Did I even save money at this point???

If I had spent even twice as much on a higher tier of camera at the time, I would have a camera that could do it all. When researching my next camera, I had narrowed it down to two that seemed similar quality, but one was quite a bit less expensive. They had similar video and photo quality, so what was the difference? Why go with the more expensive one? Well, the cheaper one was lacking a hot shoe attachment, a USB-C connection, and a few other quality-of-life features and connectors that I knew I would miss. I would 100% regret going for the budget option here, especially since both were in my price range. If I’m spending a higher amount of money anyways, I should go with the one that will serve my needs the best. I could save some money in the short term, but I would remember what I’m missing while using the inferior product.

To continue the keyboard story, I also own a mechanical keyboard that was around $30. It is lacking many of the features of both my $50 and $150 keyboards. To name a few: detachable USB-C cable, backlight color options, hot-swappable mechanical switches, software for adjusting macros and lighting, and an aluminum chassis. Suffice it to say, it was a waste of money. Especially when compared with the other products available for just a few dollars more. Don’t live with regret – either save the money and don’t buy anything right now, or buy the more expensive product that has the features you need.

You Might Spend More Money

When you buy the cheap item, you might spend more money in the long term. This could be because you need to replace a low-quality item more often. It could also be because you decide you want to upgrade to the expensive item, and now you’ve spent money on both the cheap and expensive versions! And no, you probably can’t get full value by selling the old item on the secondary market.

But sometimes this is unavoidable. There is a popular Terry Pratchet quote that illustrates poverty pretty well. It tells the story of a person who needs work boots. They can purchase the really good $50 boots that will last several years, or they can purchase the $10 affordable boots that will only last for a couple of seasons. However, the character in question doesn’t even earn $50 per month. So, he always buys the affordable boots, because he has no other choice. This is portrayed as how the rich stay rich – they manage to spend less money! Over time, the poor man will spend many times more money on all of the low-quality boots than the rich man, who was able to afford the higher up-front cost.

This story has truth to it. “Buy cheap, buy twice”. It is a good argument for buying the expensive or nice version of a product if you can afford it – the problem is affording it, of course.

Conclusion

So after all that, what’s the conclusion? Should you buy a cheap item or an expensive item? Unfortunately, it depends.

In my experience, I have regretted buying the cheap option more often than not. But only if it was lacking essential features. I think my method now is to identify what features are must-haves, then see what that costs. Sometimes by sacrificing a non-essential feature, you can save money.

Or to look at it another way, you can determine what extra features make something more expensive, that you can avoid. You shouldn’t spend outside your means, though. If you can only afford a certain item, then don’t go beyond your budget.

With a little creativity, you can make a cheaper item work effectively. You may also be able to justify a more expensive purchase like a microphone or video camera if you will be able to make income from using that item. In that case, it’s an investment! And if you’re doing client work, you want to have the right tool for the job.

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