Before you walk into any "sale" at any store, be sure of a couple of things:

1. what you really needto buy.

2. what the actual low price is elsewhere without this sale.

Too many of us are lured by the words "sale" or "blowout" or "closeout" or "liquidation" and we don't stop to think if we really need the item or if we can find the item elsewhere at a lower price.

A case in point: My wife called me from Target to tell me that there was a closeout on folding lawn chairs -- you know, the light weight aluminum chairs with the strapping material. "Should I pick up two-- they're only XX dollars each." The price was low, but I said to her, "but honey, when do we ever sit out on lawn chairs?" We never do. So even at the low, bargain, closeout price, that would have been a waste of money.