Spend on the Everyday.

A surprisingly unusual idea: the case for spending *more* on some things.

Welcome back to Cinq Personnes, for what I hope will be a post that lets me influence you into changing how you spend.

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Finances are something I want to talk a lot about, and a big part of that is spending less, investing more, and feeling ok about it, often to ensure more security down the road and a sort of relaxed everyday life that you don’t get when you’re drowning in mortgage payments and the like. But personal finance isn’t in my view only about how much you spend, but how you spend. I think a lot of financial bloggers don’t appreciate this enough: I think it’s ok to spend a little more if it nets you something which is a lot better. Value is king. (You should still probably try to spend less!)

You will understand the point of this picture by the end of the post.

We (unfortunately) live in a world where people are encouraged heavily to consume, but even more to spend on “luxury” goods, D2C garbage (products that are often just basic stuff rebranded and marked up), needless supplements and healthcare, subscriptions (subscription boxes and the like especially come to mind), and many other things we don’t need — and frankly will frequently not even do what they promise. Minimalism has a lot of promise and I will talk about it more in future blog posts, but much like how I think some people focus too much on how much things cost, I think minimalism can be unhealthy when it encourages people having less for the sake of it. I recognize that a lot of minimalists will qualify that you should only get rid of things you really don’t use, or provide similar instructions, but I do think it’s easy to fall into the habit of getting rid of something you need infrequently, and just wasting money having to buy it again when you need it again.

The thing is, I do think there are a lot of items that people can make a good case that they actually need and this — usually everyday things — is a great place to spend money. I’m actually surprised how little play this gets from minimalist, and F.I.R.E. types — let me explain.

There are some things in life which almost everyone needs, and of course you can determine what these things are for yourself. Some examples of the types of things I am thinking of include:

• Basic Furniture (a desk, chair, bed, and mattress)

• Kitchen Supplies

• Clothing

• Personal Care Items

I think these items are really interesting and get too little attention, they are things that you probably need, that can last a very long time, and which you probably use multiple times a day — presumably you are in your bed for about 1/3 of your entire life! These are all reasons I’m going to make the case that you should invest in these items. I don’t think people appreciate this — because of the number of people who I’ve learned sleep on Ikea mattresses, or have AmazonBasics kitchen supplies, or shop at Uniqlo.

What’s amazing in 2025 is how many people will spend hundreds of dollars more to get the top-of-the-line iPhone (which they may only keep for a few years), but scoff at the idea of spending a few hundred dollars on some nice knives, or well-made and durable clothing. As an technology power user (remember, I used to do YouTube for a living) I can confirm that the difference in quality-of-life for virtually everyone between the regular iPhone and the iPhone Pro Max is negligible. Meanwhile, the quality-of-life benefits you will get from spending a little more on a piece of furniture that can last you a lifetime, or on clothes that will last you a decade rather than a few months are enormous. If the idea of spending a lot on things like clothes, or kitchen stuff causes you to recoil — for one, perhaps consider what you actually use, and if you should cook more — but also consider that these things make great gifts! Get your friends your favourite German knife, and maybe they will get your their favourite French pot!

Why is spending in this way so valuable? Well, for one, you are incentivizing the world’s economies to produce more durable, repairable goods that people actually need and that truly make lives better, as opposed to extracting more money from Candy Crush players, hyper consumers, and teenagers on TikTok. Spending what money you do spend on high-quality, durable everyday goods is an act that sends a signal that I think is probably good for the planet, society, and yes, the economy.

Then there is the BIFL factor — what is BIFL? It’s Buy It For Life, a popular subreddit and the idea (which used to be more popular) that we should buy things that last, and that can be repaired. I personally totally subscribe (though it’s more like Buy It For As Long As You Can because some things by their very nature wear down over time). I think it is very often the case that you can spend less over the medium term buying one good thing, as opposed to several cheap things that keep breaking. People have thought of a lot of good “rules” that help indicate BIFL-ness, such as not having batteries (which you can sometimes replace but ultimately are consumable) and having a repair-friendly design, for example shoes with a goodyear welt. What you’ll find over time is that a lot of everyday things are BIFL: pots and pans don’t have batteries, and neither do mattresses (and as you might imagine I think mattresses with electronic components — Sleep Number, Eight Sleep etc. are very silly!). It’s much better to buy nice everyday items that will last, and then just used, or value-oriented products in categories that don’t have great durable options (smartphones).

That said, I think the ultimate thing that drives value for spending on everyday items is that you use them a lot. I think that for many items thinking in terms of cost per use (assuming you aren’t buying a boat by justifying that you will go boating all the time!) is the right idea. Yes, you probably use your phone a lot, but most people would like to use their phone less. Meanwhile, you use a bed every night, a desk or table every day, and many other items on a daily basis. Many people spend hundreds of dollars on subscriptions they barely use, or goods that they use once and then dispose of (disposable razors vs. an electric trimmer or a safety razor if you’re hardcore).

Perhaps my favourite example of this is the Japanese Toto toilet (and bidet) we installed in our rental (picture top). This was not “cheap” — about $1500 all-together, but I think carefully about where I spend my money. I don’t have a sports car, or a mortgage, or frequent luxury vacations. For that $1500, we have an item that across multiple people in the house is used several times every day, saves some nominal amount of money on toilet paper, and actually makes our days slightly better - -ah, the pleasures of Japan! The Toto does not have batteries and requires minimal maintenance, and given what I see in Japan I expect it will last a very long time. Basically, we get a ton of value from this purchase, and we will for a long time, and the cost per use is very low, while the absolute cost is like one average iPhone (buy lower-end models people!). We could have spent less if we desired by not getting the fancy toilet that integrated with the bidet, but why not? Toto is a company making a good product that makes the world a better place, they aren’t Meta, who is making the world worse, and costing people a ton of money. Other people have clearly also caught onto this — see Brandon Donnelly’s recent post.

As part of my overall “financial framework” of spending less, spending on everyday items is sort of the second stage. For the money you do spend try to spend it on things that will last and which you will use a lot, both every day and over time, and that you can take care of and repair, and that even if you no longer want, will provide a lot of second hand value to someone else.