Shopping at Sales: How Much are You Saving?

When people shop they often get excited when they see specials, or sales, they fill their minds with the idea that buying these items means they “save” money. They are told how much they “saved”. The problem is, that even when buying sales items or getting a good deal, no money was actually saved.

Let us say an item sells for $9.99, but is on sale for $4.99 and a customer buys the item. They immediately get a good feeling, thinking they have saved $5.00. Stores know this and play on that mentality. Nobody steps forward to remind the customer that they spent $4.99. Saving money is when you physically put money aside rather than using it for any kind of purchase. Unless the difference, in this case $5.00 was put aside, nothing was actually “saved”. Saving money is not the same as money not being spent

The consumer can use this type of marketing manipulation to their advantage with a little creativity. It is possible to turn these imaginary “savings” into real savings for your future. It is possible to reduce your current debts and to increase your net worth by actually saving the amount of the “savings” on the products you buy.

Where I live many grocery stores have what is called 10 Percent Tuesday. On 10 Percent Tuesdays (usually the first Tuesday of the month) shoppers are given an additional 10 percent off from their purchase for that shopping excursion. If you take the “savings” from 10 percent off of a $300.00 purchase you have $30.00 that could be put into your savings account giving you $360.00 in your savings account at the end of the year. Most of these stores also have other in store savings on selected items in addition to the 10 percent. If you shop smart and also buy items that are on-sale you can get more “savings”. The “savings” on items often adds up to an additional $30.00 for me in a month. Based on those figures and putting another $360.00 away in your savings account each month would leave you with $720.00 in savings at the end of the year.

Imagine how fast your savings account will grow if you do this each and every time that you are told by a retailer that you of a “savings” of X amount of dollars. The Supermarket is not the only place where you shop that from time to time informs you that you have “saved” this or that amount of money. As consumers we are told this time and time again in retail shops, restaurants, hotels, and even car dealerships. By keeping a tally of all of these so-called savings and actually saving the equivalent of them in a savings account your savings at the end of the year may in the thousands of dollars.