You ever stop and think maybe your dad was right and you just picked the wrong $8 pair? I've got a pair of $12 work boots from a tractor supply clearance rack that I've worn almost every day for two years and the soles are still on there fine. Thing is, cheap boots aren't all made the same, some are total junk and some are honestly decent, you just can't tell which is which from the price tag alone. The $60 pair can fall apart in a month too if it's a bad brand, so price isn't really the thing that tells you if boots will last.

Does your old foreman ever have to eat the cost when the weather flips on him? I ran a 1,400 footer in one day last fall with two crews on the screed and three trucks staggered 20 minutes apart, and the finish came out just as clean as any slow job I've done. The trick is having one guy whose only job is edges while the main crew handles the field, so nobody is racing the clock on the tricky parts. When you split it up you're paying setup and teardown three times, plus you're rolling the dice on weather three times instead of once. That $1,800 your boss ate is the whole argument right there, and I bet the lost Saturday stung worse than the money.