Hi Beauties
Like most beauty lovers / shopaholics, there is little in life I truly appreciate more than a special offer or sale. Any kind of bargain beauty product is extremely enticing to me and as a result I rarely buy items full price! I also love having a good excuse for spending money which in reality I probably didn’t really need to spend 😉 I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve said to myself: ‘I can’t afford to not buy this!’
Over the years, I have prided myself on being a savvy shopper with an eye for a good bargain and I think that I have been lucky enough to find lots of great deals that have left me hungry for more deals. I’m always on the look out for a good deal… but how do you tell if something is really a good deal or not?
Recently, I had a very interesting experience when I discovered ‘all that glitters in isn’t necessarily gold’ in the world of beauty deals and sales.
As some of you may be aware, today (11/07/2013) Boots ran a Summer Points Event where for every £30 spent in-store or every £50 spent on-line, you would receive 750 advantage card points worth £7.50. This is a really superb offer (it’s the equivalent of getting 25% of what you spend back in Advantage Card points) and I’m sure that many of you found ingenious ways to really make the most of this offer. I was so excited about this event that I actually spent a large part of Tuesday night on the Boots website creating a shopping list of items I would like to purchase in store on Thursday when the Event went live. What was really interesting was that on Thursday morning when I came back to my on-line shopping basket to double check what I wanted to buy, I noticed that a lot of the offers I wanted to take advantage of had disappeared and that some of the prices on the items I wanted to buy had also increased. Admittedly, this in itself wasn’t a huge surprise as I don’t think that Boots can afford to run too many great offers at any one time without the risk of going bankrupt and that’s the last thing anyone would want! But I was surprised by just how much the prices had increased in less than two days. There were some new offers available but none of them greatly appealed to me, so in the end I actually decided to give the Boots Summer Points Event a miss this time round which was quite an unprecedented occurrence for me! And here is why I decided to pass up this offer on this occasion: what is really interesting to see is the cost of the items in my basket on Tuesday night (two days before the Summer Points Event) compared to the cost of the exact same items in my shopping basket on Thursday morning (The day of the Summer Points Event).
Over the years, I have prided myself on being a savvy shopper with an eye for a good bargain and I think that I have been lucky enough to find lots of great deals that have left me hungry for more deals. I’m always on the look out for a good deal… but how do you tell if something is really a good deal or not?
Recently, I had a very interesting experience when I discovered ‘all that glitters in isn’t necessarily gold’ in the world of beauty deals and sales.
As some of you may be aware, today (11/07/2013) Boots ran a Summer Points Event where for every £30 spent in-store or every £50 spent on-line, you would receive 750 advantage card points worth £7.50. This is a really superb offer (it’s the equivalent of getting 25% of what you spend back in Advantage Card points) and I’m sure that many of you found ingenious ways to really make the most of this offer. I was so excited about this event that I actually spent a large part of Tuesday night on the Boots website creating a shopping list of items I would like to purchase in store on Thursday when the Event went live. What was really interesting was that on Thursday morning when I came back to my on-line shopping basket to double check what I wanted to buy, I noticed that a lot of the offers I wanted to take advantage of had disappeared and that some of the prices on the items I wanted to buy had also increased. Admittedly, this in itself wasn’t a huge surprise as I don’t think that Boots can afford to run too many great offers at any one time without the risk of going bankrupt and that’s the last thing anyone would want! But I was surprised by just how much the prices had increased in less than two days. There were some new offers available but none of them greatly appealed to me, so in the end I actually decided to give the Boots Summer Points Event a miss this time round which was quite an unprecedented occurrence for me! And here is why I decided to pass up this offer on this occasion: what is really interesting to see is the cost of the items in my basket on Tuesday night (two days before the Summer Points Event) compared to the cost of the exact same items in my shopping basket on Thursday morning (The day of the Summer Points Event).
Tuesday night’s shopping basket total: £31.06. Plus, £1.24 of regular Advantage Card points = £29.82
Thursday morning’s exact same shopping basket items total: £45.05. So, I would have got £7.50 worth of Advantage card points and even taking that into consideration my new total still comes to £37.55 which is still +£7.50 more than my original identical basket of products!
Here’s a Breakdown of my shopping totals from both days:
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| Image Source: http://www.boots.com |
Tuesday: 2 x Seventeen Miracle Matte Powder £3.99 (Offer: buy one get one 1/2 price) £5.98
Thursday: 2 x Seventeen Miracle Matte Powder £3.99 (Both now full price)
£7.98 (+£2.00)
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| Image Source: http://www.boots.com |
Tuesday: Sanctuary Spa 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask £8.50
Thursday: Sanctuary Spa 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask £10.50 (Price Increase +£2.00)
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| Image Source: http://www.boots.com |
Tuesday: Sanctuary Spa Brightening Facial Moisture Boosting Mask £2.50
Thursday: Sanctuary Spa Brightening Facial Moisture Boosting Mask Free (Offer: 3 for 2 on all Sanctuary Spa [Cheapest Item Free]) (£-2.50)
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| Image Source: http://www.boots.com |
Tuesday: Sanctuary Creme Souffle Body Moisturiser Free (Offer: Spend £10 on Sanctuary Products to receive this as a free gift)
Thursday: Sanctuary Creme Souffle Body Moisturiser£10.50 (+£10.50)
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| Image Source: http://www.boots.com |
Tuesday: 2 x Coconut and Almond Intensive Hair Mask (Offer: buy one get one free) £1.99
Thursday: 2 x Coconut and Almond Intensive Hair Mask (Both now full price) £3.98
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| Image Source: http://www.boots.com |
Tuesday: Real Techniques Expert Face Brush £9.99
Thursday: Real Techniques Expert Face Brush £9.99 (Same)
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| Image Source: http://www.boots.com |
Tuesday: Oral B Essential Floss £2.10
Thursday: Oral B Essential Floss £2.10 (Same)
As you can hopefully see in this example, the prices and offers have changed considerably and have resulted overall in a noticeable increase in the total price of this particular basket of shopping which contains exactly the same items, added to my virtual shopping basket / list just a few days apart.
Boots did still have some decent offers on during the Summer Points Event today, such as three for two on Sanctuary Spa products, so I’m sure some of you managed to get the best out of this deal. But it just goes to show that even when there is a seemingly great offer on like this, it’s still wise to be a little savvy and work out if you can really benefit from it as much as you think you will. There will normally be other offers along again in the near future which may be more advantageous to you depending on what it is you actually want to buy, so don’t feel compelled to buy just because its a great sounding offer or there’s a lot of hype around it.
Miss Beauty Saver xoxox
Are you a sucker for a deal? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below. 🙂
