Used Goods Save You Money, Lose the Fear

I was thinking about this the other day when we had a school fair. I was on the toy stall and lots of children were quite happily paying a few pence for their toys when some one said to me 'oh I don't like these things they make me sad'. Well I found this a little confusing as it was an adult who mentioned it and no one was making her buy anything.  Also why is it sad? The children were all very happy with what they bought but then I suppose they have yet to be conditioned otherwise. Also mountains of debt is much sadder I think, some people would never buy used clothes but are happy to use credit cards for new ones and leave no money for bills.

Also it is quite acceptable to most to buy used cars or houses so why the stigma when it comes to clothes and furniture?  I think a lot of it comes down to making a statement for some people, they think  that by buying second hand they might be suggesting they are not very well off.  Some people find this sort of image very important, the truth of it being that people who are better off are the ones who make careful financial choices.  They are more likely to shop used, pay upfront and seek out a bargain.  They are also less likely to be drawn by the designer label as this is only ever going to drain your finances.

I read an amazing post by Mr Money Moustache about saving ten bucks at a time to become rich (about £5.80) now he is not saying the odd amount, this is about all those little decisions that make up these amounts and then eliminating them.  Nobody says you have to give up everything, but lets face it, if we really want something we will try to obtain it so why is this not the case for most people with savings and independence.  It gets me a little annoyed when people think oh you have this and that so it's ok for you.  Well  no it makes me really mad! We both left school at 16 and have worked ever since and saved, we also live within our means and don't ever go down the designer label route. If we were to find ourselves out of work we would make a job  out of looking for a new one and would cut back  further to tide us over.  We would not wait for it to land in our laps as we never have and it makes me crazy that so many people just take and feel sorry for them selves.  What can you do? What can you sell that you no longer need? Also if you are out of work how many jobs have you applied for today?  If the answer is zero why?  There is stuff out there and yes there may be loads of people chasing those jobs but if you are out of work you should be one of them doing the chasing, all the time! There is also an article on Mr Money Moustache that suggests for every saving you make and permanently erase from your weekly expenditure the less you will need forever!  I think that is something worth considering. 

Used! So what, get over it.