Tag Archives: fast fashion

A Day in the Life of a Cheapskate

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I spent the weekend living like a cheapskate.  I didn’t try to.  I just kind of lived my weekend life as I normally do, and it turns out my brain kind of defaults to less expensive choices.

The highlight of fall weekends for me is watching Penn State football games on TV.  But I don’t have cable.  I do have an assortment of streaming services, but none of them were carrying this week’s game.  I usually subscribe to one of the “watch live TV” services at some point during the football season (and carry it through bowl games), but I was trying to put it off as long as I can.  I won’t be home for next week’s game, so if I could find a way to watch this week’s for free I would be good until mid-October.  So I signed up for a one week free trial for one of the services I’m not planning to use for the full season, but had the Penn State game.  The next day I canceled the service so I wouldn’t be charged.  I feel a little bad for taking advantage of the service like that….but not that bad.  I usually do this once a year, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

For dinner on Saturday I was thinking about getting a slab of barbeque ribs from the warehouse club.  But the $18 price tag made me rethink that.  I also thought about ordering a pizza.  But ultimately I pulled out my Instant Pot and made a pot of soup.  It was a lot cheaper than the other two options.  And likely better for me.  And we have leftovers.

I also needed to buy some jeans this weekend.  Apparently the Covid-19 pounds that I gained have morphed into the Covid 29, and now my pants don’t fit.  But I like the jeans I have.  I just need the next size up (until I can get myself back on the treadmill to get my weight under control).  Rather than buy new, I went to my favorite resale site, Poshmark.  I found a bundle of three pair in my new (hopefully temporary) size for a good price, so I bought it.  I like buying used clothes.  It’s less expensive to buy better quality that way.  And it’s better for the environment to reuse like that.  So much fast fashion ends up in the world’s landfills, so I just feel better about reusing an item somebody didn’t want anymore.

I guess I have the mindset of a cheapskate.  And I’m fine with that.  I can dress it up and say that I’m “choosing a frugal lifestyle” or something like that, but the reality is I’m pretty cheap in regular life.  And I’m pretty sure that’s a good way to be for this era of super high inflation.  If my default is to keep costs low, that makes it a lot easier to get to the next paycheck.

Do you default to the less expensive options?  Should you?

My Shoes Wore Out Working From Home?

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Every once in a while I manage to forget one of the basic tenets of personal finance:  You get what you pay for.  One of the places I always seem to fall victim to this is “fast fashion.”  About a year ago, when it became clear that I would be wearing sneakers nearly every day of my life whether I was working or not, I bought myself a pair of cheap sneakers from Amazon.  They were really cute and super comfy.  And the tread wore off the bottom, turning them into a slip hazard by the end of November.  March to November is not a particularly good lifespan for a pair of sneakers—especially when they are predominantly worn sitting at a desk.  I decided that I would try a different brand, and I bought another pair of cheap sneakers from Walmart.  These were cute and comfy….until my feet started sweating in them.  But I dealt with it because they were new.  Until the tread started wearing off the bottom after only a couple of months.

You get what you pay for.  Cheap sneakers are exactly that.  They’re cheap.  They are not good quality.  They are not made to last.  And I should have known better than to buy them.  What I really wanted was a pair of Allbirds wool sneakers.  Cute.  Comfortable.  And quality. But at $100 a pair I couldn’t justify it.  But having just spent a total of $50 on two pairs of sneakers that now live in a landfill a year later, I decided I needed some quality sneaks.  I turned to my favorite clothes re-selling website, Poshmark. I found a pair of very lightly worn previously owned Allbirds in my size for $55 and took the plunge.  I know some folks are averse to previously owned shoes.  But it doesn’t bother me with shoes that are machine washable like the Allbirds are.  I’m always going to have a layer of sock between my foot and the shoe regardless.

In retrospect I should have bought the good sneakers to start with.  Even if I were not ok with wearing used shoes, it would have made more sense to spend the $100 on good sneakers up front rather than wasting money on poor quality shoes.  As it turns out, I spent over $100 on shoes anyway.  And I contributed to the waste in landfills because I bought shoes that were basically garbage to start.

You get what you pay for.  I remember that now.  I hope you can learn from my mistakes.  Next time you pick up a piece of cheap clothing, think about whether it will last.  It may make more sense to spend more on something better.