Question Shopping

[Olgaline]

Inspired by Tdc's thread I'd like to ask

when shopping,
are you a discount hunter or a quality shopper "in rough terms"

f.exp
today I did spend 150kr on 5 beers.
very unnessersary.

I also spent 40kr on coffee where i could have settled for 28kr
I also dished out for full grain pasta instead of the cheap pasta.
This is quite symptomatic for our shopping.

It all came about after a post dinner post kids put to bed talk,
we used to be very price aware, we'd always go for the "best"
aka cheapest offer on daily items. But we've since done a 180*
these days we look for quality, we dont nessersarily choose the most expensive items, as you quickly learn that especially in supermarkets, expensive isnt nessersarily = quality, anyway..it's not about brands,
example: we'r well and happy with the stores own cornflakes, bigger chunks, more crunchy, and thats less than ½ the price of cornflakes..
but we'll then happilly dish out for shitaki mushrooms for the lasagne rather then plain old white mushrooms.... but for other uses white goes fine..

well you get the general idea

it all came from us being fed up with constant poor quality items,
tasteles, dull, and soemtimes "as with coffee" less healthy "nickle"
so we decide after a good think, after all, waht we eat daily is what defines us, how we look, health, moods ect..why would we want to save on that ?
so we made a plan to make small sacrifices elswhere, here and there, and low and behold! we quickly realized that we had a much larger food bugdet avalible to us.

 

[tris-]

go for a mixed bag. some cheap items are sometimes better quality than the expensive items. this is usually the case at lidl.

 

[Ch3tan]

quality. Every time. But as tris- said quality does not always mean expensive.

 

[chipper]

growing up our household was quite poor hand me downs, freebies on school uniforms, clothes off family friends etc, this has led to quite a deep pyschological condition where i refuse to buy cheap clothes. gf literally had to drag me into primark so she could get a skirt. shes slowly bringing me round that cheap can be good even got some cargos from primark bout 8 month later. only for knockin about in house tho or nippin to corner shop.

generally i tend to go for quality which is more often than not, that little bit more expensive. ive lived the poor mans life every penny goin out just to keep roof over the head etc its not nice so i like to go with the choice, ive got it now enjoy it, cos you never know when youll be back in that basement flat etc.

food tends to branded on most stuff.
clothes: wouldnt always say its all designer, dont get me wrong i dont go out spending 300 quid on a shirt or owt like that thats silly even to me but ill happily part with 50-60 quid for a shirt i like.

 

[Olgaline]

we've actually come to realize that
dishing out that extra 100kr for clothes
is a damned good investment, as the clouths last a whole lot longer.

for the kids it's close to 95% H&M
good quality, good fits, fair prices
and they takle frequent washing well. "wich with kids, is a damn important quality"

 

[Tom]

For food, its quality for me. However for stuff like bleach, I fail to see why I should buy Mr Flash (or whatever) for £2 a bottle, when the supermarket sells cheapo bleach for about £0.30 a bottle. Same with toothpaste, its just a minty grinding paste. Bollocks to your gum formulations.

Most of the cheap tinned or bottled stuff in supermarkets is designed to put you off buying it, with cheap packaging. Fuck that. I'd rather have old people looking at me as though I'm poor, than spend money on scented crap in 5 layers of packaging that I don't need.

 

[old.Tohtori]

I'm not as much of a hoitytoity person as you Olga, we share only ze Scotch in similar prices, otherwise it's not about the quality of the food, but how you prepare it.

It's the same with people who have to set up a 7:1 home theatre just right with balance and bass and discant all at a nano-millimeter exact position. To them it's a must.

Beware though, you'll quickly get bored of that food, and demand more and more and there's no going bsack for you...i doubt there anymore is...and when you need to, which you most likely will have to, it'll be a hard drop.

I prefer to eat "lesser"(pfft) food and then enjoy the "quality" food now and then.

 

[Overdriven]

This is actually something I want to reply to! This is actually quite hard for me, as while living with my mother I eat a lot of good food (usually high quality and well prepared stuff) and a lot of cheap food, just depends on how we feel on the day (Cheap: Frozen fish from ASDA or something)

With me at uni I'm a bit iffy, there are a FEW things I don't mind paying for (granted, I've cut down my red meat intake by 95% since September) but there are some things I couldn't give a shit about. Some meals I've had here have come to £20 (for the one meal) where as some have come to £1.20. Quality doesn't bother me here, I rarely enjoy food at uni (We all went out for a Curry, best £25 spent all year)

Regarding clothes? I agree. I'd rather spend an extra amount on clothes that actually will last a while, and are comfortable AND can handle a good amount of washes.

Quality != Enjoyment
Enjoyment != Quality..

 

[Yoni]

I do go for quality as much as I can because in my experience it does taste better / last longer etc

This is not necessarily true for face / skin products as my chosen brand (dermalogica is substantially cheaper than Clarins / Dior etc), however is generally true for make-up and nail varnish.

I buy very little jewelry, however when I do it is quality... my latest acquisition an amore and baci necklace which has become a new hobby *grins*

 

[noblok]

I try to keep one aspect in mind when shopping and that's the environmental impact. Sadly food from biological agriculture is substantially more expensive and an orange from Israel is cheaper than an apple from the farmer next door (that's what you get when you don't tax kerosene). On the other hand in-season vegetables are cheaper than the out-of-season ones.