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Does Buying on Sale Means Saving Money? 26 06 05 22 21 -------- I think this society is addicted to sales.  Go to any department store and every week they have the "biggest one day sale of the year that lasts three days with two preview days" (yes, I made sure it sounded silly).  You go to any store and you EXPECT to see a flier with special sales.  Even Walmart, who tried to promote an "Everyday Low Price" (fair price) policy have had to offer "Special Buys".   It has gotten us to a situation where some of us have had to adopt a policy of "Never Pay Retail", since you know that within a month's time frame most products cycle through some kind of sale.   Since we assume that we will most probably buy sale or discounted items as much as possible, the question then becomes, "when does buying on a sale saves money?" We all should know how much we can spend every month - our disposable income (after taxes).  If we are smart, the FIRST BIG portion of it went into investing it on income-generating instruments or properties.  Most probably some of it goes for rent or mortgage, some other for car payment.  Utilities and insurance also take their toll as well as medical and dependent care expenses do.  What is left is a small portion of our income.  With that we have to buy food, clothing, entertain ourselves (travel and dining, for example), and buy some toys (electronics in my case).  Chances are that at the end of the month you have spent ALL of that small portion, hopefully not more than that.  (otherwise you get into debt, but that is a different article) Savings and investments are money you move into an savings or investment accounts.  If you just save it today on a sale, to spend it tomorrow on another sale, it is not too much of a saving. Money you used to purchase a product on a sale is spent, lost, gone forever - no saving at all. The only saving comes if you use that extra money that was not spent (compared to the regular or expected price) and transfered it to an appropriate investment instrument. By my definition of saving (which you can share or disagree on), most people don't save anything on sales.  Does it still make sense to buy on sales? Of course it does!!  First of all it DOES gives you an opportunity for more real savings (more money that can be invested into the appropriate instruments) if you decide to transfer money into the appropiate accounts.  At a minimum it allows you to obtain more items for the same amount of money, and hopefully it means more comfort or enjoyment - which is extremely important in itself.  But be careful about believing that you are SAVING if the money is not being diverted into a savings instrument. Next time you are about to say "I saved a lot on that purchase!", you may want to say "I got a good deal on that purchase!".  (Unless you where smart enough to transfer the saved money to an investment account).

Discount sales, saves money to the extent that you spend less. Remember it increases your expenditure, sometimes, unwanted too!
cvrk () (URL) - 27 06 05 - 10:30

It only save money if you were going to buy it anyway. Otherwise, it’s just spending.
Henry () - 29 06 05 - 14:28

I’ve noticed that ever since we stopped subscribing to the newspaper, I want a lot less crap. I still get the news (online from free news sites) and I still bargain shop when I’m going to buy something in particular — most store ads are available from their websites, and you can also find deals using PriceGrabber, FatWallet, etc. But ever since I stopped paging through the sale papers every Sunday (something that I really liked doing just to see what’s out there), I’ve stopped wanting to buy this or that thing that I never knew I needed or wanted.

http://www.fivecentnickel.com/
nickel () (URL) - 03 07 05 - 17:17

This reminds of the joke/story about the lady that came home and was so excited that she saved $2000 on a sale.
She said to her husband… “I saved $2000 today on a new fur coat! Isn’t that wonderful?” Cautiously the husband questions, “How much was the coat?” The wife excitedly replies, “It was regularly $12,000 and I got it on sale for ONLY $10,000”
montyloree () (URL) - 17 07 05 - 18:13