Buying What You Need And Not The Best Deal
Financial Management

Buying What You Need And Not The Best Deal

While in many ways this may sound like the worst idea when it comes to saving money, for a lot of things just buying what you need today as oppose to the value of your purchase can save you money in many ways.

For example, before I saw a 4 gig USB memory stick for about $26 with the 8 gig model costing about $47. So based on value the 8 gig model would have been the better purchase value wise if you think about it. Instead though, all I really needed was the 4 gig and so I decided to go with that one and for these items in particular I know that they drop like a rock.

Sure enough, just recently I saw the 8 gig model on sale for a price of about $18. So thinking about it, if I really wanted to I could now buy that model on top of having the one I already own for the same price I would have paid before if I bought the higher model.

That goes to show you that sometimes it’s not always about buying what gives you the best value necessarily to save money as just getting what you need is something to consider as well.

2 Comments

  • Billy Jean 9/5/2008

    Your comparison is not really fair here. If you wait long enough you will be able to but 16 GB for even less than you paid for 4 GB. That’s the nature of technology.

    But let’s say a 10 lb bag of rice costs $10 and a 20 lb bag of rice costs $15. You only need a cup of rice for dinner tonight. Would you say buying the 10 lb bag saves you money? Of course not. If you want to save money buy the 20 lb bag because you get more value per dollar.

  • Alan Yu 9/5/2008

    I think the comparison is fair as of course I am not labeling this strategy for everything as mentioned. An over exaggerated example when it comes to certain food items is let’s say two litres of milk costs like $2 and 20 litres costs $15 with all you really needing is 4 litres for the week.

    Like with that, buying the $15 is clearly the better deal, but can you truly use that much before it say expires? I personally see that a lot too where people buy these humongous bulk items because it is a better value when really they don’t end up using that much or worse just throw the excess away. I actually see it a lot with cereals I’d say.

    Or like with the rice example, I can kind of put the same twist too where if you normally only eat rice for one day a week, are you going to buy a whole years supply as if you were someone who ate it everyday just because it is a better bargain value wise? Like with that, you’d probably end up saving more not doing it as I’m sure there would be sales later on for say the pasta that you might eat more of.

    So depends on the situation, but it’s just something to keep in mind.

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