Cheap Always Bites You in the Butt!

I probably don't have to say more than this because everyone would know what I mean. In an effort to be thrifty, we end up buying more of something because of how quickly it breaks or have to have it fixed. This is also commonly known as penny wise and pound (sterling) foolish at least on that big island across the ocean from New York.

For instance:

How often have you absolutely loved your "cheap" haircut?

How often have you been back in the department store within in a few months because the cheap ass coffee maker you bought already made a mess all over your counter or didn't turn on when it was supposed to or burned the coffee?

How many times have you bought cheap clothes and the threads in seams are unraveling or buttons are popping off from the get go? Or, you put them in the laundry and the colors run all over the place and you end up with unexpected variegated underwear.

Cheap electronics don't work out of the box or even last a year unless of course you purchase the extended warranty in which case they last forever.

How about generic brand canned peas vs. Green Giant?

How about cheap (I use the term loosely) bread that rips when you try to spread anything on it?

Cheap carpet has a certain smell and texture to it that is singularly unpleasant.

Cheap cars...enough said.

The only way to get cheap airfares is to stop three times on your way to wherever you're going, at a minimum. You're so tired by the time you get there you need a vacation before you can enjoy your vacation.

Cheap hotels provide you walls of paper where the door and the floor boards don't meet so you have multitudes of unwanted, multi-legged creatures joining you in your low budget abode, probably some of them in the bed with you. But don't forget, you saved a buck! (We actually paid for a room in Canada once that had furniture just like this...no, this is nicer.)

Cheap beds...enough said, similar to my cars sentiment.

When is the last time you tried to tear off a piece of cheap masking tape? I think I've thrown more of those away unused than wasted my time trying to get a piece to tear straight across.

Then of course, there's cheap toilet paper where five times as much may possibly be enough per session. Along those same lines, cheap Kleenex that leaves your nose raw and peeling, and probably bleeding, is an unpleasant way to spend your cold.

The irony here is cheap no longer really means cheap. The days of cheap are long gone. Now, even cheap is inflated due to oil, speculators, graft & greed, loss of integrity, idiot presidents and probably even offshore outsourcing. Isn't it nice to have so many others to blame it on?

Yes, there are also some good things that are cheap like generic drugs and store-branded OTC stuff, mass-produced replicas like art prints, books, music CD's, DVD's, IKEA furniture, animals (free kittens) but you'll notice the list here is much shorter.

And then of course there are those great free things like going for walks, spending time in the park, touring the Smithsonian's, laying in a hammock, spending time with family and writing in your blog.

So, it's not all bad news. Just don't be cheap and you'll be fine.