3 Tips For Weighing Low Price Against Low Quality

If money is tight for you, or even if you just want to make sure you’re spending your money wisely, making appropriate purchases and getting quality products for a decent price is likely going to be your main goal. However, many consumers are easily distracted by price and don’t quite see the value of the item or service they’re purchasing. While something of high quality can be inexpensive, something of low quality can be inexpensive too, as well as something of low quality being deceptively expensive. So to help you find the right balance, here are three tips for weighing low price against low quality.

Value vs Quality

Before making a purchase, you should determine whether the focus of your purchase is going to be getting something at a good value or making a quality purchase. These two things don’t necessarily have to be exclusive, but knowing what your goal is with a particular purchase can make meeting your expectations easier. ScienceDaily.com shares that people often fill in their knowledge gaps regarding a product with their own ideas of whether something is valuable or high quality. These ideas can affect how much you’re willing to pay for something, so ensure you know your own threshold for value versus quality when making larger purchases.

Inexpensive Things Can Be Deceiving

Things that may appear to be inexpensive aren’t always as good of value as you might hope. For this reason, if your goal with making a purchase is to spend the least amount of money on it over time, you may want to steer clear of the least expensive option at the get-go. Alan Henry, a contributor to LifeHacker.com, shares that things that are cheap can often require you to spend more money to fix or replace than you spent in the first place, making this initial cost completely wasted money. So before you buy something cheap, make sure it’s well made or worth replacing every so often once it breaks or wears out.

Be Wary Of Subtle Manipulation

Depending on whether you’re more focused on value or price, you can easily be manipulated by marketing materials in order to feel a certain way about a product that may not be accurate. Brad Tuttle, a contributor to Time.com, shares that if a business’s marketing materials are trying to get you to think either about value or cost regarding their product, it’s likely that they’re trying to play on your emotions regarding those qualities in order to get you to make a purchase from them. Knowing this, it’s a good idea to do your own research regarding a product before you choose to make the final purchase.

If you’re interested in making a purchase that is either a good value or inexpensive, use the tips mentioned above to ensure you go about this the right way.