I was at a Walmart the other day and I saw that they were having this clearance sale of various DVD titles. In an effort to get rid of them faster I suppose, a lot of the DVD’s were marked as a bundle deal such as buy any two DVD’s for $10 or other ones that were marked as 5 DVD’s for $15.

So naturally, you would be inclined to grab say another DVD even if you were only interested in one to get the deal. Many times at a checkout terminal these products would in fact ring out at a regular price and then adjust accordingly depending on a certain package promotion.

This case was different however as all of the DVD’s for example that were marked as two for $10 could actually be individually bought for $5 each. Similar with the 5 for $15 you could buy each one for $3. It’s actually very common too where companies would have some kind of “Buy it together” sign and you automatically assume you are getting some kind of deal when really you are not.

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Today I needed help moving some very large items such as a 250 pound TV and so I decided to hire the help of a moving company. I was comparing rates and this company happened to charge about $100/hour. I figured that they could get the job done fast anyways based on the reviews I read.

What ended up happening was that the guys were an hour late for the job as apparently they were oblivious to the call time. The person told me how the company was phoning him to verify the schedule which he was unaware of as he was doing another job. I thought that was a weird answer and that then brought up a topic on how he wasn’t actually an employee for the company but rather they simply subcontracted the work to others.

That was kind of surprising as I thought the company had its own internal staff and equipment. The person then explained to me how they basically got paid about 30% of the total bill. What was really interesting afterwards was that I looked up the number/company that the guys operated if I dealt directly with them and I immediately found a listing online of them advertising their moving services for about half the price at $50/hour.

I was just thinking how that is quite a substantial difference if you were to cut out the middle man. That can be true for almost anything when it comes to buying goods or services and is a great way to save money.

In a more conspicuous note that was related to this situation, the guys were scheduled to do the job at 9 am and as mentioned they told me that they were doing another job. Yet with the research I did I found out that they posted an advertisement about their service on a site at around 8:50 am today. Makes you wonder huh? Now there’s a nightmare too for people who are the middle man as they will get all the rap for the job’s end result and happenings.

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I was noticing a lot of ads from stores recently that have been promoting Earth Day and offering discounts to people to buy more stuff. While some offers kind of made sense for the theme of the occasion such as if you trade in your old equipment you can get credit towards a new product, other deals are simply coupons to save money from purchasing X amount of dollars. It doesn’t really make sense in that case as you seem to be just adding potentially more clutter.

The one category that I thought was interesting was how electronics recycling seems to be becoming more accessible as a lot more large box stores are implementing a system to exchange your old electronic items for credit. Very similar to recycling say cans at the store for money.

For the most part though, the current ads that I see kind of play with your emotions it seems where since Earth Day is about doing something good/noble ,so to speak, attaching that phrase as a sales gimmick makes you kind of think it is a good thing to do. Should be more about learning to live as a minimalist for the day I’d say which should help you save money and live with less clutter.

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I was watching a lot of reports today concerning black friday in the US. At the same time, with more video phones around in this day in age there were a lot of footages to show how crazy people can get over a sale. Some people even line up days before.

It’s just like boxing day here in Canada which I guess would be the equivalent of a black Friday in the US. It’s kind of interesting to see people pay others to lineup for them. A lot of people would say it is dumb to be lining up for hours to save some money as you could have been working that time to earn more. So, a lot of people now simply go through their regular routine and leverage their time by paying someone else to either line up or buy the item for them.

I’m surprised there isn’t some kind of company that has created a service for these types of demands. I personally never lined up for a sale but rather for a brand new product. Not sure that I would want to sit out in the cold for hours or say sleep out in a tent just to save a few bucks.

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