Are you a smart consumer?

I pay attention to what I buy but I do not extend too much thought! lol

I usually narrow a purchase down to if I need it. If I need it the price is not an option because it is a neccesity. If it is something that I want I narrow it down to quality, price, and if it's something I need or if I need the money for something more important.

Both me and my Girlfriend are smart. She makes a list before shopping and sticks to it. She buys mostly the store brand because in most cases there's almost no difference anyway. Now, I'm going to try to teach her daughter who only buys name brand things. We have a store here called save-a-lot. They have this odd brand coffee for $4.99. Which the daughter says tastes terrible, she needs Folgers. The last can of Folgers she bought, I saved the can. The other day, I went out and bought the $4.99 coffee and today I put it in the Folgers container. I'm going to wait a week then let her know what's in that Folgers container. And I'm going to let her know I didn't do that to embarrass her or laugh at her but to teach her something somedau when she moves out and she really has bills to pay. Maybe she'll remember.

I think I am smart. For cheap and consumable products, I use to walk into the shop and buy it directly. But for buying more expensive products like electrical appliance, computer hardware and furniture, etc..., I use to perform a "research" before making a final decision because I dislike buying things that I don't need or not suitable to me, yet I cannot throw them away due to they are expensive. The "research" takes a few weeks or even months to complete. Like my desktop computer, I've taken about three months to find out the build that fit my needs best. I would consider the quality first, and then the price, then the reputation of the product. But I seldom consider where it's made because most of the products I bought were made in China.