Ask Lemmy

Um, excuse me, the FULL name is the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness.

I'm a bit of an authority on it myself. Sammies are still taking the theory to every corner of the Disc.

Related concept: buy twice. Buy cheap the first time. If you use it enough to break it then buy a higher quality option.

So far the buy cheap options haven't broken, so...

When we painted our house. We got estimates from a dozen different companies. I asked them all what kind of guarantee they offered. All but one responded with, "there's no way to guarantee paint"

The most expensive guy said the paint came with a 10 year guarantee and he'd guarantee the workmanship for 8 years.

He explained that he used a probe to test the moisture content of the wood, and wouldn't paint it unless it was dry enough for the paint to adhere properly.

While he was painting the house, he came to me to explain that he was having trouble with the front porch. The roof was leaking and he was concerned it would never dry out enough. He said he'd do his best, but he was sure it wouldn't work

With the exception of the porch, we got a good, solid 15 years out of that paint job.

Of course, we've needed to repaint for 10 years, but we can't afford him anymore :-(

Edit: it cost about $17,000 in 1998.

This is called, "it costs more to be poor than to be rich."

I bought a Herman Miller chair 12 years ago when I started working from home full time. It was close to $1,000 and I was hesitant to spend that much, but I'm sure I would have gone through at least 3 office chairs by now had I bought cheap ones. This chair will probably still be solid until I retire. Definitely worth the investment.

I mean, everyday? With most purchases? Can't afford quality most of the time.

The idea isn't that it's something you choose to do "to yourself", it's that income inequality makes it the reality of being poor.

I was ridiculed for wearing a cheap shirt to my dissertation defense in college by somebody wearing a Hugo boss shirt.

I figured I could buy 10 shirts for the duration of his one shirt. He bent over to tie his shoe and the shirt ripped.

All was well that day.

Mobile phones: I'm gonna throw the one I have away because the usb-c port worn out, just like the one before. After just 2 years.
I'm going to spend the extra money now and get a Fairphone

I dunno. I feel like expensive boots have turned to crap over the last few years.

My parents used to do this a lot, I guess that's what made me so obsessed with !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net stuff.

Paying rent instead of a mortgage.

Gaming headsets.

Kept buying whatever I could for ~60-70€ at the time, and they kept breaking within a year. Bought proper headphones for 120€ which lasted me 8 years.

This is great stuff but I want to warn folks about expensive luxury goods vs expensive durable goods.

Some things are expensive because they are luxurious or have lots of features but they still wear out fast. These days fewer and fewer things are expensive because they endure lots of use.

I learned the hard way with boxer shorts. I found the perfect boxer shorts after years of searching. Silky and light but warm in winter yet somehow no swamp ass in summer. Amazing combo of merino wool & some synthetic fabric.

The problem was they were $35 a pair on clearance.. $75 regular. But I bought 10 pairs anyway. Well, the thing is, I didn’t realize they were no more durable than a typical pair of cotton boxers. Maybe less so. A year later, I had to replace them all.

That’s when I realized that it was a rich person’s only product. To them, a $1000 annual boxer short expense is nothing. But I can’t live that way. It hurt to give up wearing them.

Frying pans. They don't even have to be cheap, but nonstick pans will wear out, it's just a matter of when. Got tired of buying a new frying pan every few years and now I have cast iron and stainless steel which will probably last for the rest of my life. I am quite frugal and it took me years to justify the initial cost of a good stainless steel pan. Luckily cast iron is cheap.

At this point, for most of us, the answer is "every time we buy anything". Thanks, enshittification capitalism!

not exactly a replacement, but I feel printer and their inks fall to this category.

instead of me buying the laser one.

... ... The capitalization of 'Boots' in the title made me think this was some variation based on the UK health stores.

So much money wasted on cheap used cars that I had to keep running... Buying a new car with a loan ended up costing me less than continuing that trend...

Edit: For the idiots who don't get it, OP's question was when the principle applied to you, I fucking know it doesn't work this way in most cases, but when you've got nothing to your name except a thousand dollars free on your credit card, you buy what you can buy, you don't buy a 5 years old car that will last 10 years.

Literally boots.

Work boots for my jobs doing physical labor. I would spend around or slightly under $100 every year for a new pair because theater, construction and pest control destroyed a pair a year.

Then I bought Redwings for close to $300. They lasted 3 years before the pandemic and likely would continue to last in those types of career for years to come.

No name computer parts, esp. RAM

Absolutely willing to get cheapo stuff like monitors and screens, mice, keyboards, etc that are no name -- but invest in good guts, cuz otherwise you get weird segfaults and shit

Used cars, esp. Dodge models, was also a bad call. Got a Tacoma and never looked back

I have a bag full of cheap-ass wired earbuds that sound tinny and awful, half are broken in at least one ear. But most I got for free somewhere or for less than 5 bucks off of some site. At one point or other I'd received a proper headset and wireless earbuds as gifts, and those have lasted 8 and 4 years so far respectively, with fairly consistent use.

I bought solid wood furniture rather than stuff from Amazon/IKEA/whatever.

It's more expensive (although there's plenty of used stuff out there that just needs a clean or at worst a sand/restain), but I have a dinner table, chairs, coffee table, bed frame, etc that I couldn't break if I tried.

Flat pack/chipboard stuff either goes wobbly or falls apart. Even some of the best ones that stay solid for years seem to suddenly turn to shit once you dismantle and reassemble it.

My daughter has already said she wants my dining table when I die lol

Headphones for work. I bought far too many bottom of the barrel and clearance item headphones that all inevitably broke in an outdoor working environment. Finally bought earmuffs that had Bluetooth built in, designed to withstand more use.

As to WHEN I have cheaped out, it has always been when money is tight.

Edit: a word