In my attempt at living a reasonably frugal life I don’t often spend much on gadgets and gizmos. Today however, having heard they were selling for £32 in Argos, I decided to splash out on an iPod Shuffle.
It’s the cheapest I’d seen them for, and will be the perfect accompanyment for when I start jogging in my fitness regime which is, as ever, “just around the corner”.
Having got it home, and unpackaged the tiny device (Apple do a great job of making even the unpacking of their products a pleasant experience), I then logged on to the Apple website to download the latest software and get it working.
Low and behold, on their iTunes homepage there’s a great big advert for the iPods at the new lower price – and the reason for the reduction is that there’s a new version of the Shuffle, with a larger capacity, about to be released. So having gone from thinking I was lucky to snap up a great bargain, I now feel a little deflated with my purchase.
I’ll still use it of course, and I’ve probably no need for the extra capacity of the 2GB version, but it’s an example of where an impulse, unresearched purchase can leave you disappointed. If I’d realised there was a new version coming out, and that the current version had been reduced everywhere, the chances are I wouldn’t have bought one at all. There wouldn’t have been that feeling of getting “something for nothing”.
This reminds me of a good tip I’ve heard in the past in this situation – if you see something that you’d really like to buy, but don’t really need, wait a day before buying it, and then think again. After that time, there’s a chance you’ll come to your senses and keep your money in your wallet.
Photo by *stefaan