“BOGO 50% OFF!”
“Extra 75% off Sale Merchandise”
While some may argue that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, many would disagree that instead, diamonds on sale are an even better friend than full priced diamonds.
Like many women, I used to enjoy shopping as a leisure activity with friends and I loved it all the more when I could “get a good deal” by buying things on sale. But, now I’ve done more research, and become older and wiser of course, I’ve learned that buying things on sale isn’t always the best shopping policy.
Sale Items Aren’t Always on Sale
Some shady department stores have been known to mark merchandise up from its original price before beginning a “sale”. Then at the beginning of the sale period, they mark it back down to what it originally cost. In these instances, you are still paying full price for the “sale” items, which is bad enough, but some poor suckers even got caught paying more than the original price!
Now that I know better about sale prices not always being truthful, I shop around for the best deal before buying. I usually use my smartphone to check online prices of the same or similar products and if it’s not a huge inconvenience, I might even price check at another brick-and-mortar store as well.
Sale Items Aren’t Always a Good Deal
What’s the definition of a “good deal”? How I define a good deal has changed over the years. I used to get excited just at the prospect of buying something, anything really, on sale.
“Look honey! I bought this fancy evening dress on sale!” Never mind the fact that I didn’t actually have any intention of wearing the dress anytime soon. This made the beautiful “on sale” evening dress just another unworn item cluttering up my closet, because as we all know, we women will go out and buy another new dress if an occasion arrives.
After learning my lesson on this one a time or two, I now only consider a “good deal” to be a sale on something I have a true need for.
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Sale Items Bought in Bulk
Sometimes sales specify that you must purchase a bigger quantity in order to get the sale price. These types of sales happen at grocery stores the majority of the time. The most popular form of this in my area is the “10/$10” sale.
Each week the grocery store has several of these events going on around the store. The secret here is to ask the employees, or read signage very closely, to see if you can actually purchase 10 items combined between the selected sale items that week.
In my town’s grocery store, they are even trickier sometimes. The majority of the time you don’t actually have to buy 10 of these items at all. If I just want one can of spaghetti sauce when it’s on the “10/$10” sale it’s ok because it’s still just $1!
Sometimes buying 10 of these sale items is ok, just make sure you will actually use them up or donate them before they become expired.
What are some of the things you’ve learned about buying on “sale”?
Image via Flickr by timparkinson
