buy better t-shirts
Second this.
Buying higher quality t-shirts will simply last longer. It's all about being frugal, not cheap. Mustachian frugality is about making things last longer, reducing your consumerist consumption, reducing your waste generation, and generally making the world a better place. Supporting shoddy workmanship in the clothing industry (even by taking
free shirts as some people here have suggested) does nobody any favors, as it continues to feed a demand for disposable garbage.
The ones I get at six for ten bucks in Chinatown don't last super long.
free T shirts are a dime a dozen (so to speak) in the US. I can't remember the last time I purchased one.
Tshirts (printed) can be had for 3 for $10 any day of the year (or less) new. You can get them used for about the price of a pencil. To say nothing of all the places one can pick up free Tshirts.
These are examples of being
cheap and perpetuating the problem, not being smart about your investment and frugal. (No offense, Gerard, Emg, Lib.)
The most important part is, if you know and do a little research, you'll discover that the price gap between these garbage options and the good stuff if you know where to buy it is minimal. 100% pre-shrunk, white cotton Gildan G500 t-shirts from
JiffyShirt.com can be had for $1.75 a pop (plus a little for shipping). I kept wasting money on shoddy Hanes undershirts for years, and they kept lasting for less and less time with the last batch barely giving me a year before literally falling apart at the seams. Then about four years ago, I finally did the research and bought 14 of those Gildan shirts. After shipping, I spent $30.97. That was August of 2010.
Each one of those shirts has been washed and tumble dried at a laundromat approximately 100 times because I always wear undershirts (even in the blistering heat). Heavy abuse. Are they starting to get old looking? Yeah, a little dingy, a little stretched in spots,
but no holes. I wear them as undershirts though, so they're really not visible. Even in their current state, I should easily be able get another one-two years out of these things under the current abuse regimen.
Not bad for $2.21 per t-shirt (with shipping) brand new, eh?
It doesn't much address the whole sweatshop issue with this stuff, but is it even possible to buy a first world made t-shirt anymore? I certainly haven't found any for a while.
The only word of caution I can give you is sizing if you take this route, however. I normally take an XL, but I have to buy L in these shirts. Check your sizing measurements closely against the manufacture sizing, especially if used as an undershirt... because they really don't shrink much.
Even the cheapest, thinnest Tshirt will likely last dozens of washings. So $30-40 worth of Tshirts could last you years.
My wife gets foisted those things for free whether she wants them or not. They don't. Ten washings before they start to develop holes, tops. So you're right about investment price, but
grossly wrong about source and quality.