"I saved $3,000 when I bought this new car!"
"I saved $250 when I bought this new TV!"
"I saved $200 when I bought this new computer!"
I am sure that you have heard people say this. You have probably said this. I know that I used to say this a lot!
The FACT is that - I have never seen anyone save money by spending money!
I have seen them spend less money, but I have never seen them save money.
People want to believe that they are getting a great deal, AND they know that they should be saving money. Marketers are genius to use the phrase "Save money by buying today!"
I will probably use this phrase when my book is released. I will say … "Save $3 by purchasing today!" 
I guess there is one way to kill my statement. That is to take the money that you did not spend and actually save it!!! Like physically putting the money into a savings account where it can gain interest. That would certainly put a hole in my rant!
I really like saving my emergency fund money in my
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November 26th, 2007 at 05:03 pm 1196096635
Say you want a new flatscreen TV, since your old one is 15 years old or something.
You save the money for the TV you want to buy.
You have money allocated for it in your bank account. But you don't buy the TV right away. After doing extensive research and price comparisons, you take your time, keeping an eye out for a good deal for a couple of months. Than you see the TV on sale for 2/3 the regular price. You jump on the deal and save 1/3 the price.
November 26th, 2007 at 08:02 pm 1196107337
As I pointed out to him earlier, it depends on the true nature of your purchase. If you're buying a need, or a serious want without compromising budget, then that's one thing. If-- and once you get past the smoke and mirrors of rationalization-- you're really buying something you don't need or a want that breaks your budget, even if it "saved" you 20%, then that's just plain dumb. The worst thing someone can do is to buy something they may not even care much about, but thought it was a Good Idea because it was on sale at the time.
It just depends, but I do agree that conspicuous consumption is still conspicuous consumption, regardless of how much it is on sale.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:00 pm 1196114408
So as a shopper if you buy something at a discount, sure, you're paying less than full price for it, but once you spend that money you have that much less in dollars, so you can't say you 'saved' anything. It's all a quibble about terminology i guess.
November 27th, 2007 at 06:28 pm 1196188111
The key word here is WANT. You want a new big screen/flat screen, you don't NEED one. Therefore, you didn't save any money. @@ Or only buying it because it's on sale. If it weren't on sale, you wouldn't have bought it to begin with thus saving you much more money. @@