Subtitle: Short Cuts and Cheap Things

If you are like me, you have most likely tried to take short cuts to save time or bought something cheap to try and save money.  Every cheap car, tool, shoe, etc that I have ever owned has cost me more time and money in the long run.

Just recently I bought a pair of very inexpensive shoes from a discount store and had leather put on the bottoms for dancing instead of buying the $120 dance shoes.  The shoes cost $16 and the leather added to the soles was $25.  I thought I had a winner for about $41 until I tried to wear them all day at a dance event.  My little toe hurt so bad I could barely walk. 

I also tried my other dancing shoes which are converted walking shoes which helped a little but I was still in pain. Long story short is that I headed to the lobby outside the main ballroom where there was a dance shoe vendor and bought the pair of shoes for $120 I should have bought in the first place.  I’ve worn them three times so far and I can say they are so comfortable I forget I have them on.

Mind you I had bought two more pairs of those cheap shoes so all totaled I have about $75 spent so far.  I’ll try to return the one pair I haven’t worn but I’m still out $60.  It would have been far cheaper to just buy the $120 dance shoes in the first place.  Essentially the $120 dance shoes cost me $180 not to mention my time that was wasted.

My oldest son would say that I didn’t buy many things when he was a kid growing up but when I did it was usually of high quality, something that would last.

I’m also like that with guitars.  For decades my guitar playing didn’t progress much.  As soon as I bought a better guitar, a Riversong, my skills shot up almost overnight.  I just cannot stress enough the importance of a high quality, easy to play, really great sounding instrument especially while learning.  When we succeed at making music we are motivated to play more.  When it doesn’t sound good or the instrument is too hard to play we quit….just like I did for about 20 years.

There is an old saying, “There is never enough time or money to do it right but there is always time and money enough to do it over.”  Sometimes I still need a reminder.