I love a good haggle. It’s been too long. Last time was in a market in Ubud, Bali. I got some mixed spice and a chili, all for the equivalent of 3 pence. Shameless.

The recession is back and it’s biting with bared teeth and it’s a shame we’re too British and polite to be any good at it. I think this should change.

In some cultures it’s impolite not to haggle, in fact it’s expected of you. Then again so is burping at dinner. In some places that fits in perfectly with the cultural milieu. Some rules, as they say, are there for a reason.

We can’t be prissy about these things, though. Times are hard and we’ve got to get the best prices we can. The sales won’t last forever.

Here are some of my best tips for haggling:

1) Stand your ground. Go in there with a firm conviction about how much money you want to spend and stick to it. Do this even in the face of bewildered looks and suppressed shop assistant laughter. You need the tenaciousness of a rabid rottweiler.

2) It’s easier to get discounts on bulk buys. If you’re a regular customer of an independent retailer you’re likely get some sort of bulk buy discount. Indulge in some polite small talk before dropping the bombshell of a discount on an purchase.

3)  If you want a discount get the luxury products - sly discounts are dished out much more readily on  expensive goods.

4) If something’s tarnished or slightly damaged - ask for a discount. You’re likely to get at least something off.

5) Market stalls are a gold mine for haggling. Go just before they close, when the traders are looking to get rid of their stock for the day, and give them some banter. It’s all part of the game.

When we haggle it’s a big neon sign saying we’re living beyond our means. We don’t want those around us to know that we have less money than we’re letting on, hence the ensuing embarrassment.

Instead, think of haggling as being on a par with the great British entrepreneurial spirit and where would this great country of ours be without that?

If recent research from consumer watchdog Talk Talk is anything to go by over £2 billion worth of Christmas gifts will be returned this year. That works out as each of us getting at least one present we’ll want to return to the shop.

The research also puts the average price of unwanted gifts at around £65.

And the reward for the most returned gift? Unsurprisingly it’s clothes. Of those asked, 19% said they would never wear the clothes they were given. The second most exchanged gift was cosmetics with a return rate of 9%. Home accessories came in next with 8%, perfume had 7% and food stuffs had a bounce back rate of 5%.

It’s not as bad as the survey makes out, though. Out of the £2 billion worth of unwanted gifts only a meagre £330 million will actually make it back to the shop - down in most part to us being too embarrassed to ask for a receipt.

It’s a strange thing when you think about all the sales in full swing on the high street at the moment. Bargains are thrust before us every day tempting us into spend our money and things are discounted so much that it would be a crime not to get spending while the goings good.

Nothing sums up the shopping mood at the moment more than the success Selfridges have had with their Sale. On Boxing Day, between 12pm and 1pm, they turned over almost £1 million — the most successful hour in the store’s 100-year history. Most of the high street retailers started their January sales on Christmas Eve for the first time this year.

By spending so much we’re supporting the economy but only in the short term. Retail groups predict that the Christmas sales will go on until February at least in an attempt to keep us spending in store.

After that time - who knows? Prices will return to normal - the shops can’t keep it up. Come February we’ll be spoilt by all the bargains and unwilling to part with our cash unless we get the big discounts.

We splurge for the thrill and in the cold light of the day we realise our mistake and try to undo the damage.

It’s like shopping bulimia.

In the face of the credit crunch and rock-bottom DVD prices, manufacturers are hoping that Blu-ray technology will finally catch on this Christmas. The adoption of Blu-ray has so far been quite sluggish, but many industry insiders predict that Blu-ray’s fortunes will turn around this Yuletide.

Although the Blu-ray format has been around since 2006, it has yet to capture the public’s imagination. It is resilient however, and beat Toshiba’s rivalling HD DVD into submission to become the surviving High Definition format.

Blu-ray’s mastery of the HD market mirrors the supremacy of VHS over Betamax a couple of generations earlier. VHS was helped to establish itself as the main video format because it was adopted by the porn industry; if any one wanted to watch porn at home (dirty devils) they had to buy a VHS player.

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In the last couple of weeks, the price of newly released console games has been consistently dropping. With Invisible Hand’s Price Alert feature it’s a really easy way of keeping track of online prices.

The Quantum of Solace on the Wii now costs £29.35 down from £39.99 when it was first released.

Wii Music is down to £28.46 from £39.99.

Mirror’s Edge on the PS3 on the 13th of November now costs £30 from £39.99.

Resistance 2 on the PS3 now costs £34. 25 down from £40.50.

Rock Band on the PS3 now costs £34.99 down from £39.99.

So what’s the moral of this post? Well it pays to wait a little while before you fork out on a new console game. It is a cut throat industry and some of the year’s best games have been released in the last two months, the consequence of which is that prices are plummeting. The above games are all very recent releases and the average price drop is about ten pounds within a very short time. So next time you’re tempted to buy the latest release, set up a Price Alert with Invisible Hand and we’ll alert when you price starts to drop, it wont be a very long wait.

So you want to itch your balls but there’s no elegant way to do it. What should a gentlemen with this dilemma do? One suggestion would be: don’t scratch your balls in public! The other is: the Gentleman’s Ball Scratcher.

It’s the sort of thing Mr Darcy would use. He’d be able to itch himself while engaged in charged yet witty banter with Miss Elizabeth Bennett without committing an egregious social faux pas.

What I don’t understand about this product is that, it has to be a gift but I don’t know what would possess a girlfriend or a wife to encourage their loved ones to scratch their balls more.

The price of Wii music on Game has now dropped to a similar price to its competitors, £29.99. This is obviously in preparation for its release on the 14th of November. Set up a Wii Music Stock Alert to receive an alert as soon as the game is released. If you can wait a while you should set up a Price Drop alert as well, and get alerted when the price drops which it is bound to do in the run-up to Christmas.

Price Drop

If you want the latest DVDs but don’t want to pay over the odds then set up a Price Alert. We’ll send you an alert if there is any drop in price or if the price drops below a certain amount, it’s up to you.

Iron Man - Iron Man was one of summer’s biggest hit, starring Robert Downey Jnr as the louche billionaire inventor, Tony Stark who invents an advanced robotic suit. Iron Man is released on the 4th of November.

Sex and the City - In the film version of the popular television show, the ultimate single girl Carrie Bradshaw gets married. But things were never simple in her world and her dreams of matrimony soon go awry. The film is filled with the trademark humour and style you’d expect from the TV show.

Desperate Housewives - Desperate Housewives returns for its fourth series, focusing on the relationships and dramas of the residents of Wisteria Lane.

Lost Series 4 - Even though this multi-award drama has been going for 4 series there are still many mysteries yet to be explained. Series 4 brings a whole new twist to the series with flash forwards to the future after some of the passengers escape the island (but which ones?). Some questions remain but more are answered along the way.

Price Alert helps you save money on the products you love. Set up a Price Alert with Invisible Hand and we will check online prices and alert you as soon as the price drops. With Price Drop you can either choose to be alerted if there is any price drop or if the price drops below a certain amount.

You can set up a Price Alert when you set up a Stock Alert from the product page.

Canon Powershot G9

Currently the12 megapixel Canon Powershot G9 costs £287 on Amazon, yet last week, the price had dropped to £267. Price Drop alerts our users about these temporary discounts that you would otherwise miss out on. It’s a really amazing tool for people who are looking to save money on their purchases.

Times are tough at the moment and everyone is looking for new ways to save some cash. With Invisible Hand’s Price Alert on your side you never miss out on these great online deals.