Many times when we see one of those “You save this much off the regular price” type of signs it can create a rather emotional purchase if the savings amount is large. Sometimes too, you have to be careful on whether or not the price has been bumped up which means you aren’t saving as much as they are portraying.

There is this one example that I saw today which made me think just that as I saw a USB memory stick on sale for about $9.99. As you can see here too, it indicates that the regular price of this item is $62.99 which means you are saving $53.

For these types of products, I happen to know what the average price is and so it immediately got a reaction out of me as the original price of the product seemed so overpriced. Here are some quick examples from other stores which sell the same product:

As you can see, one place sells it for $15.98 as a regular price. While granted you can argue that the price indicated is the store’s own regular price, although I personally never seen it that high, it just goes to show that you still need to do your research when it comes to buying things regardless of some sign indicating what the regular price of the item is.

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I was recently reading this story about a smart power meter that is taking place in some places in the US with the intent to change people’s habits in regards to how much electricity they use and when.

In a nutshell, it sounds like by trying to get people to use the majority of their electricity during a certain time period it will enable a better supply and demand scenario to create better pricing. With that, the cost of electricity would be cheaper during peak times and more expensive during times outside of that period it seems.

Kind of an interesting idea when you think about it on paper as it could definitely save you a lot of money by doing so. On the other hand, it is kind of hard to make people adjust their lifestyles to all be the same. In that case it could make one’s bill incredibly higher and unpredictable.

I always thought the best way to save money in this sense is to invent something extremely user friendly so that people can generate their own power to save money.

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Today I was talking to a person who mentioned that he wanted to buy some kind of weed puller for this one day that he was holding an event in his backyard. He mentioned that it cost about $30 or so which wasn’t too bad.

This got me thinking on how many times we tend to buy items where we only use it once and then throw it in say the closet to never be used again. For myself when it comes to these types of items, if I don’t intend to use it at least say once every two months I tend to explore other options such as borrowing a similar item from a friend or family member if available.

It’s just like when we were younger I suppose. What’s the point of say everyone buying the same toy/game when you could easily just lend your copy to the other if they plan to play it through once only? As long as you don’t abuse the trust/generosity, I’m sure most people are more than happy to help you save money in these ways. More than likely you would do the same too.

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A person yesterday was telling me how he knows this guy who is in his 30’s and when it comes to money the only thing he wants to do is save it. He would refuse to spend it on anything that is not a necessity such as traveling for a vacation.

The gentleman was basically ridiculing him and how he doesn’t understand why a person like that would even bother making money if they don’t intend to use it. I can definitely understand not wanting to waste money on just anything, but just saving for the sake of saving money seems kind of counter productive both from a time and investment point of view.

To a certain extent being able to save a lot of money is a way to prove to yourself that you can manage money and follow through with goals. At the same time, I guess like most things you can’t keep conquering the same goals that you know you are good at or be afraid to lose a little. It’s like saying, you can’t grow much taller by standing on the same block. Stepping off that block might make you shorter for awhile, but once you find a taller block to stand on you’ll wonder why you did not do it sooner.

Another way to think about it is why should you do all the work while that lazy money sits in the bank account? You earned it, so find a way to make it work for you now.

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Today I had to buy some simple stationary products such as paper clips and tab dividers. It was definitely interesting as there is a business that specializes in these types of items called “Grand and Toy” and it happened that I was at a mall called Metrotown which the business had a presence in.

As apparent though, the business was closing its operations in the mall and they had these 50% off signs plastered everywhere as they had to get rid of everything. I figured that was a perfect opportunity to get the supplies that I needed for less. I was looking at some of the prices and even with the 50% off items offer it still seemed rather expensive such as $10 for a basic color coded tab divider.

Since it was the mall, I decided to look around and went into the dollar store to try my luck. The last time I shopped at a dollar store was just for goofy party products. I actually did happen to find what I was looking for and ended up buying my items from there which ended up to be a little over $3.

While these aren’t exactly the type of places I would go to buy things that I would be very picky about quality wise, another good thing to going to stores such as these from time to time is that you can develop a sense of price value for certain products to immediately recognize if something is a good deal or not.

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