"It's not how much you saved, it's how much you spent."

We have a store here called Big Lots. My wife will put things in the cart that we would never buy because they were half of what we would pay in the store. How many bottled sauces and olives do we really need. If they are in the closet three months later we did not "save" we "spent." Good Point!!

I used to be terrible about buying things off the clearance racks ... my husband would ask me why we had 7 tubes of brand name toothpaste in the drawer, I'd say that they were 1/2 off and he'd ask "but isn't that price still about the same price as buying generic and without paying interest on our credit cards?" Or like you said, 10 bottles of salad dressing? If it is not a DRASTIC savings, and if it sits on my shelves or in my drawers now, I just don't buy it until I am close to needing it.

Another is Holiday Decorations. OMG boxes and boxes marked H'ween coming out this week. One more scarecrow and I am going to play wicked witch of the west.

The Halloween candy in my area came out at the very very end of August ... I was like "what in the heck is all this candy for?", and when one of the stock guys said it was for Halloween I almost barfed all over the place. I half expect to see the Christmas stuff out next week!

i went through that phase in my 30's.you go to the store for certain things.next thing you know you have a bunch of impulse buys.some were necessities,but like you guys way too much of those at once.how many bottles of lavorice do you need at once?these stores with there seasonal specials are ridiculous.i half expect the x-mas stuff to come out soon.even the day after thanksgiving is too soon,but we'll have it the day after halloween i guarantee it.

well there might be a couple of days of Thanksgiving stuff too though!

i used to be that way at wal mart. nowadays it seems i'm better off not even stepping a foot in that store! if i go to say, cvs, i might pay a $1 more but end up spending less.
i had a talk with a depression-era relative and she said she knows people who are worse off now. that's really sad to me, and i hope everything gets better soon.

I went into WalMart last month for something that I couldn't get at Aldi's, and had to really stop and think when the LAST time had been ... NOT shopping there has really helped me to control my spending.

i know, same here - i usually am so used to being poor these days that i have gotten pretty good. i always add up the prices in my head before putting it in my cart.

I stay out of the stores, only go if I have to, only buy what I need. I try to stock up on doorbusters that I know I will use, this saves SOOOO much money especially with kids to feed.

Know what ya mean, CANDICEANN. I'm a sinlge mom and I REALLY to watch where my money goes. I DO buy things on sale,..but, it's things that I DO need. I don't see the sense of buying something, even on sale, if you REALLY don't need it or something you haven't use in a long time or have NEVER used............just BECAUSE it's on sale.

i was guilty of that yesterday, ended up with stuff i did not really *need* because it was on sale.. i tend to do that when i am depressed, but it is okay because i take it as a lesson to remind me to stay focused.

I guess I didn't catch this post back in Sep when it was new...

This type of thinking ("But it was on sale...") lends itself to marketing ploys. Say a product you don't need is usually $5. Well, they jack up the price to $10, put it on sale for 50% off, you're still buying it for $5 but now you think you're getting a great deal.

My apartment is so cluttered with stuff, that I really don't have any more room. So whenever I shop and see something that might be nice, I always ask myself "where am I going to put this?" If I can't envision where in my apartment I will keep it, then I don't buy it.

I used to be like that, but not anymore! It is true that they hike the prices up to lower them "Rolling Down Prices!" its crap. I know exactly how much stuff is and when i see that it ticks me off. Frankly I hate wal-mart the people of my community shopped there like there was no tomorrow so it put everything else out of business now thats all we have except for a few grocery stores like aldis and save alot. Our Wal-mart is no longer cheap because they wiped out the competition and now there really isnt any other place to shop. I avoid them as much as possible. I have seen them do this on certain things i mentally put into my had that eventually i would by and went back for the price to be high for about a month and to go back later and it be low again way to lower prices! Perfect example:
in july i bought my son a portable V-smile for 50.00 on sale from 59.99(christmas present) sale was over went back to 59.99. Then got a black friday flier advertising it for 25.00! so of course i purchased it on black friday and took the other back. a week later back to 59.99. so they are making a profit on it still at 25.00 so look at how much money they are making on just that 1 purchase 1 item. What a bunch of crooks.
I used to play that "its on sale" game when i was a teenager, but now as a adult with lots of bills i know why they do it. It may be on sale but you spent money on it you usually wouldnt have. so it cost you money it didnt save you anything

I agree with this, it is not how much you have saved, it all comes down to how much you have spent. At the end of the day that is what matters. Specially in these recessionary times it is easy for people to see great bargains and feel they are getting good value.

However the "good value" products are often things which people could very easily do without.

It is always best to keep a tight check on absolute spending, not relative spending.

I guess I can see your dad's point, but in some cases it IS about how much you saved. Once you determine that you really need something, than it's all about what you saved. Yes, it's about what you SPENT if you don't NEED the items (like new clothes or a new computer or a new car), but if you actually need something, then finding it for the best price is what it's all about.

In my case, I NEED food to eat, so when I buy groceries, it's all about how much I saved. I've gotten down to a nice weekly grocery budget of $50 or less, and I use coupons and shop sales to maximize my savings.

i agree with both points.. but i think that mainly what was meant was not to buy stuff just because it is on sale or whatever. i used to do that all the time and ended up with stuff that i did not need or even really want.

Yeah, I used to do that, too. "Oh look! It's on sale" and then I had a bunch of crap I didn't need. I used to be an awful compulsive shopper. I'm so much better now. I was so proud of myself yesterday for going in to Target and picking up a bunch of different things, but in the end, I didn't buy anything at all because it wasn't stuff I really needed.

Bea2ls is right, that is what he was talking about