How much have you really saved?

thecruncher

I love a bargain, it's true, but the hysteria around saving money is really getting quite ridiculous.

These days when i'm going to spend a lot of money on a product then i will proportionately spend much more time to research it and find the best product and ultimately the best price. At the end of the day it's more important that i make the right choice of a high cost product that needs to last and be of good quality (generally).

When i'm looking for cheaper items i'll have a quick look at whether i can use quidco... whether the cost/speed of delivery suits me and whether i trust the store/brand i buy it from. Then jobsagoodun it's all purchased i can get back to doing something else.

What i find funny is a few friends of mine will go out of their way to find the best price for relatively cheap items. Let's say a DVD. Some savvy net users can find the best price and trusted place straight away and get a bargain. However some will spend a crazy amount of time obsessively striving to save a few pence. This can also include visiting a few choice locations on the net: MSE Forums, HUD, price comparison sites, voucher/coupon sites, general search results, etc. This all adds up!

So my question to the people that spend all this time looking to shave off a few pennies is:

How much do you value your time?

My answer to this question is that i would much rather spend my time, which i value highly, researching to a bare minimum so that i can get on with more important things. And yes these well be:

• doing nothing!
• relaxing
• playing games
• any other generally pleasurable activity
• chores (gah!)
• time with friends/family

It'd be great to know how much time the average user spend finding the best product and the then the time taken to find the best price.

At the end of the day is that really time well spent?

moneypuddle

Well it's just up to the individual surely. No-one who has no spare time would spend ages looking for a bargain, whereas someone with mote spare time might. What's the big deal? It's actually enjoyable to a lot of people including myself to save money and shop around and has become a bit of a hobby within itself, so it's actually what I spend my time doing by choice

nancy17

It depends on the dollar amt. and item for me. I'm a single mom so money is tight and on most things I look for the rock bottom price. I tend to buy the same things and know where to shop for the best deal on them.

gracyj

I've saved very little and got to save more.

savemoney

You are also bumping up your post count to promote your signature which by the way is against the rules and has been reported

:spam: from homemodifications

homemodifications wrote: »

I am saving around 1000Rs. every month.

Hollie_Rose_2

It's always good to save, I personally don't compare prices for the littler things, however why shouldn't I? If I had more time I probably would because we should all want to save our money - especially if you work hard for it (or in today's day ad age, work for it at all)... I do think they are spending their time wisely if they have the time to be saving money. You're right, it does all add up. I wonder how much money we have wasted by not comparing prices for the little things?

sdw_2

I think everyone would benefit from saving money on small-ticket items like shampoo - it's so true that saving the pennies means the pounds watch themselves!

ska_lover

I totally agree with the OP. we all love to save, but it does seem to be developing in to an obsession for some. Which is OK if you have that kind of time on your hands..

Kiwisaver_2

I've not done the maths, but would imagine for most of us our spending would typically follows the old pareto 80/20 rule. 80% on small stuff and 20% on one off big ticket items, therefore very worthwhile watching closely where the 80% goes.

Not forgetting of course, that lots of people don't do this by choice or for fun, for many it is a matter of necessity to pay off debt or make ends meet. For some it's a case of getting best value out of the 80% to spend on life's luxuries, holidays or whatever floats their boat it.

I can only wonder why someone who thinks of money saving as some kind of hysteria would bother to look up a money saving website.:rotfl:

Immaturity

I definitely need to start saving.

Casiopeia_2

I like saving money where ever I can. You can only spend it once!

I decide how much time and energy I have to look for a bargain, depending on what else is going on in my life.