I saw this brief segment on the news about saving money on your food bill which was kind of interesting. They mentioned this point about the flyers in particular where most of the time the items on the front page are where the real sales are at. Other items within the flyers are mostly just product listings of regular priced items. Come to think of it, I always had that mentality when it came to say electronic stores but never for food and grocery flyers for some reason.

It made sense too as they mentioned many times the items that are further into the flyer could be a paid product placement/advertisement from the manufacturer. They also talked about how items at the end of the aisles are usually there to get you to buy it impulsively as oppose to being on some kind of sale price. That was a common one that I knew before.

While I did realize this one before too, they talked about how in the supermarket you pay a lot more for convenience. The example they gave was a pretty good too of a watermelon costing about 99 cent a pound compared to another one that had been previously cut already costing $2.99 a pound. Was quite a comparison difference and was some good tips to save money on your food bill.

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Today I was at the mall and saw this one store that had a limited time clearance sign plastered everywhere. It was almost as if the company had to simply liquidate everything. I did go into the store as I was thinking of buying a rolling backpack and figured that it would be a good chance to get a good deal.

At first my impression of the sale was very good as they had stacks of items outside the store such as wallets for $5 and a lot of the bags had these 70% off indicators on them. I then noticed something funny as I walked around there.

In the background they had this lopping recorded speech to inform visitors about the great limited time clearance sale on all the products such as the backpacks in the store. The funny thing was that as part of the speech it mentioned how this was a fantastic father’s day sale that shouldn’t be missed. As you know, Father’s day is already over.

I figured that maybe it was just a week long event as a result. Afterwards, one of the worker asked me if I needed any help and proceeded to tell me about the different rolling backpacks there were. He then mentioned about the price and how compared to other stores it is about $3 cheaper than any of the competition in the mall.

That just made me think how it wasn’t really a clearance sale at all in terms of what you would normally expect. Especially with signs indicating that the products were 70% off the original price. That kind of turned me off from purchasing anything. That was definitely an example I thought on how you can’t always just go by those signs to tell you if you are getting a good deal or not.

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After getting that e-mail yesterday it kind of reminded me on how it’s good to be skeptical at times as when it comes to your money as there is no shortage of people who will want to take it from you through unscrupulous means. The funny thing is too that just recently I passed by some kind of small psychic business that opened up and it was advertising that the person charged about $75/hour for a reading. Pretty hefty fee I thought too since I’m naturally skeptical of these types of service offerings.

It then reminded me of some interviews that I saw before about a person named James Randi who is a magician and appears to now dedicate his time to putting people on the spot who claim to have some kind of “paranormal” ability who are also making money off people too as a result. I found this video of him which seems kind of old but gets the point across:

It’s always good to be a little skeptical for anything as it will make you think twice the next time you say read those ads about how you can work at home and get paid say thousands a day or that buying some special potion will keep you healthy for life. I often hear the term “Seeing is believing”. Yet when I think about it even that is not enough at times as what you are seeing could simply be “staged” such as a person having hundreds of fabricated testimonies about people who buy his products.

Of course, being skeptical doesn’t mean being extremely negative either. For example, if I saw an offer that seemed really good, the skepticism is more about having the desire to want to learn more about something as oppose to trying to debunk it. For example, if I read that a certain credit card offered say a 50% cash back option for every dollar, the skepticism would make me want to read all the fine prints to learn the stipulations as oppose to intentionally focusing in finding a fault of some sort.

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Today I was a department store looking for some items such as a tie. At the same time, I needed a new umbrella and so I figured that I would look for one as well. As usual, I would do my price comparison to see which one was the best value. I couldn’t believe that there were some umbrellas that cost almost $100.

Eventually, I narrowed it down to a $15 one which looked okay. There was something interesting though as I saw two umbrellas that were the same size and had the same features. The main difference was that the bottom handle on one of the umbrellas was neutral looking where it was flat and the other one had a more feminine design as it had a curve. The neutral one sold for $20 and the more feminine one was $9.99.

That just got me thinking where if you were truly trying to save every penny, would you be willing to purchase an item designed for the opposite sex if it was cheaper and pretty much did the exact same thing? I’m sure most people would say yes initially, but when it comes to it I’m sure many would still purchase the one that is labeled for their gender.

I’m not talking about things like a male buying a dress either incase someone brings up that wisecrack.

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Recently I was talking to a gentleman who says that he refuses to pay regular prices for various services especially with companies who have all these special fees in the final bill. Literally, for services such as the telephone he will keep asking for the person’s supervisor and then their supervisor until someone gives him a deal.

He was then telling me about an incident where an elderly lady literally was so persistent in a similar matter where she was literally transferred to the CEO of the company who had no problem at all in giving her a discount. On top of that, the CEO then told her that the people she talked to would be addressed as well as the issue should have never gone that far.

In general, this usually is true where people who are persistent enough seem to be able to get all the deals and discounts that they want. I personally don’t like tactics like these though as it is kind of shady in some ways I feel. In my opinion, there is a difference between getting a good discount through things such as competitor pricing and inappropriately harassing people for one until the give in.

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