Bang for your buck

I'm a pretty frugal guy. I buy my meat from the "manager's specials" section. If I see a good sale on something that I use a lot of I stock up. I know which stores tend to sell certain things for less. I buy the generic brands most of the time (unless there is a ridiculously good sale on the name brand that ends up making it cheaper than the generic). I always check the clearance section when I go to a store. I shop at thrift stores and visit garage sales. If someone's throwing away something that I can use I won't hesitate to snatch it up. Watching how much you're spending is easy and everyone should do it. There is such a thing as going "too cheap", though.

When I make purchases I try to find the best deal possible for the stuff that I need without tripping over dollars to pick up pennies. I don't buy my power tools at Harbor Freight anymore. I tried that and they always end up breaking or they just don't work as well as higher quality brands. When I go grocery shopping I don't stop at 5 different stores because this store has a sale on this item and that store has a sale on that item. The $4 or $5 that I end up saving at the end of the day isn't worth the gas or the extra time spent. If I break my snow shovel while shoveling the driveway after the first snowfall of the season I'm not going to wait until they go on sale again to buy another snow shovel.

The same type of logic needs to go towards your preps. In a lot of ways it's even more important when it comes to prepping. It's easy to get caught in the trap of spending the least possible amount of money for a little peace of mind. That three pack of old military gas masks that you picked up for $10 online might make you feel better but if you ever actually need them for anything they're probably not going to protect you. Why bother spending the money in the first place? That gen 1 night vision scope that you picked up for $50 is great for star gazing but if you bought it so that you could see badguys at night if things ever get ugly then you're probably going to be really disappointed (if you're lucky that's all you'll be) when you realize that you can't see anything farther than 10 feet away in complete darkness when you really need it. That mosin nagent that you found for $70 with 500 rounds of ammo might make a really cool fireball when you shoot it but when a couple of guys with AKs are shooting back at you you'll realize really fast how much it sucks trying to reload the damn things and work that crappy bolt under stress.

The price tag shouldn't be the only factor that you consider when you're buying something. You have to make sure that it will do the job that it's intended for when it comes time to do it. Going the absolute cheapest route possible will sometimes cost you more. If you're just buying that rifle for a fun range toy or a cheap hunting rifle then an old milsurp bolt action should suit your needs. If you're buying a rifle because you honestly believe that you may have to use it to defend yourself someday then the bare minimum should be a dependable semi automatic that's extremely fast and easy to reload. Buy once cry once. Eventually it does get to the point where the added benefits and features aren't worth the extra cost but you also have to think about that grey area between the cheapest price and the best value.

Thanks for the shout out a couple of days ago Bison. I'll try to update more often but I definitely fall into the fan boy category. I don't ever intend to profit from this. I just get sick of watching my sometimes lengthy, in depth posts disappear when the threads that I post in die.