AL6400 Blog

How To Save Money On Groceries

Alan Yu — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:27:51 +0000

Since there was all this talk this week about how apparently people here think that a little over $400 a month is a lot to pay on groceries I decided on the show to talk about ways to save money on just that.

For the most part I tried to discuss how I feel we need to understand how much we pay extra in order to get that small amount of convenience. To do this I mentioned points that many of you may remember such as how expensive those pre-cut fruit slices are. I used the pineapple example that you may remember here:

As well just to get the point across more, the other day as a I wrote before I noticed there were pre-cut watermelon for sale at the grocery store and the price difference is way more noticeable here:

Like when you look at that doesn’t it kind of make you want to cut the fruit yourself to save about five times the money? This is true for most other things too such as buying things like those warm up and it’s ready kind of meals. We all seem to find time to try and earn more money right? In many ways you can look at it too like with the watermelon example where with the savings you are getting it’s like you are paying yourself $20+ an hour to do it yourself.

I then talked about coupon sites and these were some Canadian based sites that I have found has a lot grocery coupons and as well household items that most people probably buy:

http://www.save.ca/
http://www.websaver.ca/
http://www.brandsaver.ca/

As well, I know a lot of people are simply too lazy to look at all the flyer and coupon deals themselves. So with that I shared a site called http://www.www.smartcanucks.ca/ which I have found has an active online community of grocery shoppers that try and find the best coupon and deals for your weekly shopping needs.

This is one of things that simply have to become a habit where you recognize how much is too much to be paying for something and at the dame time where to loo for the deals. So hopefully this helps to put people on the right track.

This feed has been syndicated from AL6400 Blog – Business and Finance

What Is The Motivator To Do It Yourself To Save Money

Alan Yu — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:56:55 +0000

I was at the supermarket today and they had these large watermelons for sale. At the same time I was walking past the pre-cut fruit section and saw how those small package of watermelon were like the same price but you get so much less. Literally, if you simply bought a whole one and cut it yourself you could probably make like five boxes of them. The person I was with was then saying those were targeting people who simply don’t have the time to cut the stuff themselves.

While that is understandable to a certain extent, I was thinking to myself……how much labor is it really to cut something like a watermelon? The person then told me that for how much you save in this case he would find time to do it if he were one of those people who normally wouldn’t as people make too much money this way. That’s interesting I thought where if you think about the motivation to save money in this case isn’t so much about saving money but rather one feeling like they are being taken advantage of.

The more I think about it this can even be true with things like a real estate agent as many people tell me that they sell their own home not so much because of the potential financial savings but rather they can’t stand someone making so much for what seems to be so little effort. If that is the simple psychology to get people to try and do as much as they can themselves to save money I was thinking how watching documentaries or even instructional type of shows about various industries regularly can probably make people more savvy financially.

It almost sounds too simple but makes sense in many ways. Come to think of it, I have watched a lot informational kind of shows which were more about how certain industries work which indirectly made me more aware of what I buy and what is a reasonable price to pay. Maybe that will work for others as well.

Fake Walmart TV Purchase

Alan Yu — Tue, 21 May 2013 02:46:55 +0000

Well, looks like someone out there is trying the old e-mail phishing scam again. This time it looks like they are trying to pretend to be Walmart.com and attempting to scare people in making them think that they made a purchase. This is what the e-mail looks like:

From – Thu May 16 14:26:40 2013
X-UIDL: 1368709532.17838.pt01
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
X-Mozilla-Keys:
Return-Path: Received: (fqmail 17837 invoked from network); 16 May 2013 13:05:32 -0000
Received: (qmail 15440 invoked from network); 16 May 2013 13:05:32 -0000
Received: from 36-230-174-36.dynamic-ip.hinet.net (36-230-174-36.dynamic-ip.hinet.net [36.230.174.36])
Return-path: Delivery-date: Thu, 16 May 2013 21:05:20 +0800
Received: from [16.34.49.217] (port=60661 helo=[192.168.199.151])
by 36.230.174.36 with asmtp
id 5YLB76-7112H5-If; Thu, 16 May 2013 21:05:20 +0800
X-EN-OrigIP: 36.230.174.36
X-EN-IMPSID: WLKW1l02w0lF5W901LKWYU
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple;
d=walmart.com; i=help@walmart.com; q=dns/txt; s=IP;
t=1367353171; x=1398889171;
h=date:message-id:to:from:cc:subject:
content-transfer-encoding;
z=Date:=20Tue,=2030=20Apr=202013=2013:19:24=20-0700=20(PDT
)|Message-Id:=20<201304302019.r3UKJOLd022606@ndc-fulmaila
pp3.walmart.com>|To:=20tom@tomgivens.com|From:=20″Walmart
.com”=20|CC:=20|Subject:=20Thanks=20for
=20your=20Walmart.com=20Order=202677175-375050;
bh=Y5/lWjKcTaPNp8T8dOICiPv+PwPN9urNh/jRID58VAU=;
b=btTEEO7LpaM983cciYDSzAai3ciXwZxh7/LWlEci41J17LEU/kS4D/TN
fkXgtUVI/SrLjh/7sH3+0daB9OdkRzRYpVWrQDWGnC6VTbYjY1ex4qRgr
HsvHvxo/OvUlB67Y4PlUL8ahqxh9OqELNVXebj35MuQP6gKD78lLB26Ws
M=;
Accreditor: Habeas
X-Habeas-Report: Please report use of this mark in spam to
Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 21:05:20 +0800
Message-Id: <705711808426.ICRFUIFS346176@ndc-fulmailapp4.walmart.com>
X-Authentication-Warning: ndc-fulmailapp5.walmart.com: batch set sender to orders@mail.wallmart.com using -f
From: Wallmart.com
Errors-To: eorderconfirm@mail.wallmart.com
Subject: Thanks for your Walmart.com Order 6036254-090423
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”–Boundary-49=_0B139ELD_PC76FKN4K”

Thanks for ordering from Walmart.com. We’re currently processing your order.
Items in your order selected for shipping

• You’ll receive another email, with tracking information, when your order ships.

• If you’re paying by credit card or Bill Me Later®, your account will not be charged until your order ships. If you see a pending charge on your account prior to your items shipping, this is an authorization hold to ensure the funds are available. All other forms of payment are charged at the time the order is placed.
Shipping Information
Ship to Home

Liam Wilson
2636 Burgess St
St Peters, DC 68025-3157
USA

Walmart.com Order Number: 6036254-090423
Ship to Home – Standard
Items Qty Arrival Date Price
Toshiba UN48EH8000 62″ 1080p 400Hz Class LED (3.7″ ultra-slim) 3D HDTV 1 Arrives by Tue., May 21
Eligible for Free Standard Shipping to Home. $898.00
Subtotal: $898.00
Shipping: Free
Tax: $62.86
See our Returns Policy or
contact Customer Service Walmart.com Total: $960.86
Order Summary
Order Date: 05/15/2013
Subtotal: $898.00
Shipping: Free
Tax: $62.86
Order Total: $960.86
Credit card: $960.86

Billing Information
Payment Method:
Credit card
If you have any questions, please refer to help.walmart.com or reply to this email and let us know how we can help.
Thanks,

Your Walmart.com Customer Service Team
www.walmart.com

This one is a little more apparent that it is illegitimate as they try to get you to go to a misspelled domain called “Wallmart.com” as opposed to “Walmart.com.” As usual, I’m sure someone out there may have fallen for it so be sure to just dump it in the trash.

This feed has been syndicated from AL6400 Blog – Business and Finance

Trying To Push Prices Lower With Price Matching And Coupons

Alan Yu — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:11:22 +0000

This was something that I thought many people would know already but apparently people feel funny in doing it. Basically, we all know that you can save money by using a coupon on an item. At the same time, a lot of companies say if you find a lower price anywhere they will match it along with a percentage of the difference. What was funny to me was that a lot of people apparently feel that you can’t use both of these techniques at the same time even if it is applicable. Example, price matching and getting the cheapest price possible where they also knock off more due to the competitor being cheaper and then after using a coupon as well.

That’s how a lot of people get things like grocery items for free for example. I was even saying that many times people feel this is wrong because if you get something for too little in this fashion that it feels like you are stealing. If that is the case, just remember that many times things like these coupons are essentially paid advertisements for companies or say a loss leader where they are trying to use it as a way to get more customers. One way or another they need to advertise to get you to use the product.

Why the coupon would work in cases like this is because the business itself that is selling you the item will get reimbursed from the manufacturer of the product. So technically they don’t really lose anything. So don’t feel bad if you get a really good deal this way.

This feed has been syndicated from AL6400 Blog – Business and Finance

Saying Your Opinions Do Not Reflect The Company

Alan Yu — Sun, 19 May 2013 06:41:49 +0000

I saw an interesting message today where a person who was employed for a fairly large company started to criticize another in a pretty brutal way. Of course, he was saying how the opinions are his own and so he should be able to freely say what he wants. The public opinion of that though didn’t seem to agree with that notion as they simply labelled his comments as the company’s comments with reasons such as if they are willing to employ him then overall the company itself must have a similar mentality.

It seems like a no win in this scenario huh? Basically, you don’t really have much of a choice other than to keep your opinions to yourself if you know that it can in some way create animosity or burnt bridges between two businesses. I’m almost inclined to say the only time you can really say it’s your own opinion and not the company is if it deals with something of a fun nature such as your preference when it comes to the weather.

Nowadays a lot of people not only see employees as some kind of extra body to do work but at the same time as like some kind of ambassador for your business as well I think. With that in mind, you often to be on your best behavior even outside of your work/business time and remember that people will often see you as the company whether you like it or not.

This feed has been syndicated from AL6400 Blog – Business and Finance