Do you tend to spend more when you have a discount coupon?

There are two kinds of shoppers:

#1. Those who are looking for deals for the sake of it.
#2. Those who are after deals because they want to save some money.

It's a documented fact that type #1 shoppers tend to spend more when they have coupons but the second group will make calculations and see if they are saving anything before deciding to buy anything whether they have a coupon or not.

So, IMO, not everyone spends more when they have coupons.

 

It has been tempting. I am a military veteran and many stores like, "Lowes," gives me 10% off all of my purchases. There are times I tell myself that because I just saved $20 I can go and spend another $20.00 and so on. Realizing that I have just embarked on a practical example of one of Zeno's paradoxes I try to stick with my original saving and move out of the store quickly before I change my mind.

 

Once in awhile I might see something extra that I just don't want to leave without; but no, generally discount coupons do not entice me to buy more than I plan on buying to start with. Certainly not a 10% one.

 

I don't usually- I've had to argue a little with my husband over this, how good of a DEAL is something if you're getting it when you otherwise wouldn't or spending more money just to get it? When I get deals and discounts and such it's because I want to save money, not spend money to "save" it.

 

Without a doubt that idea that you are getting greater value increases the likelihood that you will buy or spend more (overall) for things you don't need. For examples, around Black Friday there were a couple promos for $25 off $150, $25 off $250, 5% cashback etc, and I just stacked them all. In the end, I bought a bunch of new computer parts for something I didn't -truly- need. Now, I can certainly brag about the prices I got them at and maybe I can make excuses like how useful it will be in the future and I would have to upgrade eventually, but at the end of the day it really was simply spending more than I should have.

 

Usually, I try to be reasonable with discounts, especially of products I don't need or I did not need or want to buy before I got the said discount. That said, if I'm shopping online for something I need already, and the online shop offers a x percent or 10$ discount over a 50$ or whatever limit, then I might look around for additional items to buy if I was already close to it. I mean, if I want to buy a new laptop battery and it costs 35$ and on the website I already saw a few neat things, then yes, I might to up higher than I planned for the discount.

Last time it happened, everything I bought turned out to be cheap China quality and broke down pretty fast. I guess that's what I get for trying to save money through discounts like this!