Games Prices Play
If you think you are getting a bargain, you’re wrong. It’s that simple. When an item is on sale, its still making a profit for the person or company selling it. The stronger the advertisement’s wording, the less likely you’re getting a good deal.
Advertising Price Increases: For the last six months, we have been purchasing a seafood – shrimp salad at our local store for lunch on occasion. It is low in fat, quite tasty, and $3.99 a pound. Two weeks ago the store’s newspaper advertisement featured this product for $4.99. One give-away that the price has gone up is the inclusion of the word “only.” Cat food that was selling for 44 cents a can is now “only 2 for 99¢.”
BOGO: The same store that increased the price of the salad also uses the “buy one, get one free” gimmick. Frequently, if you know the actual price of the product, this can result in a great opportunity. But this store rarely advertises the price of the product, just that if you purchase one, you’ll set the second “of equal or lesser value,” for free. After selling boneless chicken for $1.99 a pound for weeks, they had it “on sale” at a BOGO price of $3.99.
I will admit that their “buy six bagels and get six free” is always at the regular price, and I do purchase it. No, I cannot eat a dozen fresh bagels, but they freeze well (as do English muffins).
For Six Easy Payments: Reverting to television and the sixty-second infomercials for salad spinners, the world’s sharpest knives, and other items “not available in stores.” They all tell you to “call within 3 minutes” to get a great deal (although since they run the ad throughout the day for weeks, how can they tell when those three minutes are up?). Whether they sell for “only $19.99” or for six weeks of easy payments, before you purchase check out WalMart (now they have eliminated the hyphen so it’s no longer Wal-Mart) or Target to see what they are getting for a similar product. You might even find that $19.99 special at the “All For a Dollar” store.
Spend $15 Coupons: Inflation has increased the “spend $5 and get…” all the way up to $15, and it will probably go higher soon. If you are already going to spend that much in the store, these can be good deals. In fact if you need the products, and were planning on spending $10 or more, it may be worth it to get an extra something for the coupon special. It, though, is never worth the trip or the savings if you were not going to purchase anything or if the product is not something you really need.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Seeing is Not Believing – Part 1
TV Advertisements: They Think Us Fools
There is one sure way to save money and avoid purchasing items that you neither need nor work as touted: do not believe advertisements.
No one believes in miracle weight-loss pills (then why is it a billion-dollar a year industry?). We all know that those fad ab-strengthening machines do not burn away calories of take inches off your waist by themselves.
The purpose of advertising is to sell you something that you would not normally purchase. Companies make products and need to sell them; it’s that simple. It makes no difference what the media is: television, paper ads, billboards, or radio. They ARE out to get you, and your money.
Open your eyes when watching television advertising (or simply ignore them completely).
Home security alarms: Are we to believe that a wife has had an alarm installed on the house without consulting with her husband? The alarm company has to take a home inventory, look over what type of system is best, where to put the components, and then make an appointment for the technicians to come. How good can it be – let’s try it out. Run around the house (from daylight to dark) with your suit jacket over your shoulder and carrying your briefcase. What is he looking for? He can get in at any time, just open a door (or does he not have a key?). What does that advertisement prove except that the people that buy the product are fools?
And “for free?” Not hardly. What is offered is a minimum system that might cover a two-room shack. You want more than a few windows or doors alarmed? You want glass-shattering coverage? Add a few thousand. In addition, you need to sign up for monitoring at a cost that, within three years, would be more expensive than thet alarm system. And then they usually have you and your money for more years beyond that. But the alarm companies just want to get in your door – they are salesmen.
Snake oil, encyclopedias, tonics, and sure cures for all that ails you.
Cholesterol-lowering foods: Eat our product and lower your cholesterol. One ad says that the item may lower your level by 4% in six weeks. Actually they want you to buy the product for six weeks. If you normally eat bread, eggs, muffins, or any high-cholesterol food, by switching to almost any healthier product WILL produce positive results. If you buy their product you encourage more inane ads. If you have a cholesterol of 300, a 4% drop is 12 points. Not much of a solution.
Car Advertisements: Let’s compare our car with another. We have got to have at least one thing, of the thousands of items on a car, that is better than someone else’s vehicle (one that costs more than ours). Our glove compartment is 10% larger than a car that sells for thousands more. We have a spot for your coffee mug (is that safe driving?). We have cute wheels. We have sexier models or ones that can do handstands and jump over the hood. We get 27 MPG (in the 1970s there were many cars that got over 35 MPG). We can climb a 90-degree hill and take you across rugged terrain (but can it get you to work and back without costing $20 for gas?).
You can spot the improbabilities yourself. Watch the advertisements, and don’t believe.
There is one sure way to save money and avoid purchasing items that you neither need nor work as touted: do not believe advertisements.
No one believes in miracle weight-loss pills (then why is it a billion-dollar a year industry?). We all know that those fad ab-strengthening machines do not burn away calories of take inches off your waist by themselves.
The purpose of advertising is to sell you something that you would not normally purchase. Companies make products and need to sell them; it’s that simple. It makes no difference what the media is: television, paper ads, billboards, or radio. They ARE out to get you, and your money.
Open your eyes when watching television advertising (or simply ignore them completely).
Home security alarms: Are we to believe that a wife has had an alarm installed on the house without consulting with her husband? The alarm company has to take a home inventory, look over what type of system is best, where to put the components, and then make an appointment for the technicians to come. How good can it be – let’s try it out. Run around the house (from daylight to dark) with your suit jacket over your shoulder and carrying your briefcase. What is he looking for? He can get in at any time, just open a door (or does he not have a key?). What does that advertisement prove except that the people that buy the product are fools?
And “for free?” Not hardly. What is offered is a minimum system that might cover a two-room shack. You want more than a few windows or doors alarmed? You want glass-shattering coverage? Add a few thousand. In addition, you need to sign up for monitoring at a cost that, within three years, would be more expensive than thet alarm system. And then they usually have you and your money for more years beyond that. But the alarm companies just want to get in your door – they are salesmen.
Snake oil, encyclopedias, tonics, and sure cures for all that ails you.
Cholesterol-lowering foods: Eat our product and lower your cholesterol. One ad says that the item may lower your level by 4% in six weeks. Actually they want you to buy the product for six weeks. If you normally eat bread, eggs, muffins, or any high-cholesterol food, by switching to almost any healthier product WILL produce positive results. If you buy their product you encourage more inane ads. If you have a cholesterol of 300, a 4% drop is 12 points. Not much of a solution.
Car Advertisements: Let’s compare our car with another. We have got to have at least one thing, of the thousands of items on a car, that is better than someone else’s vehicle (one that costs more than ours). Our glove compartment is 10% larger than a car that sells for thousands more. We have a spot for your coffee mug (is that safe driving?). We have cute wheels. We have sexier models or ones that can do handstands and jump over the hood. We get 27 MPG (in the 1970s there were many cars that got over 35 MPG). We can climb a 90-degree hill and take you across rugged terrain (but can it get you to work and back without costing $20 for gas?).
You can spot the improbabilities yourself. Watch the advertisements, and don’t believe.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Research Can Lower Your Costs
For those of us who are retired, as well as others who have the time or wish to make the time available, a little research can help you find the lowest cost of food, clothing, gas, heating fuel, and much of what we need. Slightly Creaky has done much of the work for you. Below are a few samples. Go to our Consumer Assistance site for more information and Internet locations.
Gasoline:
Gas Buddy: Set up by community throughout the United States and Canada, and reported by community members. Anyone can join and submit the current prices for stations in your community.
MSN Autos – Local Gas Prices: Submit the zip code and get not only a list of gas stations, but a quick glace at the highest and lowest prices and what each station is charging. Each entry is dated. At the bottom of the page are the national lowest and highest prices for regular gasoline throughout the country.
MapQuest National Gas Prices: Input the type of fuel you need, regular, premium, diesel, or alternative, then put in the zip code. Starts off locally, then expands outward to nearby communities. Place your mouse pointer over the listing and the station appears on the map.
AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report: While this does not list actual pump prices, you can see statewide trends, averages, and other useful information.
The Heritage Foundation: “Based on a review of the energy legislation currently before the House of Representatives, the price of regular unleaded gasoline could rise from average August 1st prices of $2.09 per gallon to $5.58 in 2016. That is an increase of 167 percent. Analysts in the Center for Data Analysis developed this estimate and comparable ones at the state level from assumed effects of three major provisions in the legislation: continued mandates for biofuels content of gasoline, new taxes imposed on energy companies, and new regulations that will affect the oil producers. This estimate also takes into account price gouging legislation that was passed by the House earlier this year. To see state specific estimates, please move your mouse pointer over the state below:”
Home Heating Fuel
Most web sites in this category want a service fee to assist. They contact local fuel companies and attempt to get them to bid on your needs. In most cases, though, we find they have affiliate sites that win the bid ignoring whether they were the lowest price, best quality, or most reliable. Slightly Creaky suggests you find a listing of heating fuel sites in your area and contact them by telephone getting their current prices.
Home Heating Oil Prices.com: Has contact information for local fuel companies. On occasion they list recent prices.
Consumer Products
Slightly Creaky suggests that you do not depend on any one consumer product site as none of them are all-inclusive. Check out these locations to find a product and to get an idea of current retail prices. Then go to the web site for your favorite stores and check weekly advertisements to get the best deals.
Shopzilla: Enter the product you are looking for and Shopzilla will produce a listing of current retail and online prices as well as pictures of the product and reviews.
Price Grabber: Gives you the opportunity to select a product category or to input the product in a search engine. Includes product description and reviews.
MySimon: “A comparison shopping site for almost everything: Apparel, computers, electronics, jewelry, video games, and more. We gather prices on millions of products from thousands of stores, so you can compare products and find the lowest price before you buy.”
Smarter.com: Includes information about rebates and discount coupons. "Come to Smarter.com before you buy online. Using an unbiased system to compare prices on products from thousands of different merchants, Smarter.com helps you shop and find the best prices, products and websites. As the leading price comparison shopping site online, Smarter.com carries top merchants including: Circuit City, Crutchfield, Buy.com, B&H and many other popular online stores."
Gasoline:
Gas Buddy: Set up by community throughout the United States and Canada, and reported by community members. Anyone can join and submit the current prices for stations in your community.
MSN Autos – Local Gas Prices: Submit the zip code and get not only a list of gas stations, but a quick glace at the highest and lowest prices and what each station is charging. Each entry is dated. At the bottom of the page are the national lowest and highest prices for regular gasoline throughout the country.
MapQuest National Gas Prices: Input the type of fuel you need, regular, premium, diesel, or alternative, then put in the zip code. Starts off locally, then expands outward to nearby communities. Place your mouse pointer over the listing and the station appears on the map.
AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report: While this does not list actual pump prices, you can see statewide trends, averages, and other useful information.
The Heritage Foundation: “Based on a review of the energy legislation currently before the House of Representatives, the price of regular unleaded gasoline could rise from average August 1st prices of $2.09 per gallon to $5.58 in 2016. That is an increase of 167 percent. Analysts in the Center for Data Analysis developed this estimate and comparable ones at the state level from assumed effects of three major provisions in the legislation: continued mandates for biofuels content of gasoline, new taxes imposed on energy companies, and new regulations that will affect the oil producers. This estimate also takes into account price gouging legislation that was passed by the House earlier this year. To see state specific estimates, please move your mouse pointer over the state below:”
Home Heating Fuel
Most web sites in this category want a service fee to assist. They contact local fuel companies and attempt to get them to bid on your needs. In most cases, though, we find they have affiliate sites that win the bid ignoring whether they were the lowest price, best quality, or most reliable. Slightly Creaky suggests you find a listing of heating fuel sites in your area and contact them by telephone getting their current prices.
Home Heating Oil Prices.com: Has contact information for local fuel companies. On occasion they list recent prices.
Consumer Products
Slightly Creaky suggests that you do not depend on any one consumer product site as none of them are all-inclusive. Check out these locations to find a product and to get an idea of current retail prices. Then go to the web site for your favorite stores and check weekly advertisements to get the best deals.
Shopzilla: Enter the product you are looking for and Shopzilla will produce a listing of current retail and online prices as well as pictures of the product and reviews.
Price Grabber: Gives you the opportunity to select a product category or to input the product in a search engine. Includes product description and reviews.
MySimon: “A comparison shopping site for almost everything: Apparel, computers, electronics, jewelry, video games, and more. We gather prices on millions of products from thousands of stores, so you can compare products and find the lowest price before you buy.”
Smarter.com: Includes information about rebates and discount coupons. "Come to Smarter.com before you buy online. Using an unbiased system to compare prices on products from thousands of different merchants, Smarter.com helps you shop and find the best prices, products and websites. As the leading price comparison shopping site online, Smarter.com carries top merchants including: Circuit City, Crutchfield, Buy.com, B&H and many other popular online stores."
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Selling Energy Credits
We can’t find it anywhere… us, the experts online researchers. Amazing.
Two weeks ago we had a solar energy inventory of our house. The salesman took measurements of our sun exposure and determined that by putting panels on the west side of the house we could get 80% of the maximum energy possible even though we had no south-facing exposure. We could produce around 60% of our electrical need, but since our daytime surplus would be sold back to the grid, we’d actually only pay for around 25% our annual usage.
Sounded reasonable, as our electric bill has risen to almost $200 a month (our computers are on around 18 hours a day accounting for some of that usage). So, 75% of ten years of energy, assuming a 4% annual increase (should be more than that) might save us around $15,000, and reduce our carbon footprint.
It would cost $77,600 to install. Based on the size of the system we’d need, state rebates that directly reduce the cost, and other incentives, the out-of-pocket costs would actually be $42,600. But wait….
After three years you could sell your renewable energy credits (RECs) and recoup your costs quite rapidly. By producing “green” electricity, with a CO2 savings of 22,000 tons a year, we get energy credits that can be sold for cash on the open market, such as on eBay. The salesman said the state takes the energy credits for the first three years to help offset the rebates they provide. Thereafter they would be ours forever, even after we sell the house.
Based on the size of our grid, we’d qualify for “12 units” a year and they are currently selling for around $250 each, and that will increase each year as companies who pollute buy such credits to offset their federal fines. Thus, after the third year, we’d get credit worth at least $3,000 a year, and the salesman’s company would even purchase the credits from us. In ten years (minus the first three) that would be worth at least $21,000, possibly, he said, more than twice that.
What’s more, even if we sell our house, since we were the ones who initially paid for the system, the RECs would be ours forever (beyond death?) and thus in twenty years, even if the value remained the same, we’d have recouped $51,000, or more than the system’s price.
That certainly made the solar unit seem cost efficient.
But no one was selling RECs on eBay. Our electric company had never heard of households selling energy credits. There is nothing anywhere online about it. We contacted two other solar installation companies and neither of them had ever heard of such a thing.
We pride ourselves in being able to research facts online, but we’re stumped, or we’re being scammed.
Which is it? We seek the public’s help. Is this too good to be true or have we missed something?
Two weeks ago we had a solar energy inventory of our house. The salesman took measurements of our sun exposure and determined that by putting panels on the west side of the house we could get 80% of the maximum energy possible even though we had no south-facing exposure. We could produce around 60% of our electrical need, but since our daytime surplus would be sold back to the grid, we’d actually only pay for around 25% our annual usage.
Sounded reasonable, as our electric bill has risen to almost $200 a month (our computers are on around 18 hours a day accounting for some of that usage). So, 75% of ten years of energy, assuming a 4% annual increase (should be more than that) might save us around $15,000, and reduce our carbon footprint.
It would cost $77,600 to install. Based on the size of the system we’d need, state rebates that directly reduce the cost, and other incentives, the out-of-pocket costs would actually be $42,600. But wait….
After three years you could sell your renewable energy credits (RECs) and recoup your costs quite rapidly. By producing “green” electricity, with a CO2 savings of 22,000 tons a year, we get energy credits that can be sold for cash on the open market, such as on eBay. The salesman said the state takes the energy credits for the first three years to help offset the rebates they provide. Thereafter they would be ours forever, even after we sell the house.
Based on the size of our grid, we’d qualify for “12 units” a year and they are currently selling for around $250 each, and that will increase each year as companies who pollute buy such credits to offset their federal fines. Thus, after the third year, we’d get credit worth at least $3,000 a year, and the salesman’s company would even purchase the credits from us. In ten years (minus the first three) that would be worth at least $21,000, possibly, he said, more than twice that.
What’s more, even if we sell our house, since we were the ones who initially paid for the system, the RECs would be ours forever (beyond death?) and thus in twenty years, even if the value remained the same, we’d have recouped $51,000, or more than the system’s price.
That certainly made the solar unit seem cost efficient.
But no one was selling RECs on eBay. Our electric company had never heard of households selling energy credits. There is nothing anywhere online about it. We contacted two other solar installation companies and neither of them had ever heard of such a thing.
We pride ourselves in being able to research facts online, but we’re stumped, or we’re being scammed.
Which is it? We seek the public’s help. Is this too good to be true or have we missed something?
Friday, July 4, 2008
Living a Lie
Truth is as we perceive it. There is no such thing as absolute truth as perceived by human senses. Everything we encounter is tainted by our prejudices, and we all have them. Our parents, teach us inaccuracies, as do our teachers, our religions and history. Yet these inaccuracies together make up our culture and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
George Washington did not have wooden teeth or chop down a cherry tree. No one ever threw a coin across the Potomac River. Paul Revere never made it to Concord – he was captured partway there… and there were three riders that night, not two. The United States sank the Maine, and used it as an excuse to declare war. If you run with a pencil you’ll poke your eye out.
How many lies are told to us “for our own good” and remain with us as truths? How many fictions are given to us as children to make our parents’ lives easier, and we pass them on to our children even though we know they are not accurate? How many poems or stories are written to honor heroes that contain exaggerations or are twisted to make the protagonist seem worse than he really was? Did the police use excessive force or did my child actually behave like they say he did?
We want to believe that people we know are good and discount stories about them behaving badly. We dislike someone or a group and thus believe the person or people could easily do wrong. Two hundred years ago the British could never be right; 150 years ago the South knew the North was wrong. Many people cannot forgive the Germans for starting the two World Wars or the French for simply being French.
Every person, every group has colored perceptions of other people and groups. Try to persuade someone that one of their “truths” is inaccurate and you become the enemy. No human is exempt from this.
Yet should we always tell the truth? Can it be a kindness to lie to soothe someone’s feelings or to protect someone we love? Is it honesty or dishonesty to present our perceptions as the total truth and possibly harm another person, or cause a country to go to war?
Mark Twain is credited with stating, “Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.” Sir Winston Churchill wrote, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”
Perhaps we should take the advice of Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., and apply it not only to the political world, but also to all our relationships and thoughts. During his 1952 presidential campaign he suggested: “I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
Honesty may be the best policy, but in today’s world it will not help a student pass a test (only studying will do that), it will not help you avoid a ticket, it will not correct a mistake, nor, it seems, will it help certain political aspirants get elected. But honesty and admitting your mistakes may make you a better person.
George Washington did not have wooden teeth or chop down a cherry tree. No one ever threw a coin across the Potomac River. Paul Revere never made it to Concord – he was captured partway there… and there were three riders that night, not two. The United States sank the Maine, and used it as an excuse to declare war. If you run with a pencil you’ll poke your eye out.
How many lies are told to us “for our own good” and remain with us as truths? How many fictions are given to us as children to make our parents’ lives easier, and we pass them on to our children even though we know they are not accurate? How many poems or stories are written to honor heroes that contain exaggerations or are twisted to make the protagonist seem worse than he really was? Did the police use excessive force or did my child actually behave like they say he did?
We want to believe that people we know are good and discount stories about them behaving badly. We dislike someone or a group and thus believe the person or people could easily do wrong. Two hundred years ago the British could never be right; 150 years ago the South knew the North was wrong. Many people cannot forgive the Germans for starting the two World Wars or the French for simply being French.
Every person, every group has colored perceptions of other people and groups. Try to persuade someone that one of their “truths” is inaccurate and you become the enemy. No human is exempt from this.
Yet should we always tell the truth? Can it be a kindness to lie to soothe someone’s feelings or to protect someone we love? Is it honesty or dishonesty to present our perceptions as the total truth and possibly harm another person, or cause a country to go to war?
Mark Twain is credited with stating, “Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.” Sir Winston Churchill wrote, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”
Perhaps we should take the advice of Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., and apply it not only to the political world, but also to all our relationships and thoughts. During his 1952 presidential campaign he suggested: “I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
Honesty may be the best policy, but in today’s world it will not help a student pass a test (only studying will do that), it will not help you avoid a ticket, it will not correct a mistake, nor, it seems, will it help certain political aspirants get elected. But honesty and admitting your mistakes may make you a better person.
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