Archive for September, 2008

Welcome back Franco fan! Please share your thoughts and leave some comments!

By now all the frugal followers have begun amassing a tidy fortune from my money saving tips, but what should one do with these new found riches? The answer is where phase two of the Frugal Franco plan (save - invest - give back) comes into play.  Most everyone has heard the old adage, “it’s never too late to start saving,” but really it should read, “It’s never too early to start investing.”

I am constantly plagued by the need to “get a good deal” on everything. Overpaying for things is only slightly higher than “a sharp stick in the eye” on my list of fun things to do. With that in mind, I still realize that it is impossible to get a bargain on everything in life and when these times present themselves it’s best to just roll with the punches. To best illustrate this point, let me tell you a story that happened to me last weekend.

Forbes recently posted an article entitled 13 things you can get for free. If you can navigate around all the flashing ads embedded in the article on msn, I highly recommend everyone take a read. Some of my favorites included free (legal) TV show viewing, last minute cruises, and legal advice, but the most interesting by far had to be the “cyber grandparent.” Just check it out! 

Franco

Deals, or the appearance there of, are very effective tools for getting Joe Consumer to spend money. The problem is that the better the deal, the worse the profit is for the seller (a.k.a. “the man”), and everyone knows that the objective of any good business is to maximize profit. Enter the “packaged deal.”

A packaged deal accomplishes two things for the seller’s benefit: 1) the assurance of a “deal” persuades consumers to drop their guard and open their wallet and 2) on average, packaging things together gets people to spend more money than they originally intended. With these two weapons in hand, we the consumer have been snookered into such purchases as the Bee Gees box set, vacations to odd destinations, and way too many Abraham Lincoln postcards. When looking at packages, one needs to first decide what they really want, then evaluate what is included in the package, and finally determine if the package is cost effective.