Stop Thinking About True Value and Just Buy What You Need

Often times when we buy a product, we get confused with the purpose of the purchase. Sometimes, we buy something out of impulse, sometimes it’s based out of necessity but most of the time, it’s only because we can.

When we set out to buy, we seldom know what we are really looking for other than something general like “I need a refrigerator”. What ends up happening is something we are all familiar with. We go into the store and talk to the salesperson about fridges. Almost always, we learn some “must have” feature that now becomes the anchor of our search for our perfect refrigerator. After a while, we end up buying a nice (but way too expensive) refrigerator and we justify it by saying “This is the best value I could find”.

Confusing Necessity with True Value

The situation is even worst when I am actually somewhat familiar with the product. When I buy a computer, I end up buying a better one than I originally intended because I can understand the sales pitch about the extra features. I tell myself that “oh yeah, that faster processor is extremely important” only to forget that I was buying a laptop for my wife whom only wants to occasionally surf the web.

Expensive Doesn’t Equal Quality

More expensive equal better, or at least that’s what we think. After all, there must be a reason that it costs more, or so we though.

We think this way because we are the consumer. Let’s for a minute assume the role of the business owner. We sell a product because we want to make money. The higher the price, the more money we make because our cost is somewhat fixed. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense that we try to market the product as expensive as possible? Now think back to our perception of price and quality. Where does quality come into the price equation?

True Value is Personal

It’s not how many features you get for your dollar but how many dollars you give for the features that you need. Who cares if that iPod has a huge screen when you only wanted to listen to music? Sure, that LCD TV has 1080p output and it’s only $150 more, but what is 1080p again?

Value is becoming a sales term and I don’t like it. You shouldn’t either.

How to Pay Less and Be Happy

Here’s one tip that everyone should follow when they need to buy something.

Before you do any research, sit down and figure out what you specifically need the product to do and write them down first. Then, do your research and find the least expensive product that can get the job done.

Forget about the new LCD display on the side door that tells you when the ice cubes will be ready. Just say “No Thanks”.

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