Not necessary. Or at least not for you. Very often you are actually paying more! For instance, consider sales. If you buy things mainly because they are come at reduced prices and not because you need them you are actually spending money that you would have otherwise saved.

But even in those cases when you purchase goods that you need, it might turn out that you are actually paying more for less. Take a classical promotion - “Take three for the price of two!” This seems very lucrative but it depends on the goods. If it is food, there is a risk that you might not be able to consume the whole of it (willingly) before its expiry date. I recall once when I purchased a three pack of ham sausage at the price of two. It took me two weeks to eat all this ham! Well, if I had a dog, he could be a real friend is this situation but since I don't, I had to eat all this ham on my own. Near the half of the third piece in the pack, I simply hated ham! Sure, the three-pack was hardly a bargain for me and I don't think I will fall in that trap again!

Branded goods are another example when you pay more and get less. Very often the only difference between branded goods and generic ones is the amount of money the manufacturer has invested in advertising. And as we all know, advertising is paid by the end customer. It is a basic fact that nowadays there is no correlation between price and quality. The fact that you pay twice as much for branded goods does not mean that you are getting a twice better product than when you buy a generic one.

Purchasing with your credit card is another example of paying more for less. If you manage to repay your credit card debt before high interest kicks in, you are lucky and you are saving but if you can't – then the discount sale is actually more expensive for you. Take for an example a $200 jacket. You buy it on sale when it costs only $180. This is 10% discount. You pay with your credit card and your interest rate is 15%. It is up to you to calculate how much you lost.

Well, your loss is in the single digits but this is only one example when you pay more to get less. Actually you paid more than the pre-discount price and since generally the goods that are reduced are not the top-selling ones, chances are that for $205-210 (which is how much the discounted jacked costs to you) you could have bought a better jacket. So, in this case sales are a bargain but for the credit card issuer to whom you pay the interest rate!

There are many more examples of such “bargains”. So, if you don't want to get ripped and actually pay more to get less, think with your head, when you are spending your money!