“I think you’re living an ostentatious life.” My cousin deadpanned as we were going through items at the mall. I was aghast at being accused of being ostentatious but I guess I couldn’t blame her when I was picking almost the most expensive brands of each product I was purchasing. To be honest, I wasn't picking the most expensive, but the items I knew had the best quality, which is more or less picking the most expensive, technically.
I guess there was no way of explaining to her that once you’ve gone through a couple of bad experiences trying to conserve money cause you want something cheaper and end up paying even more in the long run, your view towards life and products specifically, changes drastically.
By default, I was usually sceptical of cheaper stuff. I always reasoned that for this one to be more expensive, it had to have something better which the others were lacking, hence it being significantly more expensive than the others. But when I realized that most times it’s just because the brand name is higher and not necessarily because the particular product is superior in quality, the cheaper ones became my go-to. Save cost. Reduce the prospects of your wallet getting lighter. Little did I know that I was picking the worse of the two evils.
There are a lot of items I could mention right off the bat that I’d fallen victim to because of trying to save cost. First off, I usually buy a particular brand of earpiece. And since it’s supposedly the best when it comes to music production, I just knew that the fake versions would emerge soon enough. And they did. So, when the last original I had bought got stolen, I let the beady-eyed salesman convince me to buy one that had the same brand name as the product I used but was considerably cheaper though it had a weirdly different colour.
And as expected, it got bad less than four days later. When I went back, he still tried to convince me that I was the one at fault, stating that I’d probably sat on it or treated it carelessly. I agreed because I’m not the best caretaker and so, I bought another one. And I kept buying and buying. Believe it or not, by the time I accounted for my expenses for the month, something as mundane as an earpiece took up a huge chunk of it.
For someone, who practically needs music to function, it was an absolute horror but I got over it. Spent what I promised myself was my last and got something better which I’ve been using for nearly six months now. There are a lot more things I could mention. When I opted to buy a cheaper sanitary pad because I wanted to use the money for something else. The fact that I was rushed to the hospital cause the stuff messed up something in me was enough to wake me up.
The truth about settling for a cheaper item to minimize cost is that nine out of ten times you end up spending way more to cover whatever damages purchasing it has incurred, which could have been avoided if you simply settled for something more quality. More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better but procuring the cheapest you can find is almost always tantamount to spending even more.
Living a minimalist lifestyle ensures that we don’t have to unnecessarily spend because we seek to get the single best and roll with it, thereby minimizing the risk of countless replacements or worse, things that may not even be replaceable. You get quality products and expect to have quality results. And when you don't, you realize it's just not worth the little amount you saved.
This is my entry to the #KISS blogging ideas. Do check it out if you're yet to.
All images are mine.
