There was a topic discussed today about how when it comes to many things you should always try to haggle the price down of what the seller is asking for as in a lot of cases people markup the price as they expect you to do that. I suppose buying real estate is a good example of that as usually people always attempt to drop the asking price down.

I guess this is one of those things that a lot of people feel too ashamed to do as to a certain extent they consider it as begging or at the same time it makes them feel cheap. Most people would rather have that feeling that they can afford and buy anything as if money doesn’t matter. I have seen this a lot from the sellers end though where again they openly admit that they raised the price as they knew people are always asking for a discount. So in those cases when they tell people they can give them like 20% off the buyer feels so excited while thinking that they successfully dropped the price down.

Don’t expect to do this in like the grocery store though like when it comes to buying a pack of gum. When it comes to pretty substantial purchases though the odds of you being able to haggle the price down is pretty high.

My friend made an interesting comment today where people were just talking about items that they buy and how it can be cheaper to make your own items as opposed to buying them. That then got into a debate about quality as well such as when it comes to certain grocery items like juices where most of the products have extra things added to it for shelf life. The person then made a comment that if you truly knew what was in everything you bought that you would probably never buy anything.

Kind of strange in some ways how we don’t want to know what we are buying huh? If anything I would think you would want to be more knowledgeable on how the product is made and to see if you can find ways to save money on it as a result. Usually that can also lead you to finding the sources where you can directly get the products too which would save you money. If anything it could help you if you ever decide to start a business in the same industry.

A person was telling me today that she saw this crazy deal for a travel package where she could travel far east and the travel package literally was about $49 a day. That is quite a bargain even I must say. The funny thing was because of the deal itself she is scrambling last minute to try and make things work so that she can take advantage of this package. Example, getting time off work.

One I was thinking thought is how in the big picture scrambling last minute like this probably turned that $49 a day package into something like $200. Essentially, you have to factor in things like the money you won’t get paid for not working or possibly having to throw things away like certain food items that you bought with the intentions to finish before its expiry date.

For me, at times like that I am usually more happy if I simply spread the word about the deal to someone else who does have the time and wouldn’t have to sacrifice so much. That way, I still get the feeling that I took advantage of the deal still, so to speak.