There are two ways to buy cheap jigsaw puzzles. One is to look for the box with the smallest number on the label. The other is to pay less for every hour you spend at the table, and that is the one we cover here, because a puzzle that falls apart in your hands or gets abandoned halfway is expensive whatever it cost.

We are not putting prices here: they change with promotions and suppliers, and every product page always shows the current one. Here are the sums that do not change.

Where you really save when you buy cheap jigsaw puzzles

Buy in bundles, with an automatic discount

In our shop, the cart applies the discount by itself: 5 puzzles take €5 off the total; 8 puzzles, €10. There is no code to type and nothing to switch on.

That changes how you order. If you do one puzzle a month, you are better off ordering a quarter's worth at once than buying them one by one. And if you do not need that many, you can share the order with a sister, colleagues or the neighbour next door: one delivery, one shipping charge, the discount split between you.

A bundle does not have to be all the same size. Two 1000s for the adults, two 100s for the kids and a 500 for busy weeks still count as five.

Leave shipping out of the bill

Within mainland Portugal, shipping is €3.90 and becomes free from €49.80. Spain is €3.90. The rest of Europe starts at €9.90, with free shipping from €200, so for readers in Germany, France or elsewhere, a bigger shared order is where the saving really shows. Madeira is €4.80 and the Azores €8.80.

Choose boxes that hold more than one puzzle

This is the most overlooked way to save. Several boxes hold two, three or four puzzles, and the price per piece drops a lot compared with buying each one separately.

For adults, Educa's Vincent Van Gogh box holds two 1000 piece puzzles with the painter's works: two seasons of evenings in one purchase. At 500 pieces there is House of the Dragon 2x500 for fans of the series, and Disney Villains & Princesses, with one puzzle for each side of the story.

Educa's Stitch 2 in 1 is two 500 piece images of Stitch and Angel, each 34 x 48 cm. It works well for a teenager to do one while an adult does the other.

For children, the Monster High 4 in 1 has puzzles of 50, 80, 100 and 150 pieces that keep a child from age 7 busy for months. And Wild Animals 2x100 serves two siblings of six or seven without arguments over whose box it is.

Count what comes in the box

Many Educa adult puzzles include Fix Puzzle glue. If you plan to frame the result, that is one less thing to buy. It comes with Jellyfish and London in Bloom, for example, both 1000 pieces. The product page always says whether glue is included.

To see everything in this format, our puzzles up to 1000 pieces are the best place to start. To fill a bundle with something else, the page with all products also shows family games and puzzle books, which can travel in the same box.

Where it is not worth saving

There are things a cheap no-name puzzle usually sacrifices, and they are exactly the ones you notice by the third hour:

• Board thickness. Thin pieces bend, lift at the tips and stop fitting after being handled a few times.
• The cut. A clean cut gives pieces that grip each other, so you can lift a whole section. A poor cut gives pieces that slot into places they do not belong, and the mistake only shows twenty pieces later.
• The print. Washed-out or glossy colours take away the clues you need to separate areas.
• Knowing every piece is there. A new, sealed box is the only way to be sure.

The brands we sell (Educa, Clementoni, Trefl, Olivo and others) all pass this test. Olivo, for instance, is a Portuguese brand with sturdy boxes and pieces that fit well, and puzzles like Vineyards from the Images of Portugal range go into a bundle like any other.

A simple sum before you decide

Each product page shows the estimated time, and a 1000 piece puzzle lasts several evenings; a box with two 1000s, twice as many. Divide the price by the hours and compare it with what you spend on other things you do in the evening. Few hobbies come out this cheap.

The same sum explains why the cheapest puzzle on the shelf may not be the most economical one: if it gets abandoned after two evenings because the pieces will not fit, the price per hour shoots up.

One last detail that also saves money. Returns are accepted up to 14 days after delivery, with the puzzle unopened and in its original condition. If you order a bundle and one of the puzzles turns out not to be for you, you can send it back (the return cost is on you).