Argos Vouchers And Bargain Prices

Last month I bought a vital piece of equipment [3 mobile broadband] from Argos at a time when £5 and £10 vouchers were being issued depending on how much was spent.

I received a £5 voucher.

Now the last time I got one of these I forgot all about it - as it turns out this was the very best thing I could have done.

I've got until 25th May to spend it and it's burning a hole in my purse. The only trouble is, there's nothing I actually need from Argos - now, want is an entirely different matter, there's a huge and ever growing list of things that I desperately want.

I was, fairly sensibly [and cheaply] going to buy a pot of jewellery cleaner with my £5 voucher to leave at 'the manor' as I do love my bits to sparkle, but last week the grumpy old man spotted an offer 'too good to miss' in the newspaper - a breadmaker. Now bearing in mind I've already got a breadmaker taking up an inordinate amount of worktop space in my kitchen, I decided this was a bad idea.

'But we can keep it as a spare and use it at the caravan' he said. Hmm, I looked at the aforementioned breadmaker, it's not actually in the Argos catalogue so in my vast experience of 'sale prices', the 'too good to miss' bargain of a Cookworks breadmaker was very missable.

Have you ever noticed 'sale prices'? They're laughable, albeit genuine in a legal if not moral way [I say moral because this is nothing more than a legal con or hustle]. And I'm not just talking Argos here, they all do it, even with your Christmas turkey at Tesco. They quote a wonderful, better than 'HALF PRICE' bargain, stating quite truthfully that the item they're selling you has previously been on sale at a ridiculously high price that no-one in their right mind would pay [never or rarely the recommended retail price]. Apparently they only have to do this for a certain number of days [28 days springs to mind] to get this as the recognised price, then drop it to let you think you're quids in - and we fall for it time and time again ... because we're gullible.

Anyway, back to my £5 voucher - not wanting the crappy bargain priced breadmaker had Argos' desired effect of making me look at more expensive ones until sanity tapped me on the noggin and reminded me that 'we don't need a bloody breadmaker!!'

At this point did I tear up the voucher and find something else to do - like work? No I did not, I started flicking through the catalogue to find something I really needed. A sunbed at £49.99, no thanks, I've only just this minute finished unpacking the one I bought for half price - 'when they're gone they're gone' from Woodthorpe Garden Centre - um well - it was a bargain ... Oh bugger, I fell for it again didn't I?

Oooooh yes ... a table tennis table, when we were on holiday [from which I've still not recovered enough to blog about] we spent a lot of time playing table tennis because:

1. It rained a lot.
2. It made a change from eating.
3. We were probably the youngest and fittest there so no-one else was playing.

But we really enjoyed playing and decided we should carry on at home [where??] to get a bit fitter. The GOM said we may get a game at a youth club somewhere, I think he meant over 50's but I don't like to disillusion him.

So now this voucher has progressed from a literally free tub of jewellery cleaner to a £249 table tennis table, via a £70 breadmaker, it's going to have to stretch one heck of a way at this rate.

Finally common sense prevailed - but not before I looked at cameras, iPods and other essential gadgety things until I finally arrived at the bathroom section, where I remembered that although we'd revamped the bathroom, we still needed a loo roll holder.

So there you have it, I will go into Argos and waft my voucher at them and come out with another vital piece of equipment for under £10 - Oh I say, I've just looked on t'interweb and they've got one that's less than half price. What a bargain!! ...

Update: I've just got back from Argos. After all that effort and brain strain, I changed my mind at the last minute and went with my original idea of jewellery cleaner [well I like my loo roll sitting on the windowsill]. This was a good idea - my first ideas usually are - as I didn't have to part with any cash. And I got change in the form of another voucher worth £1.01 with no time limit on it. Now where did I put the Argos catalogue? I need to find something really, really cheap ...