Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for November 11, 2013

Hope this store is NOT open today!

Exactly! I’ve been watching these credit card commercials where people are spending frivolously just to get extra points toward a discount on certain purchases, and I keep thinking, “Just buy the certain purchase directly; you’ll save money overall.”

If it were “free”, you wouldn’t have to give them money to get it. When you give a store money and they give you merchandise in return, it’s not a free gift, it’s getting what you PAID for!

And the “free gift” is something you don’t want or need, and that you’ll give away and the recipient will not appreciate.

why yes,the that free gift only cost you $29

I’ve now learned that I don’t need all of those samples (aka “free gifts”) that I’ll never use. I get my makeup and lotions from the drugstore, which have been shown to work just as well.

Thanks to ALL the Veterans for our Freedom!!

The CEO of J. C. Penney got booted after he decided not to put ridiculous markups on clothing, then sell at a lower price to make people think they were getting a deal. He sold at the lower price to begin with, and sales plunged. Now, intellectually I know what clothing stores are doing, but emotionally I don’t want to buy something unless I think I’m getting a deal!

I love women in lipstick!

Sephora killed department store cosmetic purchases for me – I get the same stuff there, don’t have to buy a certain amount and earn points toward rewards I can choose and actually want. And twice a year, I get a 20% off coupon to use on everything. Works much better for me, I get what I actually use.

I hate stores that put one price tag on the clothing but then have “discounts” on everything. Just tell me the real price, I hate playing games.

I bought some LED light bulbs for $17.95 just to try them out. When I went back to ____ for more, they had “rolled back” the price to $24.95!

Every thing at Sears and Pennys is on sale at some time before Christmas. If you do not have a receipt (it was a Christmas gift), they will only give you credit(sometimes cash) for the lowest price they had on it, even if it was on sale for one hour and not advertised.

depends on the price of the gift. i’ve gotten things that cost way over the price of the token items for free (+ i got the token items too |D)