you get what you pay for

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Idioms and Phrases

Inexpensive goods or services are likely to be inferior, as in That vacuum cleaner fell apart in a year—I guess you get what you pay for , or The volunteers take three times as long with the mailing, but you get what you pay for . This economic observation probably dates from ancient times but is disputed by those who do not equate high price with high quality.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Like most things in life, of course, you get what you pay for.

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It’s cheaper for a university to bring in minimally trained private security guards when needed than to hire permanent, full-time police officers, but “you get what you pay for,” according to Norman D. Bates, a security expert, attorney and founder of the Massachusetts-based security consulting firm Liability Consultants.

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It’s also a reminder that you get what you pay for.

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As for the story about those billion dead birds, well, you get what you pay for, and what you click on — we create the culture, not the other way around.

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“She does not have the requisite trial skills to be defending the former president of the United States in a multimillion dollar defamation trial. And yet, you get what you pay for, and that is exactly what's happening to Donald Trump right now,” she said.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

you don't say Youghiogheny

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