We live in a money consuming society. Messages from around the world encourage us to spend. Newspapers and magazines, radio and television, signs and billboards invade our minds with messages that we cannot consciously remember, but that lead us to buy certain products. Manipulation continues in more ways than you can imagine, to separate people from their hard-earned money.

Children are manipulated by toy ads, teenagers by nice gadgets and sneakers, and parents are attracted to installment purchases at surprising rates. In his book The Innocent Consumer vs The explorers, Sidney Margolius, say that this manipulation causes "a massive loss of family money and misappropriation of family resources" necessary for other, more important things.

We are convinced of buying in several ways. Let's do some examples:

Everywhere, they tell us to buy to be happy. But when we buy the item and take it home, we find that little has changed.

A mother sees pots and pans marked "gourmet" cooking utensils. This suggests that you could make dinners better with these. But we all know that the quality of cooking usually depends on the ingredients and skills of the cook, not on what the manufacturer calls a pan.

The father sees a beautiful illustration of beautiful furniture, promising that he could do it if he had only an expensive power tool. Such tools will certainly speed up the job, but will it really make you a skilled craftsman? Craftsmen have been producing exceptional furniture for centuries with much simpler tools.

You want to take great pictures, but buying the most expensive camera will not necessarily make you an expert photographer.

If you look at what a device actually does, how effectively you will use it and what your needs are, your money will go further and do more than you buy.

Unhappy?

Manufacturers do a good job selling phones,stoves, refrigerators, televisions and even cars and clothing to people who already have these items.They make people feel like they're need new stocks or gadgets available on the market.Marketers make the style seem different in the eyes of the public.There are many ways of changing the style of the product,but, as Vance Packard said in his book The Hidden Persuaders, "Using color is one of the cheapest ways to do this".

Buyers thus become "dissatisfied buyers" and before long, you start to wonder if you shouldn't have a new phone😀. It is the same method used by car manufacturers, so as to make you unsatisfied with the old family car, although it still works very well and does not look good.

Money or card?

There is another way for traders to encourage you to spend more than you should. They can suggest ordering one of the store's credit cards.Swipping makes shopping easier.Large companies have shown this to be true.

Less scrupulous stores can use credit to hide the real cost. Instead of quoting the price, they simply quote monthly payments.One appliance dealer said, "We prefer to say" $ 12 a month. "Giving the full price just confuses the customer." But it is usually the monthly payment used to confuse you. A store manager said, "It is possible to increase the average customer by about a dollar a meter on the carpet by negotiating with credit. We are more willing to quote with an emphasis on payments than dollars per meter." monthly is charged at a price higher than what the customer plans to pay.

Does the widespread use of credit hurt families? Yes, especially those who need to monitor their funds more. There is a high financial burden, the temptation to buy unnecessary or very expensive items and the risk of over-indebtedness. In the United States alone, several million families - many of them younger - have debt problems.

So, to increase your money, pay attention to consumer credit.

Read the ads

Knowing how to read newspaper sales ads is another way to make your money work. Remember that some sales are legitimate; many are not. Here are some points to get the most out of it:

Pay attention to seasonal sales. In many places, business drops after Christmas fever, so stores sell in January. In addition, purchases of summer and winter clothing fall mid-season, that is, from January to February and from June to July. It's time to look for those sales. Some products may be worn out and the selection may not be good. But careful selection right now can usually save you money.

A closed sale may be legitimate, but be careful. In some stores, the "bankruptcy" sign never seems to go down.

Find out what the ads really say. "Regularly $ 99.95, now $ 59.95" should mean, if true, that the price will drop to $ 99.95 after the sale. "$ 99.95 of comparable value" means much less. The shop claims that this item is comparable to the more expensive merchandise, but this comparison can only be in the mind of the shop owner. "List Price $ 99.95" also means less. This is the price printed on the manufacturer's list or on the packaging. It may have little connection with reality and it may be excessively high, so stores seem to be negotiating by marking it.

"Under the manufacturer's cost" raises other questions, such as: why? Was he a bad seller? It was interrupted? Parts are no longer available?

"Save !" Remember, this attractive word usually has only one purpose: to make you spend. Words like "special!" "Reduced!" and "Clearance!" Of course, that doesn't mean more or less than what the store manager wants. Even in famous stores, more than one employee has been informed: "Compose $ 7.95, for the next week, we can tag it for $ 6.50."

We are victims of these games because we want to find a good deal. You can protect yourself by learning the price and quality. Know how much it costs. And remember, nothing is a good deal unless you really need it. Even if buying it really saves 50%, not buying it will save 100%!

Shop

Members of low-income families (who obviously need more savings) are less likely to shop in more than one store than buyers from wealthier families.

Can you save by comparing prices in various stores? Of course it can! In the United States, the Consumer Report(Formerly Consumer Union) has found that prices for the same device range from $ 260 to $ 380 in different stores.

Reduce your food bill

It is estimated that many housewives could cut their food costs by up to 25% with smarter purchases. Food is a big part of your family's expenses. How do experts say they save?

First, you need to plan. You can save money by shopping once a week, not every day. You can see sales and buy food when it's in season and cost a lot less than the rest of the year.

A shopping list can go a long way. Stores that offer cheap items and leaders to attract customers expect you to purchase enough other items to make up for the cheap items. Great attention is paid to you for the purchase of more advantageous items in the shop.

Displays stacked or placed at the ends of corridors, or on special tables in the middle of corridors, or near the cash desk, can encourage you to purchase items that were not on your list. Supermarket owners know that a shop's profitability depends on its ability to stimulate these impulse purchases. Leland J. Gordon and Stewart M. Lee say in Economics for Consumers: “Sellers take advantage of the tendency of consumers to buy on impulse, to their advantage. The purchase of impulses increases when men buy and increases when boys are together. Aware of the pitfalls of impulsive buying, the attentive consumer buys what's on their shopping list and nothing else.

Other ways to save

Many supermarket games are played with packaging and prepared food. After buying a kilo of sugar or a kilo of rice, they weighed themselves in front of you and brought them home. Now they come in packages, which can be tricky. Some large boxes are far from full. A bottle of hand lotion was designed to look larger than a competitor's bottle, which contained twice as much. A package may seem like you get more when you really get less.

A simple solution is to compare. Read the weight before buying the package.

The prepared vegetables are sold in practical containers and the cheeses in small pieces. But you pay, sometimes more than you think, for that convenience. Prepared foods are not only more expensive; They may have less nutritional value than might be expected. Loads, extensions, and even water have replaced certain nutrients in prepared foods.

The rule is simple: the more a special preparation has been introduced into your food, the less you will receive for your money!