Balancing Quality and Cost

I used to wonder how people could spend so much on things like handbags, shoes, or even wristwatches. I couldn't even understand how a woman would spend so much on hair—something that could even buy my phone three times over or even more. But the narrative started changing when people started asking me how I could spend so much on a phone or even earphones, and that's when it hit me.

You see, I really was not against spending so much money on something. I just wondered if that thing was really worth that much. As for hair, it took a friend of mine who is a stylist to be enlightened about the vastly different kinds of hair there are and how quality really is the difference between them all.

I have used many earphones so far, and each one of them usually costs more than the previous. What I look for in earphones is quality, and that is mostly about the sound being great, the ergonomics, and then the aesthetics. Earphones for me have to sound really good, feel comfortable, and look nice in my ears. Sometimes, these attributes come at a high price.

To someone who doesn't care half as much as I do about earphones, spending so much money could look like a complete waste of money because they are content with whatever they get as long as the earphones work. What they would rather spend a lot of money on, on the other hand, could be alarming to me and perhaps "too much." But then again, I may not even know what value they'd perceive in it.

It is, however, not so much of an excuse to waste a lot of money on something because it's valuable. Sometimes, people just want to rip you off of your money because you don't know how much something is truly worth. How high and how low can we go?

A few days ago, I wanted a USB podcast microphone for creating content in the future. Knowing how quality in tech can vary vastly, I knew that I had to search for something that was good enough, yet within my budget, and that I could also use for a very long time. I did my research as usual and found the exact microphone I wanted, but the price was a little above what I planned for.

I tried to strike a good bargain for myself with the online vendor, but he didn't yield. He didn't even adjust the price by one kobo. But then again, I remembered that I was dealing with someone online and not in person. It's much harder to strike a good deal when it's not in person. So I took a trip to the market myself.

It took me hours to find what I was looking for, but I eventually did. And when I did, I found the exact thing I was looking for for 15% less than what I previously found online. Or rather, I managed to strike a good bargain.

It was still a lot of money for me, though. Yet I knew that it was exactly what I wanted. The microphone sounds fantastic, and I was getting it for more than half the price incumbent brands offer for the same value. But telling anyone how it costs, they'd be astonished, unsurprisingly.

Here's how I see it: If I can get something of great value, I would not only be able to benefit well from it but also be able to resell it and get good money back on it if I maintain it excellently.

In essence, I prefer great quality and wouldn't mind spending to get what's valuable to me, but I try not to be wasteful with my resources at the end of the day.