It goes without saying that capitalism sucks and corporations suck. I don’t have loyalty to any “brand”. But I do care about me and my comrades being able to afford to live.
There’s that phrase that “it’s expensive to be poor”, which I think is very true. When you’re poor, you can only afford the cheapest commodities. These inevitably break, so you have to spend more money on a replacement.
I’m trying to break out of this cycle myself as much as possible. Instead of buying the cheapest replacement, I’m trying to save up my money to buy a replacement that will last. Unfortunately, researching this is hard. There’s so much astroturfing and “sponsored content”. So I figured I’d ask my fellow hexbears, what products do you know of are made in a way that they will last and actually cost less than buying replacements? There’s a few suggestions I can offer:
I used to work in a pretty solid outdoor gear store, and I was really impressed with the Deuter backpacks. They were always really durable and cheaper than Osprey. I have one I bought in 2007 and I still use it regularly today.
I own a Casio G-Shock watch. The “squares” are usually relatively affordable. The bands and batteries can be swapped out. I’m pretty tough on mine and it still looks mint. I do expect I’ll be wearing mine for a very long time. Or if you don’t want to spend money the F-91W is like $10 and still works well even though it’s not ruggedized. Worn by Bin Laden, too.
Something in the ideal category of durable and cheap are Sungait sunglasses. They’re like $15-$20 each and have UV400 protection. Mine have lasted a while and have handled a lot of being thrown around
As a parent, we have some Hape toys our kids beat up and they stay together well. My wife bought some Primary dot com clothes thinking they would last but they don’t seem any better than the super cheap clothes at Walmart or Target we normally buy.
I've been rocking BLU brand smartphones and Straight Talk instead of a contract for over a decade. Great service and it's cheap. The phones do everything I could possibly need, and if you're careful they last years. I'm on my third one in around 12 years and one was because I shattered the screen really bad.
They're goofy, but Crocs are super comfortable and you can walk miles in them. They're lightweight and waterproof. Amazon has them the cheapest.
Think about getting a Costco membership if you can. The bulk food is cheap and a lot of it is organic. They have more vegetarian/vegan options than any other huge box store. Sometimes you can get some great clothes there for ridiculously cheap. I bought a wool coat there for like $25 and it's the warmest thing ive ever had. I bought some shorts there and they're the most durable ive ever had. I went back and bought several more pair for work. Their cheese pizzas are cheap and pretty good. Their gas is always 50¢ cheaper. I bought a couple of Orvis brand button up shirts that are super durable. The shorts brand I was talking about is Gerry.
Costco can be great for clothes. I just got my wife a straw hat for an upcoming vacation, similar ones were $40 on amazon and at Costco it was $10. I'm pretty much always rocking pants from Costco these days.
The trick with Costco is to avoid unnecessary purchases. A lot of things can seem like a "good deal" when you are in there.
For sure. Sometimes buying in bulk isn't a good idea like when there's a ton of packaging. They're also weirdly expensive with their furniture.
It's just me and my wife and we live a long way from Costco so we buy enough to only have to go a few times a year. I get gas there when I'm in town and we get booze there if we're throwing a party. We can go like two years without buying garbage bags (we recycle and compost everything we can) and we go months without buying TP. We buy a lot of staple foods there like beans rice and flour.
I try to get gas exclusively at Costco and that alone pays for the membership in terms of the cash back (I am double dipping by using the citi Costco card when I shop there for extra Costco cash). Not to mention the actual cheapness of the gas, and I only live 15 minutes away so its not difficult.
Booze is definitely another great thing. I don't know the law anymore, but at least in CA I used to go buy booze without a membership. There was/is a law that you can't have a "members only" alcohol club, so as you go in the store you say "I'm just buying alcohol" and they have to let you in. Their vodka is so cheap and decent. I also like their Canadian whisky. The boxed wine is pretty decent as well.
Where I have gone wrong in the past is buying to much packaged/prepared/frozen food that I don't really need.