Shopping To Save Money

September 17th, 2009

Not every saving is worth having I do my best to save money. My best tactic is not to buy anything, not even that pair of jeans hanging in the window of the men’s store. I also invest fair amounts of time teaching my wife the subject of economics and how to run the house on cooking oil fumes.

Here are my rules:

• If we have one, don’t buy another one.
• Shop around first, you may find the same thing cheaper somewhere else.
• Haggle – do not feel sorry for the shopkeeper.
• The supermarket will not go bust if you miss a day.
• Look at the specials but make sure we need it before you buy it.
• Go to the supermarket with a list.
• When you have all the items on the list, pay and leave.

I think the rules are all very clear and easy to follow.

Look at all the great deals

One can save money every day. The problem is you have to buy in order to save. The deals change from day to day. Basically it’s all a plot to keep you from understanding exactly what’s happening. That pair of jeans that I slobbered over was $350 when I first saw them. The next day they were marked at $299.99. Progress, I thought. Sure enough, the next day they were $275. Those jeans will soon be mine. The days passed and the price kept dropping. Then they changed the marketing strategy. 3 pairs for $599. I stopped going to look. Who needs 3 pairs of jeans?

In the supermarket

The supermarkets are great marketing strategists. The way they place the counters, the color of the floors, the subtle changes in decoration and the music that floats out over the sound systems. Everything is carefully designed to make you feel as though you have money to spend. The pricing is part of the game. One week sardines are $2 a tin and the next week they are $2 for 2 tins. Last week I was buried deep in the start of an article and I heard my wife telling me that she was off to the supermarket. I grunted in response without missing a keystroke. Some time later I heard her come back into the house. “I got some great bargains!” she said flouncing into the study. I was close to my 500 words and didn’t look up. “It was 3 for 1 day!”

Tonight’s dinner

My wife’s Chinese chicken is simply the best. It is served on a bed of rice. It is sweet and sour and the little pieces of chicken have been fried in a batter. Mmmmm. But tonight’s dish was different. “What is this awful stuff under the chicken?” “Oh that? Remember the other day I told you about 3 for 1 day at the supermarket? Well that’s the rice I bought. 3 packets for $2!” There’s something missing from my rules, right?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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