Is Expensive Always Better?

You walk into a car dealership and plunk down a wad of hard, cold cash for whatever mind-blowingly expensive car you want and walk away totally satisfied that you have the best car on the block. And so the question is, do you? Just because you spent a lot of money on something is it the best?

If you don't already know this, many name-brand consumer products are manufactured by the same contractors that make lesser known brand names. For instance, when I was handling human resources for a clothing manufacturer in the Los Angeles area, we had several lines of garments from the well-known to the nearly obscure. But we had the same group of seamstresses working on all the clothes. If there were any cross-over products lines - like polo shirts - the only difference was the label.

This is not always the case. I also did human resources work for a branded cosmetic company, and while they outsourced their manufacturing, they had their own proprietary formulas that the third-party contractor was responsible for duplicating exactly.

Whether one product is better than another is quite literally a matter of personal preference. It's what you are accustomed to or what makes you feel comfortable. Personally, my favorite do-it-yourself hair coloring (the shade that matches my natural color the best) is half the price of the other products on the market, and I've never considered paying a beautician to do something I can handle on my own. I now get my locks cut at Supercuts for $15 after plopping down $45 at a salon for the same look. And drug store makeup instead of department or specialty store makeup is fine by me.

Speaking of beauty aids, according to The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen you don't need to spend more on shampoo to get better results. And some doctors suggest that nothing beats good old inexpensive petroleum jelly for beating dry skin blues.

Want to get rid of those nasty wrinkles? "A 2006 Consumer Reports study demonstrated that despite the boasts of pricey anti-wrinkle creams, very few made a significant improvement in skin appearance. On the contrary, some of the cheaper creams actually outperformed the more expensive ones."

But this trend isn't limited to just beauty and healthcare. Consider wine. Think expensive wine tastes better? The Wine Trials can show you some great wine for under $15 a bottle. And let's consider education. If you pay more for your college diploma, are you smarter?

Then there are vacuum cleaners. Consumer Reports suggest that expensive isn't always the right choice there either. A lot depends on how much foot traffic you have in your home. Speaking of which, if you want good input on products Consumer Reports is the preeminent source on saving money and making better financial decisions.

There will always be disbelievers out there that buck the system in order to say it's worth the extra expense. Those are the neighbors keeping up with the Joneses. And likely there are products and services where it's worth paying a little more. Isn't the saying, "You get what you pay for?"

Still it's nice to feel as if it's alright being...well, frugal. After all why pay top dollar if you don't have to?