On a podcast last week, one woman explained that she decided to spend more money on clothes because she had a history of buying “cheap clothing” and not taking care of it. She talked about throwing her clothes on the floor, not washing items properly, kicking her shoes off and leaving them anyway and in her words, “being a disgusting“.
She mentioned a few brands of clothing, shoes and purses that I never heard of so I googled them. The first company sells jeans priced from $238 – $368 – per pair! The second brand I looked up sold purses that range from $4000 to $25,000+. The shoes started at $1000.
I would imagine that some of these higher price items are higher quality than cheaper, mass market stuff. My own personal experience is that certain brands of clothing I wear, like Marmot and Columbia, are better made than cheap no-name Chinese crap from Amazon. At some point, I suspect that the price point doesn’t correspond to an increase in quality – it’s simply a way to show off to others that you have money.
Still, that’s besides the point.
The point is, she’s wrong.
She won’t take any better care of her $238 jeans and $1000 shoes than did with her $100 jeans and $250 shoes. Spending more money won’t make her change her habits.
If she wants to “not be a disgusting“, it doesn’t have to cost a cent.
My Aunt Esther lived on a small teacher’s pension. Everything she owned was inexpensive because she was born poor and lived frugally. I remember shopping with her for clothes. She would carefully inspect the seams, look at the sewing and evaluate the manufacturing before buying something. I also know she had sheets, dresses, shoes and outfits that had to be decades old. She mended items. She hung most of her laundry on the line to dry. She darned socks and patched holes. She liked her stuff and took care of it. Everything in her home was put away in its proper place.
I model my behavior after Aunt Es. And it doesn’t cost me a cent.
