To spree or not to spree.. the maths of it

Yesterday afternoon while Iffah was in school, I went to Parkway Parade ( my favourite shopping haunt ) and was glad to say that I did not make any purchases from Fox or Esprit or Mothercare, Pumpkin Patch, Isetan, Kiddly Palace etc .. (only bought books at Borders). Those who know me know that I usually end up splurging at PP, but I was too lazy to browse the clothes on the racks and hangers and they just looked too messy and unappealing. After all, it has been much more fun looking at items neatly arranged in grids and squares and scrolling up and down and zooming in and out.

I first joined a spree four years back to get myself a pair of Birkenstock. While it does not seem justifiable to pay more than $100 for a pair of sandals, getting one that cost around $30 less than RP seemed like a pretty good deal.

Last month, I joined a couple of spree again because of the great discounts they seem to have online. ( WARNING - from this part on, this blog entry will get really really technical )

One spree was from BabyGAP. 25 % discount for the orders above 250USD. Keen to get Iffah out from her Strawberry Shortcake T shirt and skinny leggings which has been her uniform since she turned 3, I let her chose 3 outfits.

1 Smocked dress : http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=6436&vid=1&pid=707588&scid=

2. Heart tunic top : http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=49690&vid=1&pid=707608&scid=707608002

3.Puffed sleeved T-shirt : http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=49690&vid=1&pid=707535&scid=707535082

price was 25 , 15 and 12.50 USD

With the discounts and exchange rate, the price was :52.5 x 0.75 x1.45 = $57.09

With most sprees on VPOST , the shipping is somewhat a surprise so I will know only when I get the items.In the end i had to incur a shipping of $9.88 .

After doing the maths, the items cost me around Sing Dollars, $29, $19 and $16 respectively. Still quite a good deal as the prices were cheaper than what I would usually have to pay for similar items in Fox or mothercare. Iffah loved them ( yes they were all dark pink and did not wear any of her strawberry shortcake T shirts last weekend )

But since it was on a spree organised by others, there must be some mark-up somewhere , exchange rate, as well as the shipping so I have been toying with the idea of ordering myself directly from the websites. After all, it is not too difficult to set up a Vpost account. The opportunity came when Old Navy had a free domestic shipping offer for items above 50 USD. Now that wouldn't be too difficult to achieve right ? I do not have to spend hundreds of dollars and I could save on the exchange rate, shipping and the hassle of self collection or postage. I was on the verge of ordering until today afternoon when I did some mock-up calculations based on $56 worth of spending while Akif was taking his nap.

Scenario 1
Me ordering directly
$56 x 1.43 + $ 13 ( Vpost base charge ) + $25 ( international shipping by weight ) = $118

Scenario 2
Ordering from an organised spree ( with registered postage )
$56 x1.46 ( mark-up ) x 0.9 ( organiser's member discount ) + $3.84( shared Vpost charge ) + $25 +$2.24 (reg ) + $3.05 ( mail ) = $107.7

Scenario 3
Ordering from an organised spree ( self collection )
$56 x1.46+ $3.84( shared Vpost charge ) + $25 = $110.6

So despite the mark-ups and postage fees, a spree is still more cost efficient because of the shared Vpost base charge among all the spreeists and additional discounts. The only way I can save on my own purchases is by getting friends to join in as well, in other words, be a spree organiser myself . Which mathematically, is a very tempting idea but . But for now, I will go back to checking out more sprees. FitFlop spree where are you ???