Buying and the Economy

When the economy gets tough, the smart people spend. These are times where you get that extra mile for your dollar. Smart companies are thinking of ways to slash prices to make you, the average consumer part with your hard earned monies ESPECIALLY during hard times. Who can blame them? They just want to stay afloat. This is the time to spend spend spend!

(note: HDB as mentioned in my previous post is doing the entire opposite. Raising flat prices instead of slashing them. But then again that only works if you've got a monopoly. Even Mediacorp is advertising lower ad rates even though they are also a monopoly just that they are in denial)

Just flip through today's Straits Times and you will find sales galore. Forget the 20% off storewide stuff. They're not much of a help. Forget up to 70% off at boutiques. I asked Hush Puppies which items were at 70% off and there were none. The max was 30%. Places to score great deals are warehouse sales, baskets and periodical mega sales at trusty places like 1) carrefour, 2) departmental stores and 3) expo sales.

Before you buy, create a budget. In tough times, it’s important to limit your spending on unnecessary extras and zero in on what are truly important. So if you're looking for a 8GB thumb drive, don't be distracted by that groovy portable speaker. Chances are you don't need it. If the stuff is out of your REASONABLE price range, forget it. If you notice a trend in electronics, prices are going DOWN DOWN DOWN (my 42" LCD TV was bought for $2,899 and about a year later it's dropped to less than 1K!). Even when you're encountering a MEGA SALE and have the possibility of overspending, make sure you budget yourself. Say I am only going to spend $80 at this book fair. And I will not pay more than $x per book. It usually helps you take out the stuff that you've grabbed on impulse like "the life of Mao Zhedong" and "Applied Modern Philosophy". You probably won't read it. Not even "Barack Obama". And if you've never read the Davinci Code before you saw the movie, chances are you probably won't. So put that back.

(note: this aunty woman queuing up in front of me was approached by a PRC to help her purchase the Da vinci Code. It was a pretty good hardcover for $8 with big font and even I had a copy of it bought a few months back for $6 at a similar fair. After agreeing to help the PRC woman purchase the book, she started flipping through the book and conversed with her equally aunty friend that "this book is not very good" and "alot of it is not real". After which she beckoned to the PRC waiting by the line to come over, and told her "this book is not a good book. Alot of it is not real". I mean C'MON. It's FICTION. OF COURSE IT'S NOT REAL. So does that make "CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS" that's in your box to purchase a BAD BOOK as well because it is NOT REAL?)

That said, one should hit mega sales at expos and warehouse sales more frequently. BUT limit yourself to stuff that you are actually buying. Hence if you are looking for bedroom sets, wait for warehouse sales for bedroom sets. If you are looking for shoes, look for warehouse sales of shoes. If you are looking for books, look for warehouse sales of books. This cannot be stressed enough because general warehouse sales by establishments such as METRO, JOHN LITTLE and ROBINSONS are a dime a dozen and simply don't have a good deal for people knowing what they want. They are structured to make you pick up things that you don't actually need! (As if you didn't know that already...)

I used to scout Amazon for the best deals in books because I simply do not like to pay retail for books. But even nowadays, Amazon is faltering to the local bookstore chains that offer you 30% + 10% every other month. Although having said that, I sincerely regret buying my MICROECONOMICS and FREAKONOMICS from Borders at 30% + 10% off because now I see the same book sitting on the shelf in CARREFOUR for $6. Books will never go out of print. So if you're into books, wait a few months for the distributor to dump his excess stock via expo/warehouse sales and you can find the books sitting high on Kinokuniya's top 10 books for the week in the bargain bin for $6 - $8 depending on whether it's a softcover or hardcover.

Of course the above is just my perspective and is only in relation to stuff I like, like toys, electronics and books etc. Nerdy stuff. But that said, I also do buy clothes and look out for stuff like the Club21 sale amongst others and pick up good deals from Isetan and TANGS baskets. Yes, there are cheap and affordable clothes at TANGS.

But even now, I have actually shopped LESS in Singapore and have chosen to spend MORE overseas. Without leaving my chair of course. That brings me to shopping online, the next best thing to being there. Yes I know, women like to "physically shop" but shopping online is tiring too okay! :) Although I have given up Amazon for books, I still trough online websites for good deals and there are many to be had. For instance her latest buy for me online was a $5 pair of men's shorts from Heritage. And it was better than anything I could find in Singapore for say $30. Also, I can pick up something that's available in Singapore at $300 for about $220 shipped to my doorstep. These savings all count IF you MUST buy the item. Also, before purchasing, use your search engine to identify manufacturers of items you regularly buy and see if you can get on their e-mail list for special coupons online. Major retail chains also e-mail coupons and news of special sales to customers online as well. If you don’t have something to type in that “discount code” box when you’re buying something online, stop. It’s wise to pull up another search window and type in the name of the product, the retailer’s name and the words “discount code” and see if anything comes up that fits the product you’re buying. These can give you 20% off plus free shipping on ALREADY heavily discounted items! (and if you ship by vpost, they have 20% off using UOB PLUS a lucky draw which I won a pair of $39 speakers!)

And I don't even need to tell you how good prices are when you import your essentials directly from China. A fraction of the price. Of course, my essentials aren't the same as yours and it would be wise to steer clear of all foodstuffs.

Yes. That means at the end of the day, I have a smaller bank account. But if you consider that you're not gonna spend that money anyway even if you hang onto it and wait to spend it in better times, and the CRAPPY PUI PUI PUI bank interest POSB is giving you (it's an insult I tell you), you might as well spend more NOW and get MORE, then to spend MUCH MORE next time, and get LESS.

Unless of course you are buying a HDB flat. (Shame on you HDB!)