Mid-season sales – Boom or bust?

Oct 19, 2011 by blackbook

It barely seems like the summer sales have ended and yet here we are again with the mid-season sales. Last week my inbox was full of emails advertising the beginning of mid-season sales, which I have to say normally do entice me to buy something I do not need nor really want. This time however I found some self-control and did not click onto the sales and instead deleted them out of my sight.

So are mid-season sales all they are cracked up to be? Well in the past I probably would have said no, a few years ago you would be hard pressed to find many bargains this time of year. Normally items found in mid-season sales were fashion pieces which hadn’t really taken off, now however it’s a completely different story.

Since the recession hit shops have been trying every trick in the book to encourage us, the consumers to buy. It has worked too, great discount on new season clothing, shoes and accessories would entice anyone who hasn’t got her winter wardrobe yet, or anyone who needs a new jumper for the cold weather!

Are there bargains to be had then in mid-season sales? Well a quick look online shows that the shops are pulling out all the stops with great offers, highstreet favourites such as M&S, NEXT, Debenhams and H&M suggest that there are deals to be found on items you actually need.

Whether a sale is boom or bust is for the consumer really, if you need something and its reduced then I would say it’s a boom! However if you merely purchase something because it had money off rather than needing it than that’s a bust!

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Making the most of online shopping vouchers

Oct 9, 2011 by blackbook

When I first started using the internet for shopping, many moons ago there were no such thing as online vouchers, the only vouchers I used to get were those cut out of Sunday newspapers for my weekly shopping. However in the past few years, shopping voucher sites have popped up all over the place, offering codes to get discounts on the web and even printable vouchers in store.

Recently when shopping online, I realised I very rarely used voucher codes, mainly because I forget about them when making quick, normally impulsive purchases, so I decided to have a look for some and did a quick Google search for ’Voucher Codes’. I then got inundated with a multitude of sites offering a wide range of discounts, which led me to one problem; ‘where do I start?’

I realise I can’t recommend any one site but I can give you some tips to follow when using online voucher sites to make it a bit easier for you to get real savings:

Keep an eye out for expiry dates, not all websites are up to date, I also found that codes tend to run out before the end of the month, so if you’re waiting for pay day, the discount may not be available then.

Always enter code when asked and double check discount has been applied before you pay.

Research your offers, if your searching for something in particular that is sold by a number of different online retailers check around for prices, just because one website has a voucher discount doesn’t mean it will be the cheapest when the discount is applied. Other retailers may actually be selling the item for less.

Also if you haven’t considered checking for a voucher because you think the store won’t offer them, check you may be surprised. I always double check when I get to the checkout if there is a discount code box on the screen, there may be some to be found either on the company website or online.

Check your vouchers, some website allow you to double up your vouchers which means you can save more money however others don’t so make sure you use the voucher which will give you the best savings.

Finally and most importantly, just because you have found some good online voucher codes it doesn’t mean you have to use them, if you don’t really need the items in question after all its not really a saving if your spending money on something you don’t need! Well that’s how I see it!

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