I've been watching this one specific espresso machine for my sister's birthday gift—her birthday is in about two weeks so I really need to get it soon—but the price on Amazon is literally changing every time I refresh the page. I'm trying to stay under my $150 budget but it's like a roller coaster. This morning it was $142 and then I went to grab my credit card and it jumped to $155 and now it is back down to $148. I am so confused and honestly a little bit frustrated because I feel like I am playing a game I don't know the rules to. Is this normal? I'm sorry if this is a really basic thing that everyone else knows but I just don't get how a store can change their prices five times in one day. It feels like they are watching me or something lol.

I live in a small town in Texas and usually I just go to the local hardware store where the price stays the same for months so this is all very new to me. I've heard people talk about cookies or something but I don't know if that's actually real or just a myth. I just want to get a fair price without feeling like I got ripped off because I bought it at 2 PM instead of 4 PM. It makes me feel like I have to sit at my computer all day just to catch a deal.

Here are a few things I'm trying to figure out:

• does the price go up if I keep looking at the same item over and over
• is there a best time of day to actually checkout
• does my location or the fact that I'm not a Prime member change what I see
• are there tools to tell me when it hits the lowest price

I'm just really worried I'm gonna spend my whole budget and then see it for $20 cheaper the next morning. It makes me want to just give up and go to the mall but the selection there is so bad compared to what I can find online. Does anyone know why they do this or how I can stop it from changing? It's making me really anxious about the whole thing...