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Stores have ramped up today, the first shopping day after Christmas, by offering ridiculously marked down deals. It’s not uncommon to see things 75% off at prices even the most frugal would jump at but remember this helpful tip: It’s not a deal if you didn’t need it. Once you identify the difference between need and want (you don’t need a leather coat, you want it, you can make do with the non-leather jacket you have now) then you’ll realize you didn’t need that new widget that’s now 50% off.

The day after Christmas is in the top ten shopping days in the year (predictably, the week before hand has a pretty good hold on the other days) and vendors are not trying to buck the trend this year. I wasn’t surprised to see that CNN Money covered this ^[3] (as did every news show the last few days).

Macy’s offered 50 percent reductions on cashmere sweaters, while the Gap had women’s corduroy pants for as little as $19.99 and Target sold a 15-inch LCD TV with DVD Player for $499.99.

As nice of a deal as a 15″ LCD TV with a built in DVD player sounds (it’s pretty good), if you didn’t need it then you probably should save that $500 for something down the road.

It’s hard to turn down deals this time of year, especially at huge markdowns, but resist the urge!