UNITED STATES─I have been spending a bit of money lately, because when you’re sheltered in place for a period of time, and you have the opportunity to get out and spend a bit of green which you have amounted in the past few months rather it’s from working overtime or unemployment, you want to treat yourself a bit. However, just because you have the opportunity to spend, does not mean you have to. Let me be crystal clear, I’ve seen some of the best sales that I can recall in the past few weeks with retailers opening their doors back to the public.

A majority coming from major retailers and the clothing stores at various malls are offering the discounts to consumers. There is a plethora of inventory that many of these retailers have to get rid of and the only way to do that is to offer a discount and these discounts for the most part are massive. I mean huge. I always tell people anything less than 50 percent is not the best deal, but when you reach 70 to 80 percent it becomes very difficult to resist what sits in front of you.

C’mon you can get a coat that regularly costs $100 for only $15? That is a major deal, even if you don’t need the item you are tempted to purchase it because how can you not at such a rate. I recently told someone this is the best time to be doing Christmas shopping if you have some extra money because the chances of you catching the amount of deals that are being seen right now are slim to none people. The deals are seriously that good, so much to the point I have seen people doing cartwheels (well not literally), but you can tell they are excited with the deals they nabbed up. I’ll put this out there because I rarely do this, the retailer Macys had an epic sale the day they opened their doors back to the public. It was almost as if they were hoping to give out free items to patrons because when you catch designer brand items for pennies on a dollar that is a sign of what other surprises you might be able to find.

The retailers are hurting and anyway they can draw in the consumer by offering sales businesses are doing so. Not just the clothing retailers, but restaurants, electronic stores, the list goes on and on. However, I have to precede with an edge of caution: just because you have money to spend does NOT mean you have to spend that money. Yes, it’s nice to get a great bargain, but is it worth burning the money in your wallet just to say that you purchased something?

I think we all know the answer to that question: no. Just because something is ON SALE, does not mean you have to purchase that item. You buy the item because you need it or because it’s something you really want. Not just to say I got something for a few bucks. I mean let me ask you something, how does that actually benefit you in the long run? Precisely that item gets tossed in your closet and it never sees the light of day or you never even wear. That’s money you’re tossing down the drain people, and that’s not smart.

I’ve maybe spent $200 in the past 2 months on items that I wanted and needed, yes that might seem like a lot, but I did get some stellar bargains along the way. With that said, it did force me to note: just think of the bills I could have paid off with that $200 and what that money I could have saved could have done for me in the long run. You’ll always have that notion stuck in the back of your head: the what if. If you have that notion, that is a sign of some other things you should be considering when it comes to what you buy and what you do not buy.

Written By Zoe Mitchell