Sunday, February 5, 2012

Cheapskate

I have been a clothing cheapskate since high school. Back in high school it made some sense. I never had a “real” job and just picked up baby-sitting and pet-sitting opportunities from people I knew in my neighborhood. If I recall correctly, I would make $60 at most on a really good week and I put most of it in my college savings (thankfully I had no car to put money into). I bought my own clothes in high school so I did most of my shopping at Ross, thrift stores and the sale rack of Target. If I couldn’t get a shirt for less than $5 or pants for $10, I just wasn’t interested.

This extreme thriftiness has held over until today. You would think that inflation alone would make this impossible, but it is not! Those same three stores as well as sales at the outlet mall make it completely possible to still clothe yourself fairly nicely for $15 or less.

This weekend my challenge was to buy onesies for a work baby shower. My co-worker remembered that at a previous baby shower, they decorated by hanging a variety of onesies from a clothesline. It was cute and practical. Instead of throwing away the decorations, they go home with the new mom to be stained by the baby and then thrown away. You can buy onesies for around $2 each just about everywhere (even the grocery store), but every single one I looked at was made in Asia (as a side note Carter appears to have a majority share of the onesie market).

So I looked online for made in the USA onesies. Most were $15 a piece! I was appalled! That is a ton of money for such a tiny garment that won’t get worn very much. But then I had an epiphany of sorts. What if I was paying one of my friends who knows how to sew to make a onesie? $15 to $20 doesn’t seem so unreasonable anymore. Once you factor in material, snaps, thread, work time and transportation, it is a miracle they can sell them for $2 at all (and leave room for corporate profit). Guess who is getting the short end of the stick? Those who make them and those that make the raw materials. That is a big part of my motivation for trying not to be such a cheapskate.

Now I still won’t pay $15 a pop for what are essentially decorations. I’m planning to drop by American Apparel because, according to the web, they occasionally have good sales on their onesies. While AA’s quality is specious, for a onesie that will be rapidly stained and outgrown, I’m ok with that.

2 comments:

  1. So again I ask: What's the rule for buying used? Can you relax the "must be made in America" rule because you're buying something that was already here and purchased by another, which should still have a lower carbon footprint than buying a whole brand new thing?

    Also, I was/am also a clothes cheapskate - even though my parents bought my clothes for me...or rather it was more like my mom gave us each a specified amount to spend, it was just that I felt better about saving the money than using it for clothing.

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  2. I'm thinking that used may have to count. I am currently searching for glasses frames and all of them are made in China or Itlay. I briefly thought about some vintage ones off of eBay, but don't think I could handle the no nosepad metal frames. Probably going to have to go with eBay used.

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