True Savings

The store sign says, “End of the Year Blow-out Sale!” Tempted? Of course you are. Especially if that store is one you frequent often. So, you walk in, glance around, and immediately head to the section toting 50-70% savings.

What do you do when you spot that bargain? Do you jump on it, count your luck and dive back into your shopping? I used to, but now I stop and ask myself a couple of questions before I start congratulating myself on my "savings."

Would I buy it at regular price?

After years of bargain hunting, I began to have enough clutter to satisfy the worst case of hoarding. I had too much stuff. Was the savings really worth it? Neither my shelves nor my wallet thought so.

Now I have a strict rule: If I wouldn't pay full price for it, I won’t buy it on sale—no matter how tempting it is. Otherwise, are you really saving? If I sell you something you didn't need anyway, you didn't really save any money.

If I was going to buy the item at full price, but can get it cheaper, I saved money. If I wasn’t going to buy the item in the first place but just bought it to get the deal, I just spent money I didn’t need to. That’s not really a savings. You may save 90% on a $2000 couch, but if you don’t have anywhere to put it, what did you gain? Nothing. What did you lose? Money, space, and time.

Save the savings

If you take the money you saved as a license to spend it somewhere else, you haven't really saved anything either. Take that money that you saved and put it into investments or your emergency fund. Put your savings to work for you.

We can all get caught up in the appeal of getting something for far less than it's "worth," but it's important to remember that "worth" is a very subjective term. Things have different values to different people and something that might be an asset to someone else might be a liability to you. Make sure you really want your purchase before you let a sale influence your decision.

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