Financial Head Scratchers – First Edition
I experienced a couple of things over the weekend relating to money, finances, and frugality that made me shake my head and I wanted to share them with you. I thought this may actually be a cool thing to do from time to time, as we all run into these sort of things. I can share mine in a post, and you can share yours in the comments.
It’ll be fun, I promise. 🙂
Take 1: The Cell Phone Battery
A friend had noticed the battery for his cell phone was bulging, and not holding a charge nearly as long as it should. My wife and I had recently upgraded our phones, and stated he was welcome to our any of our unused phones for free. He was hoping it would work out, as he couldn’t afford a new phone, and didn’t really want to shell out the cash to replace the battery either.
He stopped by over the weekend, and found that our old cell phones were not what he had thought, and decided he would have to purchase a new battery. Trying to save him some money, I scanned the internet and found an OEM replacement battery through Amazon for $5.99. If we ordered it that afternoon, it would be on his doorstep in three days. All I had to do was fill in his information and hit “Submit.â€
To my surprise, he declined.
He hopped in his car, drove to a nearby electronics store and purchased a new battery for about $40. Honestly I was a little shocked. He reached out to us inquiring about our old phones to try to save the cost of buying a new phone or battery. It seemed like he was searching for a way to have a working cell phone by spending the least amount of money. He had been living with the declining battery for some time. In fact two weeks had passed from the time he first inquired about our unused phones and the time he showed up at our door.
But on that day he needed the new battery so desperately that he paid 7x more than the price of ordering it through Amazon.
Take 2: The Diet Coke Question
I was strolling through my local Walmart picking up a few things including the 2-liter of Diet Coke requested by my wife. I located it quickly and was about to grab the bottle when something just didn’t look right to me. I read the label and discovered that the bottle I was looking at was only a 1.25 liter bottle. I looked around and found the 2 liter bottles nearby.
60% more product for only 2 more cents? Why would anyone buy the smaller bottle? Is a 2 liter just too big and heavy for some people?
Now it’s your turn, readers. What have you seen recently that has you shaking your head?
Brought to you courtesy of Brock
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
I think that $1 for a 2-liter is pretty cheap and probably a temporary price, where the $0.98 for the 1.25 liter bottle is probably the regular price. That’s if I had to guess.
I remember when I was in high school and working at a store, I’d sometimes go over to the drugstore in the same plaza and snag some snacks. One of my favorites at the time was Fig Newtons. I looked and a single sleeve was $0.99 and the regular size pack (with two sleeves) was $2.49.
In this case, the economies of scale worked opposite. And, actually this pricing anamoly was the standard for quite a while. Just goes to show you really have to check things out to see what really is offering the best price.
@MoneyBeagle – I’m not sure to be honest with you if the $1 for the 2-liter bottle is a special or not…it doesn’t have any sale sign next to it. I do think that the 1.25 liter bottle is new…I don’t think I’ve noticed it before. Maybe they’re preparing us for a price hike…I’ll have to keep my eye on that, heh?
Haha, I hadn’t noticed those 1.25 liter bottles yet. What a rip off!!! Glad you picked up on it before the purchase.
A lot of snack products and cereals have downsized their packaging now since inflation is kicking in.
@TheMoneySaver – on the other hand, I bought a 6 pack of V8 energy drink that had a notification on it that said “New Size!” But when I compared products from the old package (I had one left in my fridge) and the new one, they were the exact same size. I have no idea what that’s all about. 🙂 thanks for your comment!