It took me about 25 years to realize this.
If we ever buy anything simply because it’s on sale, we did not save any money.
Example:
I don’t need a new desk lamp. Mine works just fine and I never think about replacing it.
If I see a sale online where a super fancy $300 desk lamp is now $100, that’s an incredible deal.
But I was never going to purchase that on any other day. My plan was to spend $0 on it because I had no demand for it.
If I bought it, I didn’t save $200. I spent $100.
The only way we save money from a sale is if no matter what, we were going to buy it anyway.