Is it Possible to be TOO Thrifty?

Ok most of my closest friends and of course my husband knows that I am the cheapest person alive. I tend to go beyond thrifty in to just plain ole cheap. I will go out of my way to find the most inexpensive item. However, as I am getting older, I am realizing the error of my ways.

Is CHEAPER always BETTER?
Sometimes you can get jeans at a thrift store that are name brand and save $40 dollars or more and I am not knocking that at all, however sometimes buying tennis shoes at Payless is not always better than buying shoes at a store like Lady Foot Locker. This is something my husband has been telling me for years. Here is my reasoning: I could price a pair of Adidas tennis shoes at Lady Foot Locker for lets say $65, then walk into Payless and buy three pairs of shoes for that amount of money. That to me seemed to be the better deal. However in my infinite wisdom of age, I am finding that those three pairs of shoes I just bought at Payless tend to wear out much quicker than that one pair of shoes at Lady Foot Locker. Ergo, cheaper is not always better. I find this doesn't necessarily apply to kids shoes since they grow out of them long before they are worn out anyway.

STORE BRANDS vs NAME BRANDS
You could make the same argument as above for this, however I have found in most cases store brands and name brands are pretty similar. If you buy DelMonte green beans and the store brand green beans, you are getting the exact same thing with a different label. In these cases, when you are trying to save money - store brand is definetly the way to go. I challenge you to take your normal grocery list and buy all items in name brand, then buy them all store brand and see your savings. It's pretty substantial.

THRIFT STORES
I LOVE THRIFT STORES! It kinda borders on obsession sometimes. I literally drove around town today hopping from one thrift store to another looking for actually a sofa table and some type of shelf unit for my living room but found all sorts of stuff to organize my kitchen and put some finishing touches on my daughter's room and bathroom. If you are looking for pretty much anything you can find them at a thrift store, but you must have lots of patience dashed with a little bit of luck. Plus its fun to find random stuff!

Driving around for the BIG DEAL
Here is where I tend to fall into the insanely Cheap side of things. If I know one place is having a sale on shoes but I need a new shirt too, I will drive from store to store purchasing one or two items at a time to get everything at the lowest price I can. This is not bad in theory if the stores are located close to each other, however when you are willing to drive across town to find the best deals continuously, you have to realize you are spending more in gas than you are saving by driving around. This is a hard concept for me to grasp when I am in Sale Mode.

If this is also your M.O. for sales shopping, try mapping out a route that will cost you the minimal travel time and costs

I am still a pretty cheap person, and in a recession I think we can all stand to be a little cheap to make getting by a little easier. But I need to learn where to draw the line on being cheap, being thrifty and making a purchase that makes sense.