Simple economics in school

When I taught high school level economics I kept it very simple. I hoped to instill in students a sense of exactly what they might deal with in real life. One such lesson involved what sales meant.

One idea was that when an item was on sale for, say, 10% off, that they did not save ten percent but only spent ten percent less on it. That doesn't make a purchase bad of course. But unless they actually put that ten off in the bank, they hadn't saved anything. I in fact had gotten that idea from me Pops years earlier, when I was maybe, heh, heh, ten. A friend of his was showing the old man something and bragging about the ten off he saved. Dad merely asked, "So's where's the money you saved?"

Another concept was the old buy one get one free come on. You aren't getting either one free: you're spending half as much on each. Again, that doesn't mean it's a bad deal. But you are not getting a freebie. Free means all yours at no cost and with no strings attached, no demands on you as a consumer.

I don't know if these helped but it was what I taught.

Marty PSA

Warehouse clubs are a bit of a gamble. You might find a real bargain, and the deal you find may only be relative to the product. Brand names might well be cheaper per item than in a regular grocery store. But a store brand could be less expensive. And let's be honest: corn is corn. What difference does it make what label is on the can?

As such, I resisted the monstrous box of Cherrios offered me at my warehouse store yesterday. I like Cherrios well enough yet I don't want to have to eat them just to get rid of them, and store brand rolled oats so far as I can tell taste about the same, yet cheaper.

That does not of course mean there are no bargains at a big box store. I found vitamin D soft gels (I take one per day for vertigo) at a great price: two years worth for ten bucks, where a year's worth has been costing me $18. The allergy pills which I also take once a day were $15 for 365 tablets. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a year's supply. The over the counter store brand with a 30 count was costing thirteen bucks every month. I checked the expiration dates, too: well after I will have consumed the pills.

So in doing the math, I saved $167 on both. By themselves that paid my year's membership while leaving me $112 ahead. And that's just two examples.

What it means is that if you're judicious, warehouse stores are worth the membership. Just avoid the Cherrios.

Grandpa Joe's Money Advice

I've said before that me Grandpa Joe, for whatever faults he had, did have some good ideas. One was when he told me Pops, as Pops had then just paid off his mortgage, that he he ought to put the amount he had been paying on his mortgage away every month afterwards. He had already been budgeting it, so without the monthly bill he should use it to create savings. "I always regretted that I didn't take his advice," me Pops lamented more than once.

I'm trying in my own little way to take Joe's advice to heart. I cancelled my second phone line about a year and a half ago, but the next month after began putting the 'cell phone' money back. It was, just like Joe reflected, a thing I was in the habit of doing it anyway. It was only a matter of, so to speak, paying myself instead of the phone people.

I have a little money in the sock now that is steadily accumulating. If I can stay disciplined about it, it'll be a tidy sum in the next few years.

Grandpa did have his moments, to be sure.