Cheap Is Expensive

I went to Bed Bath & Beyond a few days ago to buy a drink dispenser for my daughter’s extravaganza B-Day party. My husband calls it “Blood Bath & Beyond,” because it’s worse than Target – I go in for a spatula and come out with over-sized bags stuffed to the hilt with things that we really need! My wants and my needs get a little confused in these kinds of stores, which have clearly been painstakingly designed to get the average housewife to shop til she drops.

Take Target – the first section you come to is women’s clothes, cheap women’s clothes. Those experts just know that when demented and exhausted moms hit the store to buy diapers and laundry detergent, they might need a bit of pepping up before the drudgery ensues. You’re going to feel a lot better shelling out for the slightly more expensive mop if you’re on a shopping high from tossing a bargain Summer Dress and a few cheap t’s in your cart. Notice the huge plastic storage containers are placed in the center of the store, because by the time you get to them, you’ve done the toy aisles, and on a subliminal level know that you’re going to need extra storage for all this new stuff – or the old stuff you’re tired of and replacing with the new. My husband calls most of it “junk,” which annoys me no end – probably because it’s true.

So back to Blood Bath & Beyond, which is even worse than Target because of those dinky little “OMK -what a great invention” gadgets they have while by the cashier. I admit I have been suckered in to all kinds of plastic nonsense over the years, which seemed like a great idea at the time, but end up being kind of “passed on.” And then I have to suffer my darling husband’s irritating, I-told-you-so smirk.

Trying to be really green for Lola’s party, I found the aforementioned dispenser and was thrilled because it was made from BPA-free plastic. I justified the purchase by knowing it would be a great investment for future kid parties (although after the clean-up from this one, not sure they’ll be another!), and bought it home to show my husband. It’s quite big (actually massive,) and he wondered where we would store it when we were done with the party. Hmmm- hadn’t thought of that one but never mind, ” let’s just get the whole thing assembled and we’ll deal with that later dear.”

Hubby had great trouble unscrewing the ice container from the top – I was convinced he was exaggerating the difficulty, so had a go myself as he sat watching   – grrrrrrrrrrr. The bottom compartment was equally stuck and we spent a good 10 minutes wrestling with this chunk of BPA-plastic, which totally put me off the whole thing. Once we managed to screw it apart, we realized that screwing it back was also problematic. My husband warned that unless I screwed the top in at exactly the correct angle, the plastic screw threads (whatever they are,) would break and the whole thing would have to go back.

It did break and the whole thing does have to go back. I ended up with 3 of my old-fashioned pitchers for the party lemonade and a bunch of recycled Preserve cups, which have weathered about 10 parties. Okay – it might have been a bit much to ask these 10 year old girls to actually pick up a pitcher and pour – but they managed!! If I ever buy another, it will be glass with a nice cork top, like the one pictured right.

So finally getting around to my point of this blog, I had marveled at how inexpensive this drink dispenser was, but it ended up being expensive. My time is of just as much value as my money – and that chunk of plastic cost me two car rides to the mall and a good half hour of trying to put it together and take it apart. Almost every “cheap” item I have ever purchased has had a similar result within a year. Whether it’s a cheap t-shirt, pair of shoes, hair dryer – it doesn’t have a long life and it’s NOT SUPPOSED TO! If you’ve ever seen The Story Of Stuff, or heard the wonderful Annie Leonard speak, you’ll understand that 90% of consumer goods sold in this country are designed to break within a couple of years. That’s a lot of consumer goods thrown in the landfill because most can’t be recycled. The cost of cheap goods, especially electronics have a ghastly hidden cost to the environment. We think we are getting cheap bargains, but they break, we throw them away and they pollute our planet – all this stuff has to go somewhere, and yet we just kind of hope it’ll get spirited away.

Conversely, anything that I have really saved up for and spent a considerable amount of money on, has lasted me for years and will continue on for a lifetime. My expensive air filters are made in the U.S. by ethically responsible companies and when they need to be fixed of have new filters or lamps, they go back to the plant in the U.S. and get repaired and sent back to me. My husband bought me an insanely expensive Prada dress about 10 years ago. I nearly passed out when I saw the price tag but he said that it was a classic little black dress that would last for decades and he was totally right. With clothes, it’s also savvy to think of cost-per-use. If you wear jeans everyday, then you might want to pay a little more for a pair that is well made and that you love, whereas this season’s pricey dress might get just two wears.

As I was baking in the kitchen this morning, staring at the bagged up drink dispenser, annoyed that I’d have to make another trip to that depressing mall, I realized that the utensils I was baking with were more than 80 years old. My husband’s grandmother Cleo used to make everything by hand – we have dozens of beautiful embroidered quilts, napkins and tablecloths. My husband also bought many of her kitchen utensils with him when he moved to LA two decades ago. As I sifted the flour with her wonderful sifter, pressed out the cookies with her cookie cutters and sharpened her watermelon knife, I realized that I probably won’t be passing on much from Blood Bath & Beyond to my grandchildren, because these products won’t stand the test of time.

As I dug through my large kitchen drawer, I realized that so many of my favorite utensils belonged to my granny or my grandmother-in-law. Not only were they made to last forever, but they are imbued with the spirit of these hard working women, who fed generations of grateful children. I’d rather spend less time in the store and more time doing the things I love – one of which is cooking and baking because it’s an antidote to my life on the computer. I’d also rather spend more of my hard-earned money on buying beautifully engineered pots, pans and utensils, which Lola’s daughter will perhaps one day use, while thinking  of her crazy old Gorgeously Green Granny.

Expensive is cheaper in the long run, and my husband will be the first to say, “I told ya so!!!”