Buying New or Repairing Old When the Price is The Same
Exercise the frugality that consumerism allows or invest in a sustainable future?
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So often, we’re forced to choose between buying new for an affordable price or investing in what we already have. In many situations, it’s easy to decide to spend money on fixing something old when that cost is much lower than the price of something new. For example, when you get a flat tire, you either get a new tire or fix the old one. Imagine if you just went out and bought a brand new car instead! In other cases, buying new is a no-brainer. When faced with the choice between freezing your brown banana to make banana loaf with it or just buy a new banana to get your daily potassium, you’re likely going to grab a new one (unless of course, the satisfactory taste and texture of a fresh buttery piece of loaf is a higher priority than the potassium alone).
“Am I going to take the time and spend the money to get my old lawn mower fixed or am I just going to head to Walmart and grab a new one for $99.99?”
Now, more than ever, we’re encountering difficult situations where we must make the decision whether to buy new or repair old. Such is the race-to-the-bottom nature of retail.
Rather than deciding based on cost alone, matters of sustainability aught to be the determining factor in how we make such decisions. It might take a couple hours out of your week to repair the lawn mower and nearly the same cost as buying new to get the job done. But perhaps it’s worth it to avoid adding another hunk of metal to the ever-growing refuse piles on the periphery of our society.
What about clothing? Fixing old clothes instead of buying new is done by some but not many. Is spending more to buy something unique, durable, and possibly timeless better than buying the latest logo’d tee every few weeks?
Hopefully my writing only hints at my polarized opinion on the matter.
