Monday’s Money Saving Tips: Don’t buy in bulk. You want TWO bananas, you buy TWO bananas!
Right – here’s a scenario for you to think about today and just maybe you will agree with me, or maybe not but here goes…
OK so you want to buy two bananas (for example) and you head to a supermarket. You pick up your two bananas and the cost of them will be 50 cents. However you glance up and see a sign that says “4 Bananas for 80 cents”. And you think to yourself “hmm that’s a better deal. Must buy them, right?” WRONG. You went to the shop for TWO bananas. Only TWO bananas. If you buy just TWO bananas then you’ve achieved what you went for. And SAVED 30 cents. If you spend an extra 30 cents and go for the FOUR bananas, then you’re buying in bulk and you’ve spent an extra 30 cents you didn’t want to or need to. Shops are clever. But so are you. Think about it. Please.
Yes you might eat those two extra bananas and love it – but you never intended to buying them, and while you think you have saved yourself 20 cents (paying 80 cents instead of a dollar), to the supermarket, they’ve made another 30 cents out of you. You are NOT the winner.
I’m a budget traveller and tips like this I use all the time. Don’t succumb to the big companies PLEASE. Don’t buy an extra tube of toothpaste just because “TWO is cheaper” – two is NEVER cheaper, if you only wanted one.
Plus – if you have two tubes of toothpaste, you’ll actually use it faster and not ration it as much. It’s true. It’s the way the human mind work.
I’m off to buy my TWO bananas. I only need TWO bananas! Safe travels and happy Mondays Money Saving Tips to you all…
I’m of a similar mindset Jonny. It is never really a saving unless you actually intended to buy the full quantity anyway and expected to pay more.
Retailers are quite smart in trying to make enticing offers which lure us in. If you can 100% guarantee that you’d consume the product and would need to buy it again in a respectable time frame then it may be worth considering.
When operating on a tight budget it is always worth making a list then sticking to it.
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Totally agree! It was actually my time working in a supermarket that got me thinking like this. I would say to a customer “if you buy an extra yoghurt, you save 10pence”, they’d be like “what so it’s 10 pence cheaper??!!” Of course it wasn’t. People are clever.