Taking Better Care of Your Things to Save Money

[ryaneinstein]

Do you think that it is better to:

A: buy protective casings and such for your products

B: Purchase insurance or replacement/repohesltry

C: Just buy much higher quality (or priced) items from the get go?

[Gailete]

I got a protective 'casing' for my Kindle for free as I am part of the Amazon Vine program where we review products, so ended up with that for free. I could see right away that a Kindle needs something over it's front. If I hadn't of gotten one for free, I would have just made a cover myself.

I'm not sure why, but several years ago when we bought our laser printer for our office we paid for the extended warranty. Like I said I'm not sure why we did it since we NEVER buy them. Wouldn't you know it died after 11 months! We ended up with another brand new laser printer (latest model, better quality) and a gift card with money on it! For those types of things, generally the price keeps coming down so we 'made' money on the warranty purchase.
But this was a rare thing.

We generally can't afford higher priced items although we do get the best we can. We just take care of things. Put things away when you are done with them. Do whatever maintenance an item needs on a regular basis. Care about what you own. I don't mean obsessively, but most doors come with handles to turn so there is no reason to kick doors open, or punch holes in the walls, or allow children to jump up and down on furniture. If items are used properly and carefully, they should last.

[gogirlanime]

Do you think that it is better to:

A: buy protective casings and such for your products

B: Purchase insurance or replacement/repohesltry

C: Just buy much higher quality (or priced) items from the get go?

I do all three, a higher quality product is just going to be better over time as it is, but if you happen to be careless with it even with a protective case, that extra $20-$30 to insure it will fix $100-$200 worth of damage. I've never regretted all three of these choices with every major purchase.

[Jerry91]

I am with you in this case. It is very important to take care of anything that you buy with your hard earned money. Buying cheap items and then not taking proper care of them may lead you to spend more money on one particular item. Taking proper care of your items may give them longevity.

[sherylgray]

Financial Planning

People often think that how to save money, but most of them do not have the right idea to work upon to save money. I appreciate the tips suggested here, and will be quite beneficial if applied.

[JoeP]

One way to make things last long is to avoid loaning them out! I've found that few people treat their tools and equipment with the same degree of care as I do, and some downright do not know proper usage.

Some of it boils down to experience. For example, I know proper technique for using a reciprocating saw and selecting the correct blade because I was taught how and read up on it a lot. Nobody ever borrows my chainsaw or pressure washer...too much risk of someone misusing.

I am also handy fixing broken appliances because I've been doing it so long, have a knack for it, know how to find information, know the basics of electrical testing, and have confidence. But I also know when to throw in the towel. I've repaired fridges, ovens, microwaves, washing machines, dehumidifiers, garage door openers, coffeemakers, etc.

[Gailete]

One way to make things last long is to avoid loaning them out!

Absolutely! The hard thing about that is getting it in your head that you CAN say NO to someone. No matter what their reasoning may be, right down to calling you selfish, it is yours and you have a right to say no about loaning it out. I've lost a lot of things over the years before I learned this. I would be happy to loan someone anything they needed, but it usually means that I've giving it away and unless I am willing to do that (which I'm usually not), things no longer get loaned.