You see it everywhere. People celebrating how much they saved. Look at this receipt. I got this for 80 percent off. They are not calculating the hours spent hunting. They are not counting the apps installed, the emails monitored, the alerts set.
Deal hunting takes time. It takes mental energy. It takes focus away from earning more or building something real. You spend an evening comparing prices to save twelve pounds. You could have spent that evening learning a skill that pays you back one hundred times that amount every month.
The real winners are the platforms. They train you to check for deals. They turn your attention into their revenue. You think you are beating the system when you are the product. Your data, your time, your habit.
There is a difference between being smart with money and being cheap. Smart is knowing what you actually need and buying it once. Cheap is spending three hours to save three pounds on something you did not need in the first place.
Stop celebrating discounts. Start celebrating things you do not buy at all. That is the only deal that truly pays.
Paul