Meanings
- Inexpensive goods and services tend to be inferior to more expensive ones.
No more of that stuff, please and thank you. American Grain, my rosy red ass. Someone should have told those babies you put the fertilizer on the hops before you grow em, not after. A headache on three lousy beers! Gosh! Well—you buy cheap, you get cheap.
1990, Stephen King, The Moving FingerSynonyms: buy cheap, buy twice
Synonyms & antonyms
proverbInexpensive goods and services tend to be inferior to more expensive ones.
Translations
Finnish halvalla ei saa hyvää
- halvalla ei saa hyvääinexpensive things tend to be inferior
Cite this entry
you buy cheap, you get cheap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/you%20buy%20cheap%2C%20you%20get%20cheap
“you buy cheap, you get cheap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/you%20buy%20cheap%2C%20you%20get%20cheap. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “you buy cheap, you get cheap,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/you%20buy%20cheap%2C%20you%20get%20cheap.
Source: you buy cheap, you get cheap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.