Buy two, get one half off? How 'Spaving' Discounts Can Derail Your Finances
Buy two, get one half off? How 'Spaving' Discounts Can Derail Your Finances
Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY Updated Sun, June 16, 2024 119
Any time you buy two of something and get a third item for half off, or add a few dollars to an online order to secure free shipping, you are “spaving.”
Spaving is a mashup of “spending” and “saving”: spending more to trigger savings.
But don’t fool yourself, experts say: Spaving is mostly spending.
“It’s always more spending. It’s not always more saving,” said Jeff Galak, an associate professor of marketing at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Spaving has been in the news lately. It sounds like something new: The term has seldom appeared in this publication. It isn’t in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary. Type it into your word processor and watch your spellchecker erupt in protest.
'Spaving' sounds new, but the concept is not.
'Spaving' sounds new, but the concept is not.
'Spaving': A concept as old as the shopping mall
The concept behind spaving, however, goes wa-a-ay back.
“Spaving, besides being a terrible word, is not a new idea,” Galak said. “These promotions have been around forever.”
Here’s the basic concept: A merchant entices a customer to spend a little more, or a lot more, by offering a discount as a reward. Buy a third item, or a fourth, or a fifth, and get the last one free. Add another ten dollars to your cart, and that $5 shipping fee goes away.
Who needs a gallon of extra-virgin olive oil? Maybe you do, at the right price.
Customers may be seeing a lot of spaving offers this summer. Inflation has been pushing up prices. A dozen eggs cost about twice what they did in 2019. Overall, consumer prices rose by nearly one-fifth between 2019 and 2023, federal data show.
Consumers are pushing back. In response, retailers are rolling out deals.
Fast food chains are reviving the value meal in the wake of consumer backlash against reports of $15 Big Macs.
Target and Walgreens have announced summer price cuts. More customers are choosing discounted store brands.
Spending less for the same Happy Meal you bought a week ago is a no-brainer. Spaving, by contrast, can quickly spiral out of control.
'Spaving' can lead to overspending, needless purchases
The problem with spaving, experts say, is that it can lead a shopper to overspend on something they did not want, do not need and will not use.
“It’s always good to save money. The problem is when you’re spending money you wouldn’t have spent otherwise,” said Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet.
Palmer herself recently succumbed to a spaving offer.
“It was a buy one, get one free,” she said. “I never intended to get a second shirt. It was for my daughter. I went ahead and bought two.”
The second shirt was free, so Palmer got a great deal, right?
Well, maybe not. She paid full price for the first shirt. Absent the spaving deal, she would have held out for a discount. In the end, she said, “I did spend more than I wanted to.”
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