10 times you can't afford to skimp

By Liz Pulliam Weston

There's plenty of stuff where quality doesn't depend on price. Generic aspirin is as good as the heavily marketed stuff, for example, and many store-brand products are turned out by the same factories that make their name-brand counterparts.

There are other areas where you're not obligated to spend at all. Nobody needs an Internet-surfing cell phone, a luxury car or a flat-screen television. There are even people who get by without cell phones, cars and TVs.

But there also are some places where you shouldn't even think about skimping -- areas where the potential drawbacks outweigh any savings. Even when your budget is really tight, you should try to make room for the following:

Car maintenance. You've heard the saying "penny-wise, pound-foolish"? This old English phrase means that scrimping on a small expense often leads to a much bigger one. That's exactly what will happen if you wait too long to change your oil, swap your filters or investigate that weird grinding noise.

If you have a vehicle, you should invest some effort in finding a good, reliable mechanic -- yes, they do exist -- and then make sure your budget includes money for regular maintenance and repairs. If you're not sure how much to set aside, review last year's bills and inflate the number by at least 10%.

Classic clothes. You've got to wear them every day, so you might as well make sure they hold up over time.

This doesn't give you leave to buy designer togs if you've got a Target budget. But if you're choosing between a cheap knockoff that will fall apart after three wearings and something classic that costs more but that will still look great -- and that you'll likely want to wear -- in 2010, then your choice should be obvious.

Quality is especially important for footwear. Not only do poorly made shoes tend to fall apart, but they can cause all kinds of foot problems that can be expensive to fix. You can find deep discounts on quality footwear by buying during sales, at the end of the season and by scouring places like DSW, a warehouse shoe store.

I'm assuming, by the way, that you either pay cash for your apparel or that you pay off the credit card bill in full when it arrives. Clothes, no matter the quality, are not investments and should not be financed. If you can't pay cash, then make do with what you've got until you can.

Computer memory. You always need more than you think -- unless you're some kind of computer monk who never adds new software, downloads a tune or plays a game. Save yourself headaches and tech-support calls by loading up when you buy a new machine; if you're adding memory to an older machine, consider maxing out the available slots.

In a computer buying guide, The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg recommends a minimum of 2 gigabytes of random-access memory (RAM), the kind of memory that determines how quickly your machine loads and runs programs. He recommends as much as 200 gigabytes of hard-drive space to store music, video and photos. Again, computers are not an appreciating asset, so pay cash.

Thriftiness versus health

Family safety. Safety experts say you should have a smoke detector outside every bedroom and a carbon-monoxide detector on every floor, plus escape ladders for every bedroom above the first floor. (You can find basic detectors for less than $10 each; ladders can be had for less than $40.)

Solid door and window locks are a smart security measure, but remove or replace any window bars that can't be opened from the inside.

Health. One of my childhood friends woke up a widow because her husband, in his 40s, put off getting his heart checked; they didn't have health insurance.

If you're one of the 46 million Americans who are in the same boat, you understand the dilemma. But your family won't thank you for your thriftiness if you wind up disabled or dead.

There are ways to take care of your health that don't require insurance or cost a fortune; read "A survival guide for the uninsured" for tips on getting care for less.

If you do have insurance, make sure you budget enough cash for co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses. If your employer offers a flexible spending plan, which allows you to put aside pretax money to pay for medical expenses, take advantage of it.

Continued: Cough up for a home inspection

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