Can someone explain this dichotomy (chasm/split)?
Do you think in public people are aghast (horrifed) to talk about the best prices and hacks for acquiring items?
But in the safety of their home are free to release those inner bargain desires, spending the night refreshing their phone. Waiting for that once in a month bargain.
Mana from the internet gods.
If this is not your personal experience please share your strategies to engage others in this avaricious habit
Most people are eye level shoppers.
Well I check the summary email most days but I think I'd find that to be a pretty boring conversation. Also, just because this is a 'popular' website doesn't mean that you can assume most people you talk to frequent it.
Finally, I find a lot of people here tend to approach bargains with a sense of avarice, where it is not about getting the things you need or truly want at a god price but getting anything and everything at a good price as a sense of sport or accomplishment. The economist within me cringes every time.
No One Cares
People here do. That's part of the reason for the forums and deal comments.
In my case, I'm kinda lucky that wifey and sister also like bargain-hunting. Seek those without pretension and inflated egos. They'll be more likely to admit they're into it.
turn thy back on the unclean and unworthy, and join us in ever lasting bargain life
When at work, the majority of people are pretentious and all about image. So bargain hunting doesn't match the image they want to project.
Yep, people are generally very fake and shallow. They use debt to pretend to be successful in a vain attempt to cover their insecurities.
Don't feel like a fool for being one of the few who realise life is too short for that, and spend a minute or two a day to save $$$.
Unless you talked to hundred thousands of people I doubt your small circle of Co workers is representative of Australians on internet.
My father thought me the value of money. i.e he asked me to take a vacation job even manual labour and earn money before going to him asking for any pocket money once I reach age 15.
That training really helps you to control any impulse buying or full-price shopping unless you think it's urgent or you accept that this is the best price for now.
My son who has never had tough life had all things on a platter and I never asked him to contribute towards household expenses, he just doesn't care to find any bargain but just go and buy it out. We had arguments many times and he say he has no time to look out for it. The height of spending is he will call uber/ola at home instead of walking down to get a bus which is 300 meters away and go to Uni.
So that the new generation they don't think of saving and they are living for today.
So the youth of today are bad with money because their parents didn't teach them its importance?
Sounds like you failed as a parent in that regard.
The internet in Australia can potentially reach 29 million people.
Even if this site gets a million genuine unique visits a day, what are the odds you are speaking to one of the other 28 at work?
what are the odds you are speaking to one of the other 28 at work
Well… assuming that your figures of 'one million' and '29 million' are correct (they are not, but for purposes here that doesn't matter'), and assuming that both the 'one million' and '29 million' are reasonably normal and homogeneous distributions (they are not, but again, it doesn't matter), then…
In a group of 12 random Australians there is a roughly 50-50 chance there will be a fellow OzB visitor. A group of 18 raises this to 100% likelihood.
I knew my Statistics 101 course at uni in the dark ages would one day come in useful.
I've sold 2nd hand stuffs on Facebook marketplace for more than what they are currently selling on major retailers and I still dont understand why people dont check Ozbargain first… Mind you i wasn't doing a broden. I was just reducing clutters.
I'd argue that Ozbargain makes people spend more than they normally would. So many deals go up at a good discount compared to the normal price, and people just buy it because it's a good deal, not because they need it.
Sure you're getting stuff cheaper than most people, but you're buying stuff you don't really need.
You fat cats didnt finish your plankton! Now its mine!
Its a website of diminishing returns. Get 80% of your bargain/benefit benefit for 20% of the time you spend on it type stuff…the rest isnt worth the time spent to do it IMHO. Just as money has a value, so does your time.
Not to mention, the more you push the limits and closer you fly to the sun - the more likely you are to get burnt at some stage. Learnt this with one the hard way.
Ahh Chuck making Armos look cheap again.
Deals on coles giftcards. Low effort, reasonable returns given its my local. Have to spend money there regardless, so I’ll take 5%.
Also, good to see if a product i buy already is on discount.
yes it's the gift cards that I truly can't understand when ppl say they can't be bothered
If the gift cards could go into the apple wallet and display the balance that would further reduce the obstacles to use.
The biggest problem I have is i have no idea of residual value
I think everyone likes a good bargain, but the majority dont want to be seen as cheap/stingy, as that may come with other assumptions about you.
When I tried to buy some item from kmart and pay with GC, the service person asked if I work for kmart, where did I get these gc from. I mentioned shopback, he had no ideas about it.
i've always shared bargains with colleagues / friends but there are a lot of people who are funny about it. i'm not sure if it's the fear of being seen as stingy, not wanting to talk about money, not wanting to appear "poor" by somehow taking advantage of sales, or just not bothering to check prices.
I've stopped telling people about bargains, because they always get filthy because they missed out.
Maybe it's not the bargains they don't like.
You would be surprised how many people don't even ask a simple line of "can you do a better price?" There's a lot of complacent people in this world, which is probably why a lot of retailers are still surviving at selling items at RRP.
To me it's bizarre and it indicates how financially poor some people are, and how shy/embarrassed a lot of people are that they would forgo the saving, money that you work very hard for. If you can save $20 off an item, you're saving more than $20, because you're saving $20 tax free money. If you had to go and earn that $20, depending on your tax bracket, say you're in the highest one, you'd have to make $30+ before tax, to pay that extra $20 all because of not hunting around.
Granted yeah sure the old saying of time is money for many people. But there are people who are on 100k (which is still a lot of money) going around like their time is so valuable that they'll easily make that money back instead of hunting around for cheaper prices, which I call BS.
When you go and get a pay rise of $20k at your job, again depending on your tax bracket (For arguments say it becomes $14k after tax), you're not getting all of that in your pocket, but you end up probably selling a lot more of your time and soul to your employer because the pay rise might be more responsibilities. Versus if you spent all that extra time saving and bargain hunting, you'd probably save the same $14k in a year.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Though I don't think extreme Ozbargaining would save me $14k a year
All that means is that you're not spending enough!
Saving money itself is a stressful activity,
and the older people get, like to not deal with 'stress'.
(or busy mums, who are juggling multiple children)
I think it's just some kind of brain chemistry thing,
where having to choose, using 'brain-power', time and some 'struggle'
to save money,….wears a person down.
The opportunity cost of using time to save money
or using time to earn more, so time is not needed to save
and that time can be used for other pleasures.
(unless chasing bargains IS the pleasure! … eg.
sticking it to the big corporates )
I don't disagree there, and my comment isn't directed at people of those groups who are time poor and have other important things to deal with or are severely lacking sleep.
I'm more directed at the people who can easily save a dollar by actually even asking. I had a colleague who refused to sign up to cashrewards to buy a laptop, it was like $80 cashback. I said I'll help him sign up and install plugin on his computer… nahhh "it's just 80 bucks". I was flawed, I said how about you buy it on my computer and I get the cashback? So I did in the end.
At the end of the day, people value their time differently, and people’s value perception also varies greatly. It’s easy to be judgemental and just assume these people lack a few brain cells, but genuinely to them the $80 spent extra might be worth it to them.
I’m new here. But I’ve genuinely spent more money now on bargains buying things I probably don’t need, then if I never bought these things in the first place. That’s not really saving now is it?
If everyone only ever spent on bargains and sales, our economy would be in a horrible state (even more so than it is now). It’s a fine balance isn’t it.
Do you have any other hobbies that you like to spend time on? Perhaps these other people have these too? Perhaps these hobbies help them mentally? Keep them sane? Keep them motivated to keep working hard? Just because you get an adrenaline rush or a dopamine hit from saving a few dollars here and there, doesn’t mean it does the same to others. Everyone’s different and for some it takes a bit more effort and time, and perhaps it’s via other means (socialising with friends, having a good meal, etc.).
This world would be a much better place if we were just a little less judgemental of others.
They're savage rabid uncultured unwashed subhuman heathens!
You are gentleman, proceed Ozbargaining.
I can't really stand those people that don't care about money or savings and they aren't well off and wonder why
we are a special breed that rarely cross paths in the real world
Sensible people realise OzBargain is not a way to save money. Its a way to spend money. Buying things because they are a bargain doesn't save you money. No matter how good the price is, if you didn't actually need it, its not saving you money to buy it.
Sensible people start with a need for something, then go look for the best price. The chance of something you actually need at any given time being on OzBargain at that time is close to zero. If I don't need it, why would I buy it, and if I do need it, I need it now, and I can't wait for a good deal to turn up on OzBargain, I have to look using other means. As entertaining as I find reading OzBargain to be, I've never actually bought anything as a result. Because since I retired I don't have so much money that I have any trouble whatsoever spending it.
GordonD has nailed it. I know many people who save way more money than users on here even if they pay full price for items as they arent addicted to buying things.
I would bet there would be a fair few on here who buy items just because they are 'bargain', wasting way more money than those who occassionally buy a full price item.
Often you don't need something immediately, so you can set up notifications on OzBargain and patiently wait.
Yes re. Eneloops - I bought a bunch when dick smith was shutting down that go mostly? used ,
despite buying a supercool charger.
Amazon day , fπ¢k this site.
ok
I see , that didn't make much sense, I blame autocorrect .
It's become a bit of a joke in the office that my colleagues will be online shopping and on social media during theirs breaks while I'll be on ozbargain. Embrace it
People could just be avoiding talking to you because our superior vocabulary makes them feel inadequate
I think you need to look at the uptake on deals on Ozbargain to get an idea of how many people really care. For example, the most popular deal of the last 24 hours (excluding highly localised 7-eleven fuel deal) is a pizza hut deal: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/712346 with 1770 clicks (as of a couple of minutes ago).
That's a tiny fraction (0.007%) of the Australian population who actually clicked the most popular deal of the last 24 hours. So the chance that your work colleagues not only are interested in deals but have a shared interest in a particular deal seems likely to be low.
Compare that with popular television shows from days past when people watched tv and you could have 5% of the Australian population watching the most popular tv show. Not surprising that they would talk about this compared to the 0.007% of the population taking up a deal on pizza hut.
1- the time you spend for bargain hunting is not actually worth the saving. Trade off is disfavouring you in hindsight.
2- you just buy unnecessary stuff while browsing ozbargain.
Ozbargain isn't a website to save money. People can actually more money than the money they think they save, with their time they invest in ozbargain or general bargain hunting by adding skills to their portfolio, by reselling or by doing a few hours of extra job.
Agree with point 2 lol. When I first discovered ozbargain, I ended up with a whole bunch of unnecessary items.
What I do nowadays is before making a purchase elsewhere, I look up ozbargain to see if there is a better deal.
Partially offset by savings being worth as much as tax-free dollars
the time you spend for bargain hunting is not actually worth the saving
That assumes you can monetize every minute of your life. I would argue looking for deals is a hobby for many people, so they do not perceive it as lost time.
yeh it's definitely a hobby.
plus, for me, it's the equivalent of all the brain dead time ppl spend on social media.
you need better team mates! in my team, we talk abt what are the deals of the day as part of our tea-time or lunch.
Call the bikies?
When I promoted ozbargain to my friends/colleagues, they all think it's some type of scam…Ciggiebutt brains.. Full told them that they are actually buying it from the shop directly..
Oh well, I have done my job!
everybody agrees that ozbargain does not save you money, quite the opposite. So who makes a mistake… you or them?
It is actually quite hard to find bargains on ozbargain… you get a lot of things you do not need for cheap… but if you want to buy something specific (like a model of something) then you are out of luck. If I need to find something for a friend I always tell them to give me a budget and some features they want… I can find them a bargain but it can never be something specific.
Also… live and let live… why do you care about pulling others into this?
if you want to buy something specific (like a model of something) then you are out of luck
You can set up notifications and be notified when the product or category of products you are interested is posted.
but OzB also provides you an "education" when you first join.
you might not find the exact model you want but it'll teach you to check Google shopping for the cheapest price online/ Australia. it'll teach you to see if there's a 10% off promo code, or cashback you can stack, or whether there's gift cards on sale somewhere that you can use.
OzB simply teaches you how to get the best possible price for the specific item you want.
it's not all about free pizza and cheap batteries. I'll never make a big purchase without checking to see if I can get an extra bit off first
I have a co-worker who is obsessed with this site who sends me links constantly about deals he finds amazing.
Unfortunately I don't really care about the fact that he saw another preowned pc on here that he can flip on ebay.
I just look for deals for stuff I like and there often isn't that much crossover between what I want and what they want.
keep the normies out reee
People come to me because I follow OzBargain!
When they want to buy a phone, change internet providers, buy ginger beer, they ask me when and where to buy for the best price.
My team at work (IT) is all over OzBargain.
they ask me when and where to buy for the best price.
Yep, that's what my smarter acquaintances do, after they hear about all the bargains I've scored!
They cant just come on and check for themselves?
I tell my friends and family about ozbargain and share deals with them once in a while but they never use the site or ever ask me to find them a deal. So I guess the proportion of cheapskates in this country is smaller than you think. I find joy knowing that I got a good deal, but I guess others are just content with paying full price.
I initially tried to spruik OzB to mates as well as larks like card churning but none weren't interested. Some even gave me the same look they would if I had offered to share an STD. I realised then that not everyone gets that same adrenaline shot from saving 20 per cent on lego that I do. Maybe it's me?
So now I stay mum and treat this site as a personal guilty pleasure, like the occasional discounted Haagen Dazs or a case of red bought by a half priced Qantas Wine voucher.
Sometimes you can lead a horse to drink, you just can't make it water.
Regarding bargains, I think it's not only a salary thing but a cultural thing.
I'm on a decent salary. But I think growing up with a Greek dad who would bargain for everything with no shame, I'll always be on ozbargain looking for "bargains". But like others have said, probably costs me more in the long run because I end up buying more things I probably don't need.
growing up with a Greek dad
Did you kind of just slide right in to someone else’s family?
Of course most people love bargains, there's no doubt about that. But the demographic of OZb community is inherently diff. In my opinion I believe most of OZb are also on Reddit.
dichotomy (chasm/split)
I think you're looking for paradox.
'I think you're looking for paradox'
no thanks I'm already wearing a pair of sox …
You know capitalism works on giving everyone what they want, an abundant supply to squeeze every last cent out of you.
If the world was frugal, like the Japanese we'll be in perpetual deflation.
OP provokes responses with teaser question - then is not seen responding since ?
but wait - OP was 'Last edited 12/07/2022 - 17:03 by 1 other user'
if this nefarious - or am I just not so avaricious ?
People are retarded and don't have time to save money.
Kinda already posted this.
OzBargain is penny pinchy really
On a surface level its too much effort, it was 2 years before I started looking at it regularly as something caught my eye
Another angle to look at, imagine the time spent on here gaining a qualification/certificate etc
The post sounds like a bad Google translation.
The site is not that popular. There are under 2000 regular active users if you go off the most popular votes where everyone who uses this site would vote.
Not everyone votes or even has an account. Current stats are Online 2,654 users 7,783 guests
don't talk about money or investment or ozbargain in social circles.
Everyone knows I got a regular job and that is it, don't talk about money or finance I just play ignorant when it comes to those topics
For those that say they "end up with more unnecessary stuff",
then OzB should be rewarded for uncovering those with impulse character / personality traits,
so that those individuals can address / treat those underlying traits,
and better life outcomes can be gained.
:-)
First and Second rules of OzBargain, you do not talk about OzBargain.
Time is money, spending time to wait for bargains cost money.
Many pretend to ignore/be unaware about OzBargain due to social stigma of frugalness.
They know ;) but don’t wanna admit it
If everyone used this site, shops would just factor it into their pricing. I think it's good to remain exclusive to a point. Most people I know are lazy shoppers also and they will not spend extra time to save a few $$, unfortunately Family will ask me to investigate the best price and arrange purchases at times instead though!
Back when Cash Rewards offered 5% discounted eGift cards, I recommended them to my friends who need a bit of help. 'Meh, it's only 5%' was the response. When I mentioned other offers from HSBC and Hiver where you can 2 to 5% cash back, the response was similarly disinterested.
As strange as it may sound, a lot of people are not really interested in saving money. They think it may make them look 'cheap'. Buying a product at a discount? Why? What's wrong with you, don't you have enough money?
Having said that, I agree with many posters here that OzBargain is a double edged sword. I've benefited from many special offers that were only posted here, but I'm sure I've purchased stuff I didn't really need just because it was cheap/cheaper.
Some people just simply don’t bother hunting for a good deal.
Simple as that.
agreed.
Retailers make money on these people and those who chase bargains just help them with volume/turnover.
A bargain is only a bargain if you intended to buy it anyway….
As a result, i come on ozbargain to monitor for stuff that I have already made a purchasing decision on but dont need straight away.
I also go through previous deals/discounts to see if i can see any patterns to discount cycles etc….
I think it largely depends on the kind of deals you're sharing with your cohort. Like if you're gushing over some really inane deal saving a few bucks on some trash ("Zomg! Dominos gives you a free nail clipper with the 4th garbo tier pizza") vs an XboX Series X on sale at Costco.
a lot of people simply too lazy to save money but complain very hard that things are expensive. I know a lot of friends who just pay royalty tax to insurance, and credit cards companies.
Were you talking to them about the website in general or some specific product (eg ultraboosts) in particular?
Maybe they just weren't interested in that product.
Maybe they are anti-consumerism, happy with what they have at home (see my 1080P tv from over a decade, admittedly this was probably pricy at the time I bought it).
Maybe they don't like to think about it. Someone told me when they were young, they needed to stick to a budget and watch their bank balance. A few years and promotions later, there is always money leftover after spending to suit their lifestyle. I mentioned that potentially unobtainable binge/hayu deal before - and someone told me compared to what they had on foxtel, the normal price is very worth it.
Your goal is to get what you want on special (or get something potentially useful/interesting on special but you never thought of before), their goal is just to get it and not think deeply on the $ side.
Tbh, how do I tell people about discounted giftcards - prepaying $96, tapping with the barcode or finding the hyperlink and split payments when the balance is low (Everyday pay makes it easier though) or buying giftcards for savings but forgetting to use them (I love how amazon lets you redeem/load the gift card into your account instead of every purchase)
Yeh it's like that at my oil and gas workplace. I once told a group of people about the 7/11 fuel lock and gps "hack" and there couldn't be more disinterest. Seemed weird to me that people weren't interested in saving $15+ every week.
Yet those same people will all happily rant about the current high fuel prices! How strange.
… the same industry that is paying your wage?
oh the irony!
Things like that probably make people think you're a weirdo or a geek, neither of which is a particularly attractive trait. Just silently bask in the glory of the bargains and pity the uninitiated.
I make more money than almost all of my colleagues (>200k), and none of them could care less for ozbargain or saving money. I get your frustration. Personally I can't stand paying more money than I have to for something and get great satisfaction out of saving money.
I guess they just have different priorities. However when I look at their level of wealth I start to understand - when you have a habit of minimising waste that typically means you will have more relative wealth than others.
In a job I had a few years ago I was talking to a colleague about Netflix and he mentioned the Turkey method to get it cheaper. I immediately asked if he used Ozbargain which sure enough he did.
Just had a thought for the admins on OzBargain. Start merchandising stickers, t-shirts, hoodies!
A regular person talking about savings is be the most mundane conversation ever.
Age / life position thing? I'd say most of the people I encountered at uni knew what it was and were happy to share bargains / deals with each other. That also continued into my workplace in the software engineering area (as far as people under 35 were concerned anyway).
Yeah the way you approach that is important. I've called it a "bargains" site and it seems to turn people off. They probably think mydeal, catch etc.
Bargain hunting is really a niche thing.
Most people are as dumb as they come and will buy to peer pressure, store tactics, and the need to feel wealthy.
I feel you, OP.
I know for a fact everyone farts but when I talk about it no one cares.
Walk outside and then visit North Korea.