Do you buy cheap, replaceable things to not feel bad about throwing stuff away if you don't end up using it much, or do you pay for quality goods?
I was thinking about this today. I try to research products and save up before buying something, so I invest in quality (also trying to buy responsibly due to environment), but sometimes I buy something expensive and then half a year later realize I didn't use it as much as I had hoped to... but feel bad about donating / recycling the thing so soon since I paid a lot of money for it.
Another example is shaving razors. I'd like to buy a proper, metal one with a replaceable blade, but then I'm thinking how much nicer it is to just dispose of it once I am done (no need to clean it or sharpen it).
Any thoughts, experiences, comments are appreciate it. Really interested about what people think about this topic!
This is my policy if I'm not familiar with something, it's not safety critical and it's just for myself.
Get the thing that seems like it would work just barely, if it fails or is inadequate, I will get the expensive and quality or best price-for-performance product.
I consider the price of the cheaper thing the price of trying it out.
If it's expensive enough that I would be upset with myself for not going the quality/trusted brand (e.g. $450 for cheapo vs. $550 for quality) then it's not worth spending $1000 to end up just using the $550 part. If it was $450 vs. $1550 then trying out the cheaper one is less of an issue.
E* But don't feel bad if you do end up with the cheap thing not working, it's part of the learning process. If you somehow break both the cheap and expensive part then that feels bad, and you have to fix your process first :P