If I buy a gift on sale, do I need to buy something else?

What’s the etiquette around buying a present that’s on sale? If I have a $50 budget and purchase an item originally priced at $50 but now on sale for less, do I need to buy something else?
E.P., Caringbah, NSW

Credit: Illustration by Simon Letch

Think of it this way: if you bought a bejewelled Fabergé egg for a few bucks at a flea market and then decided to give this precious $10 million Imperialist Russian treasure to someone as a gift, would you feel guilty about how little you’d paid and throw in a box of Cadbury Roses and a couple of scratchies?

Or think of it this way: if you bought someone a 1000-piece toolset on Temu for $2.17, are you going to feel embarrassed about how cheap it was and so also buy them a complete backyard work-shed to store the toolset in, on Temu for $4.73? Or think of it this way: if you decide to give someone 50 bucks in cash for their birthday and then Donald Trump makes some inane comment about the economy and the next day the stockmarket crashes, money becomes worthless, and people start looting and murdering and eating human flesh to stay alive, are you going to feel bad about your zero-value gift and bump up the present to 60 bucks when you go to their birthday party in an underground bunker guarded by armed militia?

The value of a gift is its original value, discounted or not. So you don’t need to buy anything else: just give the gift, don’t mention it was discounted – and make sure you peel off the markdown stickers. Also, you should clean up any tell-tale sticker residue with solvent and a cotton ball. Or you can buy a Sticker Residue Remover Kit on Temu for 0.037 cents. Free delivery, free returns.

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