What Causes Cheapness?

[Julian gabriel]

I decided that I wanted to buy a tent a few months ago, but I bought the cheapest tent I could find instead of the best one.

I ended up leaving it in the woods for months and I almost never used it. 

Now I have decided to save money and buy the best tent I could find even though it is expensive. 

Why was I being so cheap, instead of realizing that buying a better tent made more sense in the long run? 

[ted73104]

I think your intuition was right, you should buy the cheapest equipment to see how the worst option fares. Sometimes the cheapest product actually would suffice in whatever you were doing. Buy in the cheapest item is a smart option because you can save a lot of money if it works out, even if it doesn't, you've learned something.

[EmJay]

I remember watching this video a long time ago, what I remember from it is that you act unconsciously in specific aspects of life simply due to your "childhood vows".

Money difficulties that you went through out your life, are living in your ego and actions today. (you having the urge to buy cheap things) 

Ultimately, it's as simple as, you were unconscious to see that the cheap tent is worse than the expensive one, even though it's cheaper.

[Yonkon]

Fear of lack of money

 

[hoodrow trillson]

"Cheapness" is too much of a blanket term.

There are things that you can cheap out on that's okay and then there are things that you shouldn't cheap out on that is not ideal (car tires, car parts, insurance, the roof of your house, food etc) vs things that you can cheap out on (AAA batteries, a tent you won't use much, a tool that you needed only once, paper clips, etc)

If you buy something that you will use sparingly or don't care about - cheap is king.  Also for actually cheaper items, cheap is great because the competition is so close to each other.  

These phrases are usually true:

You get what you pay for.

Buy once, cry once.

[vindicated erudite]

Fear of going broke which is reasonable in my opinon.