Beware of End of Financial Year Sales

Just a quick tip for those in Australia as we approach the end of year.

No doubt, your inboxes will be bombarded with EOFY (End of Financial Year) sale promotions and various websites will have huge banners plastered on them spruiking offers. These offers may be very tempting particularly if you are justifying purchases as a tax deduction (moreso if you can immediately claim the whole amount).

Anyway, it can pay to be more frugal with purchases at this time of year as retailers leverage tax time as a way to entice you to part with your hard earned cash. They may advertise percentage reductions off the RRP (recommended retail price) and whilst those numbers may look good it should not stop you from looking for a better price. With two weeks left you have a bit of time up your sleeve to do a little bit of research.

A while back, I did recommend using staticeICE when looking for a bargain on printer cartridges but this site will do the trick for most electronics. Be sure to get the best bang for your buck and see if there is somewhere nearby that will do a better deal. Otherwise, if somewhere interstate has the best deal then don’t forget to factor postage into the price as well.

For example, I’ve been looking at the Logitech UE 9000 Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones which have a RRP of AU$500 but they can be had for as low as AU$360 if you look around (exclusive of postage).

Essentially, the bottom line is before you give in to an impulse purchase do your homework – it’s better to keep money in your pocket in the first instance than spend it and try and get it back from the tax man.