Cheapwad Finds--Opposite of Blow That Dough!

Decided to fly to Phoenix in a couple weeks rather than drive. We'll then have a couple friends drive down from our cabin to pick us up. This is so our 3 couples can meet each other for our Alaska trip next year.
Looking at flights from Baton Rouge I decided I want economy plus for the legroom. Booked one way for DW and I first class for $1200 total with senior discount. This was only $300 more than basic economy, + was a bit more. So first class here we come!
 
harley said:
Just as a heads up, Apple TV is allowing free streaming this weekend. Good chance to binge a few shows if you've got the time.
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Any idea how to make it work? I have a Roku device on my TV and have the Apple TV app on it, but I get the same "sign in or subscribe" screen I got before the free preview started.
 
Well, it happened again. Target brand sunscreen (comparable to Banana Boat sport) is on clearance for $3.19, so I bought two. It's 10+ ounces, and Banana Boat is 8 ounces for usually about $10. So a real deal.

But when I got home I noticed I'd bought SPF30, and I remembered seeing SPF50. The experts say 50 is no better than 30, but if you can get either one for the same price, why not get the 50. So I was driving by Target today anyway and ducked in to see if they had 50, and they did. So I was getting two of them, and when I rang them up they were $1.91 each, even though the clearance sticker said $3.19. So I cancelled that transaction and went back and got two more, for a total of four.

Which is my point about incorrect pricing, even in my favor. My behavior was affected by the sunscreen being $1.91 instead of $3.19. If Target wants to clear out that sunscreen, it would no doubt happen faster if the price tag said $1.91 and not $3.19. They're basically giving money away if someone's willing to pay $3.19 but gets charged $1.91 instead; they might or might not be like me and go to the trouble of going back to get more and getting back in line to pay for it.
 
Pluperfect said:
Well, it happened again. Target brand sunscreen (comparable to Banana Boat sport) is on clearance for $3.19, so I bought two. It's 10+ ounces, and Banana Boat is 8 ounces for usually about $10. So a real deal.

But when I got home I noticed I'd bought SPF30, and I remembered seeing SPF50. The experts say 50 is no better than 30, but if you can get either one for the same price, why not get the 50. So I was driving by Target today anyway and ducked in to see if they had 50, and they did. So I was getting two of them, and when I rang them up they were $1.91 each, even though the clearance sticker said $3.19. So I cancelled that transaction and went back and got two more, for a total of four.

Which is my point about incorrect pricing, even in my favor. My behavior was affected by the sunscreen being $1.91 instead of $3.19. If Target wants to clear out that sunscreen, it would no doubt happen faster if the price tag said $1.91 and not $3.19. They're basically giving money away if someone's willing to pay $3.19 but gets charged $1.91 instead; they might or might not be like me and go to the trouble of going back to get more and getting back in line to pay for it.
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Not a lot of sales on sun screen here - Target or any other store.:cool:
 
And it happened again, only it's no longer in the cheapwad category.

We're staying in an RV park where the sites are $59/night (actually $69, but discounted if you stay for a week). That's kind of high, but staying here has some attractive features, so we signed up for the week.

And then we decided to stay for another week, instead of moving to the $50/night place that's more conveniently located, the $45/night place that's less conveniently located, or seeing if there's space at the $25/night place (it's half price if you have a discount card thing). Went to pay for another week and the gal says, "Let me see if there are any discounts" and mumbled something about "returning guest" and our second week is half price--$29.50/night.

I have looked everywhere and can find no mention whatsoever of any discount like this, or any discounts other than the stay-six-nights-get-one-free. Nothing on their website, and nothing in the printed stuff they gave us.

We had decided to pay $413 for another week, so the $206.50 is completely lost revenue for them.

Also, we're in Arizona so the surprisingly discounted sunscreen a few weeks ago is coming in handy. We're making out like bandits but it's hurting my soul.
 
Pluperfect said:
We're making out like bandits but it's hurting my soul.
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Let me try to sooth that. Consider this: The sellers in your examples decided that the lower price is something they can live with. They are the ones who set the value at that price point. In my mind, that means the non-discount price was too high, and they knew it.

It's kind of like when you negotiate for a used item. There's an asking price, but the first words out of the prospective buyer's mouth are "will you take $x for it?" The lowest price the buyer will "take" is the market value. In your examples, you didn't even have to negotiate. Based on their knowledge of the market, and how badly they wanted the sale, the seller chose that price.

You paid market value. Your soul can rest easy.
 
CaptTom said:
Based on their knowledge of the market, and how badly they wanted the sale, the seller chose that price.
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That's how it's supposed to work. But in this case, the seller didn't communicate that price to the buyer. It was revealed only after the buyer had accepted the higher price, and it therefore didn't influence the buyer's behavior at all, which is what a "sale" price is supposed to do.

In fact, the lack of communication on the lowered price almost led to the seller not getting even that amount of money because the buyer was comparing the seller's $59 to other sellers' $50, $45, and $25.

If we'd known the price was $29.50, we would have taken it without even considering the others. But when it was $59, it was a close decision and we almost drove away with no way of knowing $59 wasn't the actual price, and in that situation everybody would have lost.
 
The ultimate cheap find, Zero cost.

A while back I logged on to my bank's website. Before I could proceed, they presented a page saying I must agree to to the trems of use. 80 pages of legalise. Tried to pass around it, not possible. Am no lawyer, to read 80 pages of legalise would have have taken hours. Bit the bullet, clicked on accept.

After reviewing my account, clicked on their "contact us". Wrote a fairly angry nastygram about the must accept legalese. Then added the line about their obligation to send me hard copies of the agreement at no cost to me.

Some days ago a fat packet arrived in the mail. It was the "Terms of use" 85 paper pages of single sided verbiage. Read as much as my puny brain could handle, then realized the benefit.


Eighty free pages of one side blank paper to use for my printer! Delivered at no cost to me.
 
Not sure how to classify this one. My 2016 Samsung Tab A tablet was long in the tooth and getting slow. Around Christmas, I was leaning towards a new tablet and a Google Pixel Tablet which was discounted to $299 but I never pulled the trigger. I recently decided I wanted the Pixel Tablet, but it has gone back to its regular $399 price. I put a camel camel price alert at $299 and I got an alert and jumped on it this morning. It was delivered this afternoon and I'm typing on it now.

So I saved $100... sort of. Does that count?

PS. Great tablet so far. Just a bigger screen version of my Pixel 6a cellphone.
 
ls99 said:
The ultimate cheap find, Zero cost.

A while back I logged on to my bank's website. Before I could proceed, they presented a page saying I must agree to to the trems of use. 80 pages of legalise. Tried to pass around it, not possible. Am no lawyer, to read 80 pages of legalise would have have taken hours. Bit the bullet, clicked on accept.

After reviewing my account, clicked on their "contact us". Wrote a fairly angry nastygram about the must accept legalese. Then added the line about their obligation to send me hard copies of the agreement at no cost to me.

Some days ago a fat packet arrived in the mail. It was the "Terms of use" 85 paper pages of single sided verbiage. Read as much as my puny brain could handle, then realized the benefit.


Eighty free pages of one side blank paper to use for my printer! Delivered at no cost to me.
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Heh, heh, nice one.
 
Today, day after Super Bowl, free tall black coffee at Starbucks.
 
vafoodie said:
I feel like we need a thread for bargains that we find. I am thrilled with 7-11. My regular Starbucks order (iced cafe latte in summer/hot in winter) ran me $6. Some 7-11's now have these fancy self-serve new machines that make my lattes just as good as Starbucks. I bring my own cup and pay a refill price of $1.69. Every 7th drink is free. I also acrue fuel points. Today I got 11 cents off every gallon. I'm delighted with this find.
What is your cheapwad find?
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EEEEK! => My regular Starbucks order (iced cafe latte in summer/hot in winter) ran me $6
 
pacergal said:
Today, day after Super Bowl, free tall black coffee at Starbucks.
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Once in my life I bought a $tarbuck$ coffee. For me, it was the most bitter swill, beating stuff of a four day old coffee of a Coast Guard C130 fisheries patrol, over the Bering Sea flight's.
I suppose it is fitting for post super bowl :)
 
ls99 said:
Once in my life I bought a $tarbuck$ coffee. For me, it was the most bitter swill, beating stuff of a four day old coffee of a Coast Guard C130 fisheries patrol, over the Bering Sea flight's.
I suppose it is fitting for post super bowl :)
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I almost never go to Starbucks but have always enjoyed their coffee. It's true that most of their blends are very flavorful (some might call them "strong"). I find myself putting in an unhealthy amount of half and half but then I really enjoy the flavor. Now, they have price me out of the market.

Gotta put Starbucks in the BTD category for me though YMMV.
 
Koolau said:
I almost never go to Starbucks but have always enjoyed their coffee. It's true that most of their blends are very flavorful (some might call them "strong"). I find myself putting in an unhealthy amount of half and half but then I really enjoy the flavor. Now, they have price me out of the market.

Gotta put Starbucks in the BTD category for me though YMMV.
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I tried their coffee (not the flavored crap) and had it black...absolutely terrible.
 
I'm glad I went cold turkey from my caffeine addiction years ago. Not only is it better for my health, and I've saved a ton of money, but I haven't had to learn how to order all the new, foo-foo kinds of coffee out there.

It used to be you just said "coffee." Maybe "black" or "regular." Now I think they'd look at you like you were speaking a foreign language if you tried that in Starbucks.
 
The saga of the RV park with the undisclosed discount continues. To recap:

We signed up for a week for $59/night (rack rate is $69, but the weekly rate is cheaper).

At the end of that week, after much consideration based 90% on price, we made the decision to sign up for another week at $59/night. That's when they said we get it half price ($29.50) as a returning customer, even though we hadn't left. And they said it would be good for two weeks.

This is the annoying discount because we were basing our decision on $59/night; if we'd known it was going to change to $29.50, we wouldn't have even thought about looking for another place. So we wasted time and effort researching others, and if we hadn't made the anguished decision to blow that dough, the RV park would have lost the revenue from our extending our stay.

Here's what's happened since then:

After that second week, we checked to see if it the $29.50 was still in effect for our third week, and they said it was. So we signed up for a third week, at $29.50/night.

Then at the end of the third week, we were going to move to another RV park but they were full, but I miraculously snagged a spot at the state park. The problem was that we had to leave our current place on Friday, and the state park site is for Sunday. We were going to just find a place to park for those two nights, but I said, "Go see what it'll cost for us to stay two more nights."

The answer? $29.50 a night. That's after the two weeks they said the $29.50 was good for AND the $29.50 is the nightly rate if you sign up for a week, but we're not staying for a week so it seems to me if they're going to give us a half-price discount, it should be $34.50 (based on the single-night rate).

On the one hand, we're delighted that we're getting these luxe accommodations for $29.50/night, but on the other hand, the failure of the buyer-seller-meeting-of-the-minds economic model is driving me crazy.

And now I'm wondering if instead of signing up for a week, if we'd come for one night and paid the single-night rack rate of $69, if we'd extended after that night, what would they have been charging us? I have no idea. Argh.
 
Just picked up a Black and Decker, 1/2 inch impact wrench with a set of impact sockets and 2 (12 in and 10 in) channel locks for $20. Guy said he had too many tools
 
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