Do you like being thrifty?
I gotta admit, I grew up with a thrifty father who definitely taught me to watch my pennies. So now its second nature. I very rarely buy anything brand new because I just cant stomach the price of new things.
eg. Our little EV, some poor soul paid 34k USD brand new. We bought it 3 years old with only 20,000 miles on it for 8k. Thats a heckuva lot of money saved for a car thats still barely used. This week I was shopping for a wake surf board for one of my grandkids and picked up a new looking board for $200. New price is over $700. WHY would you want to pay full price on stuff thats barely used when you can get it for a fraction of the price and let someone else take the hit? Take the saved money and invest it and you're miles ahead of the 'gotta be new and the latest and greatest' buyers. It's all gonna be dust some day anyway.
I do like being thrifty, almost all of my clothes are second hand (I do get new underthings, that is a bridge too far) and I have a similar EV to you at a similar price, but I have an issue with this part
I think that most everyone that gets to the point of having stable income has their thing. I don't suspect that your EV first owner and your wake surf board original owners were the same person. The kind of person that buys all brand new latest and greatest things is mostly fictional, spare the very wealthy (that I won't get ahead of by thrifting) or the people in immense credit card debt (who can't do it forever).
I thrift and save money in most aspects of my life, but my office has a bunch of electronics projects that would be considered a waste by most people. My coworker thrifts and saves on things but has a $3500 bicycle. My cousin sends everyone pictures of his thrift finds nearly every week and has some kind of brand new sports car.
The reason the second hand market exists is because enthusiasts have reasons to upgrade their thing. I am sure that you have your thing, too.
Honestly I dont have a thing that I spend money on new. My thing is anything with a motor so I have a ton of motorized things - 4 cars, an RV, dune buggy, mini bike, 2 boats, lawn tractor, snowblower, couple of generators, just a ridiculous number of motors to maintain. But if I added them ALL up together they come out to about 70,000 which is about what most people spend on one new car or two cheap econoboxes. I dont buy junk, but I do buy very well kept older vehicles in good condition from fussy owners and I keep on loving them. And Im darn handy with a wrench so minor fixes dont bother me.
I have saved so much money NOT buying new toys on payments that we've actually paid off three houses over the years and the wife and I are not particularly high income earners. But we're darn thrifty :) She's the queen of thrift and buys all our household items and clothes second hand.
My “thing” is tech. With what I have now it’s gotten hard to justify buying anything more so that will probably be slowing down, but yeah. It’s just cool to see things progressing and to tinker with new stuff.
There are limits to it, though. I’m not so crazed as to buy seriously questionable stuff like the Humane AI pin thing or the Rabbit R1.
There’s also things that are hard to justify even as an enthusiast. My gaming PC (5950X/3080Ti) is one such thing… am I going to get 144hz on max settings in the latest AAA titles? No, but they’ll still play well at visually nice settings, and my backlog is long enough that newest games are moot anyway. No point in dropping north of $2k for something that’s a meaningfully large upgrade.
Honestly, more and more I’d rather not. Especially since the proliferation of the internet, in general things tend to be their market price. Whatever savings you get on used, you pay for in time, in wasted energy, in avoiding scams. “Good deals” relied on information asymmetry - that’s far and few between now that everyone can lookup everything anytime.
Take used cars. For well known reliable brands, you’re not getting anything but a linear discount on wear and tear. Go on carvana and look what a lightly used Honda civic or Toyota Corolla costs. It’s within $3k of MSRP.
Here’s a random example https://www.carvana.com/vehicle/3685451?refSource=srp
18k miles Toyota Corolla for $22k. The MSRP for that trim is 23k new… I’d take the cost just to not have to think about carfax.
You can probably get a better deal if you buy from Bob Jones from Facebook marketplace in cash. But I’d rather not. There’s a lot that can go wrong. I’d rather just live my life than spend so much of time on things I just need to work.
There’s some car brands that do depreciate heavily once they’re off the lot… but there’s a reason for that. There’s always a reason.
I agree with this at this point of time.
I grew up thrifting, love to buy stuff second hand. But the city I live in has a vicious culture for side hustles and anything for a deal immediately gets snatched up and flipped for close to market price. And lots of meth, so cars and electronics get stripped of usable parts and are held together by string and duct tape and resold with the profit from the parts.
As for online, the brands of clothing I like have a huge replica market so it is just an absolute pain in the ass to make sure you’re not getting ripped off.
I do love thrifting when I go back to my hometown, though. It’s small enough that you can get good stuff. It’s totally location based.
Well, in the case of our EV the reason for the heavy discount was ignorance. As in people assumed that because the car is a FIAT that it was junk. But the bonus is that all the components in the drivetrain are made by Bosch, a very reputable company and in 7 years of ownership we have spent a grand total of $400 in maintenance. Its been one of the best cars Ive ever owned and Ive had 50 over the years (its my hobby).
But I hear what you're saying, if its a Toyota thats fairly new the discount isnt necessarily worth the hassle, especially if its off warranty. Personally Ive bought 49 of my 50 cars privately and have had very good luck with almost all of them. A couple of times Ive got a lemon but thats the chance you take buying used.
Interestingly I might be more willing to do a private sale on an EV than on an ICE car, especially for one of those low-range “compliance cars” like the 500e or e-Golf. Chances are that it’s been used gently as a grocery grabber and that the owner hasn’t tried to DIY (and botch) repairs, and those have fewer maintanence items to worry about anyway.
An ICE vehicle on the other hand, especially cheap workhorses like Corollas, Civics, and Fits? Very high chances of having been subject to little maintanence and half-measure “repairs”. It’s a much bigger gamble, particularly if you as a buyer aren’t mechanically inclined and don’t have someone you trust to give it a lookover.
Very good point. Theres almost nothing I could alter on the Fiat even if I wanted to. I replaced one rear wheel bearing ($29) and its the same one used on the ICE Fiat 500, but that's not exactly a mod. What you see is what you get.
Kind of unrelated, but why have you bought 50 cars over the course of your life? That's so many cars! There's gotta be a story there.
On topic, I've bought one car and it's currently 11.5 years old. Given that I don't enjoy buying things and don't do it all that often I generally don't bother with thrifting. If I've decided that I want/need something I want to purchase it with the minimal friction possible. Yeah, I end up spending more money but that's buying me peace of mind that the product is correct and the time not spent looking for the thrifted alternative. I don't really enjoy having stuff so I'm not buying that much. If I bought more things maybe my outlook would change.
Buying, restoring and selling cars has been my hobby for 45 years so 50 cars isn't really a lot of you have 2 or 3 projects going at a time.
This is when frugality pairs beautifully with other skills and hobbies. My wife doesn't love fixing things, but she does love having fixed a thing and, through so doing, saved money.
To continue Car Talk, we're going to go look at a Mercury Mariner today. It's got some sort of brake issue and can't be driven. We've got a car trailer. We don't know what that brake issue is yet, but she's confident she can fix it. It's most likely going to be the brake hose, a caliper/caliper slide pins, or the master cylinder, but there are other possibilities too. We'll see if we want an adventure, but for a car with only 120k miles, $1,500 is a hell of a deal.
We did the same thing with our Prius. We got a huge deal on it and had to do the head gasket, and master cylinder, and the brake pump below the master cylinder (I don't know what it's called; I just hold the flashlight). But we got a '14 Prius V with ATP with low miles for $6k.
I'm telling you, folks. You've got the brains and you've got the YouTube. If you can muster the gumption, quit buying from dealers and have some fun tinkering. Carvana is great if you want to conveniently buy newish for newish prices, but Facebook Marketplace, CraigsList, and local auction sites are full of fantastic opportunities for anyone who is willing to get a little oil on their hands.
The important thing to remember is that it is a hobby, then. It's a recreational activity. It's not about saving money anymore. Unless you're retired, time is money.
As someone that isn't into cars, just like I would pay money to have positive experiences, like watching a movie, or going to a theme park, I would pay money to avoid negative experiences, like "getting your hands dirty".
In terms of pure economics, it's rarely going to beat comparative advantage. The mechanic at the autoshop is really good at making car go vroom, I'm really good at making computer go beep boop. I'll do the latter and the mechanic can do the former for me. Me trying to learn on the spot isn't going to be out his hourly rate.
I would rather spend that time relaxing, or short that, if I want just to increase my net cashflow, I'd rather spend it on improving my skills at my current occupation to earn more money. That's better return for my time.
Of course, if it is something you enjoy, then great, two birds one stone. But it's a hobby first and foremost, not a money saving activity.
Ignoring that I have zero experience with working on cars (which is of course only overcome by working on cars), the thing that leaves me reluctant is that I don’t know where the tinkering/fixing is going to end. If it’s only some time spent up front getting a cheap car fixed up, that doesn’t seem too bad and could make sense for the right price, but I really don’t like the idea of a stream of surprise issues showing up over time. With how little I drive it’s easy to end up spending a signficant fraction of time driven under the hood which makes the tradeoff questionable.
I agree with that to a large extent, at least with the vehicle market. While I still haven’t decided how we’re going to approach our 2nd purchase, our 2015 RAV4 has been paid off for years with close to 100K on it. Yet, Toyota still offers us $15-17K via marketing texts every 6 months or so. This was purchased at $27K back in 2015 mind you.
I suppose I would say I'm more handy (and hate waste) than I am 'thrifty.' I'm fine buying new for a lot of things, honestly, but new stuff (with all the bells, whistles, and integrations) doesn't last.
I tell my coworkers about things I fix and, if they've got some stuff headed to the landfill, I'll gladly take a look at it first. I don't mind buying a second hand board game and using a few 'miscellaneous' pieces to fill in the gaps. I get most of my satisfaction from finishing a project, so I'm not big on "buying the solution" so to speak.
But, that said, I'll happily buy something new if it meets a need. My problem is I basically try to get a post-secondary education in anything I buy, so a secondhand bike might be a great deal but now I've got to learn everything about maintenance and upkeep, meanwhile my partner is happy enough buying off the shelf and paying for a local shop to tune it up. Blessing and a curse. Of course, they're happy when I'm able to fix things on the spot because I poured over the online manuals and forums...
Same here! I live in Germany and there’s a huge thrifting culture here. The main app for it is called Kleinanzeigen, and you can find absolutely everything on there. I used to go to Ikea for homeware, but now I just search for the item on Kleinanzeigen and usually get several matches. If not, I just save the search and get notified as soon as something new pops up. A little patience goes a long way... I literally furnished my entire apartment this way. Furniture, kitchen tools, repair tools, electronics, clothes, training equipment, plants... you name it. I like expensive, high-quality stuff, but I would’ve spent a crazy amount if I’d bought everything brand new. High-quality used stuff beats cheaper brand new stuff any day!
Thats my philosophy too. I would MUCH rather buy a high quality used item for less than a brand new cheaper quality item. Like my stereo system: I paid 700 for a good used Marantz receiver, turntable and speakers WAY back in 1983. That was an astronomical sum to me at the time but I wanted a good system. Now its more than 40 years later and the system still sounds as good as the day I got it.
I don't buy things very often other than groceries, and I find that it really depends on the type of item I'm buying. For things I know I'm going to use a lot like phones, computer parts, cookware, etc., I'll generally buy them new and I'll tend to buy a fairly high-end product, with the goal being longetivity. I only buy a new phone every 4-5 years or so, but I'm happy to spend $600 on it when I do. I only have 4-5 bits of cookware in my kitchen as I cook nearly everything in my fancy wok and cast iron pan, and chop everything with the one quality chef's knife. I eat rice 4-5 times a week so my $300 Zojirushi rice cooker was incredibly worth it for me.
In general, for things I'm going to rely on for a while, I'll buy a more expensive new product over a cheaper or used one. For things where quality doesn't matter so much though, or where I'll not be using it for all that long, I'll buy it cheap or second-hand. Basically every book I own is second hand as I see very little reason to buy a book new unless it's a very new release.
A-yup. Love those big wins for you, esp that EV, great job!
Big difference between thrifty and cheap, though: thrift is for yourself; cheap is what you do with money spent on others. Money is like manure, it ain't no good unless it's spread around, as my priest said.
Being thrifty came from my dad as well, but he is way too extreme with it. I take a balanced approach.
I'm building a treehouse for my kids right now and I'm using a lot of used materials, but I'm spending the money where it matters. I spend extra for the parts that need to last or bring the strength.
I get so excited when I find something cheap or free, it is a really good feeling. I can have this thing for a fraction of the cost that would make my family's lives better.
No. I'm really lazy. I'm more thrifty now just due to circumstances. But even then I know I'm not as thrifty as I should be.
I just call it the lazy tax and I'm trying to be a lot better about it but it's hard.
I order food often because I can't get myself to cook or leave my apartment. I ride the local equivalent of an Uber most of the time because I can't bring myself to leave otherwise. When I happen to be out and it's time to eat, I just eat whenever I feel like eating and not think about the price too hard because the mental load is too high. I have a hard time convincing myself to eat sometimes so I have a time limit before I get frustrated and give up on food altogether.
When I feel like buying something, I just buy it if it seems reasonable enough a price. I don't really shop around to get it as cheap as possible. Because I'm lazy. Which means I don't often get things second hand because I don't want to deal with people or to haggle.
But this also means I don't buy that many things. I do buy things on discount as long as the mental load to do it isn't that high. It also means quite a number of my clothes are a decade old and I still wear them just because I don't shop that often.
My phone is also about 5 years old now and has a mildly cracked screen and I'm still using it because it's not dead yet. Mainly to save money but also to research, buy a new phone, and setting it up again takes some work and again, I'm lazy. So I'd rather use this phone till it's definitely dead. I'm basically procrastinating.
In a way, sometimes laziness also helps you save.
I do have quite a fair bit of subscriptions though. I should cancel them.
My Mom is fairly thrifty and I feel similarly. I always look to see if I can find something used first before I spend new money on it, though I buy new things when I can't find it used or at a reasonable used price.
I just recently bought a New battery charger for my RC batteries, because used stock was limited and prices of those used things were within $10 or so.
But otherwise, I buy used electronics all the time, my cars are used and I take pride in repairing them myself; I fix everything I'm capable of fixing and try to buy used when I can.
I enjoy it even though I have plenty of disposable income. There's definitely the thrill of the hunt with this stuff. I got into photography a few years ago and I'm mostly buying used stuff from sites like KEH, MPB, and eBay, only rarely buying new equipment. I also got into CDs which of course is mostly buying used stuff from eBay or the local Amoeba records. I also get a rush anytime I find that someone sets their old collection of music or antique Apple computer stuff on the curb.
This stuff takes a lot of time though. Considering the cost difference from buying at full price compared to what my wages per hour are I would probably be better off buying everything new.
I love being thrifty in some areas to offset the the areas I waste money. There is a very satisfying feeling I do get when I rescue something from a junk pile that I fix and actually find a use for.
I was dumpster diving for a scrap piece of wood about 20 years ago and was quite surprised to find that someone had tossed a Seth Thomas Electric Mantle Clock in the dumpster. I took it home, cleaned it up and repaired a tiny piece of trim that was broken and it looks great, works perfectly. It has multiple chimes for quarter hour and hour chime. Looks very similar to this one
Not super valuable but probably worth $100. I just think its cool old school charm. I think its from the 40's.
Yes, but it annoys me sometimes. Not for big purchases where I often pay extra for something nicer, but for like regular grocery or dining out. I love to shop at grocery outlet or buy something that is on sale, when I can afford to shop at high end places daily. When I go to a restaurant and I see the menu, I instinctively scan for the cheapest entree.
I don’t actually have to do all this, and it annoys me how being thrifty ends up making me feel guilty about spending more money when I absolutely can.
I do like a quick whip around of various local op shops on weekends, even though good finds seem to be becoming less and less common these days it's still satisfying to find something worthwhile.
I generally try and reduce the amount I spend despite having a couple of expensive hobbies - primarily an assortment of motorcycles (and associated equipment) and camera gear. The bikes and cars for example are all secondhand models and go back a bit so were relatively cheap (newest and most expensive is my 2007 Transporter which set me back ~$6k). I also do almost everything on my vehicles myself, about the only exceptions are fitting tyres for the car/van and the road bikes plus the annoyance of annual safety inspections. Most of my outer clothes have come from op shops (though I am picky about what I get) and while I did assemble a new desktop PC a few years back my laptops are ones I've salvaged from ewaste.
I am prepared to spend more money than strictly necessary for some things though - for example I like quality tools to work with (even secondhand this can be expensive) and believe cheaping out on tyres is setting yourself up for failure. The cameras are another here - while I definitely spent a lot less than new prices for the vast majority of my collection the cost of nice quality equipment adds up.
I haven't bought new-from-the-manufacturer clothes or basic home goods in decades. My weight/body shape has yoyo-ed around a great deal over time. It's just not worth paying list price for an article of clothing that might not fit in six months, or be made poorly out of current non-recyclable sleazy synthetics that wear out quickly. I have glasses and plates, pots and pans, dining utensils, garden and other tools that don't all match, but do what they're made for.
I'm fortunate that I'm in a community where many people donate or resell clothes and other items that are made well and in good condition. I don't feel like I'm fighting the "buy it cheap to flip it expensively" vintage and designer resellers. I donate or resell what I'm not using so it's quickly available to someone else and not turning into clutter. It's more like I'm part of an ecosystem of revolving clothes and home goods that are constantly seeking someone who can use them.
Just yesterday, I got about $250 worth of bicycling gear (Terry jersey and padded shorts) in like-new condition for $6. My work wardrobe is thrifted or resold high-end classics from a couple of labels that specialize in quality natural fabrics, worn with carefully curated second-hand accessories. In general, I feel like I have far more scope for expression of personal style with my collection of "finds" that span decades, than shopping the latest fashion trends in stores. Even if that style is "artsy architect or psychiatrist who reads r/oldhagfashion".
Spouse also shops second-hand. However, men's clothing isn't so intentionally made to become obsolescent, or cut to stop fitting after a 5 pound weight change. Far less of it gets to resale in good shape. We've each found the odd flannel shirt, sweater or pair of jeans in the men's section, but they're usually well worn and unsuitable for anything but the most casual use.
About the only things I won't shop for second-hand are the previously mentioned underwear (I'll make an exception for sports bras, which are heinously overpriced and wear out quickly) and mattresses (because bedbugs 😬).
My "thing" these days is charity and political campaign donations - I save a dollar to give a dollar.
I do like a good amount of thrifting myself. Some of it I do think I get from family. My family still has habits that formed in response to the depression. Such as saving lots of used plastic containers. They have gotten better in some ways, they no longer save every single peanut butter jar. I think my thrifting is built upon this. It’s also built upon the love of repair, and the thought of “it’s still good” and “used is adequate”. As I continue on, I hope to do more thrifting and such. I do certainly know that any car that I get on my own is gonna be pulled from someone else’s paddock.
I don't like places that are specifically supposed to be thrifty, such as Goodwill or The Salvation Army. Their prices are much higher than they used to be and much of the merchandise is in poor condition. I'm sure a lot of people like to get old clothes there, maybe for a retro style thing rather than for a good price.
One thrifty thing that my family does is go to our local library. They sell used DVDs there for a very low price. Also they let you check out DVDs for free and they have no late fees.
Another thing they have is used crossword puzzles. These are about a dollar or two, much less if there are any missing pieces. They often have a sticker on them that says if they have been verified for missing pieces. When we are done, we donate the puzzle back to the library and they can sell it again. For fun, we often lookup the online price for a puzzle. It's very common to get one for under a dollar that is sold on Amazon for $30.
I buy new when I'm not reasonably sure I could fix it myself, or when even the second hand value is more than I'm willing to risk without a warranty.
Dishwashers can be gotten for free and sometimes the only issue is a faulty limit switch on the overflow mechanism.
We have 3 working dishwashers. The plan was to fix at least one and sell the rest again, I fixed them all, but the market is pretty saturated so now we're just stuck with 2 backups
I hate spending money. I buy things new, but then repair them forever. I tend not to buy secondhand these days, only because we're so hooked into the gift economy that anything I'd want to get used I can probably get for free from either a free store or the Buy Nothing networks. But at the same time, I rarely sell anything, either, just gift it to someone through those same networks.
I don't own a car, I don't even like to spend money taking the bus. I bike everywhere I can't walk to. I eat out but because I'm in the restaurant industry myself I almost never pay full price. My kids go to public school and when that's insufficient we supplement with homeschooling.
I'm very lucky that I found a partner who is as dedicated to thrift as I am. That's selling her short, actually, she grew up in Alaska and is even more self-sufficient than I am in a lot of ways.