The American Dollar
OUR FAMILY. OUR MONEY. ONE PERSONAL FINANCE BLOG.
One industrious American family's focus on a financial goal of freedom. Through worldly personal finance education, here is our story.
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Our Story: Both my wife and I are 27 years old and have gone through financial hell and back. Now we are on track to financial freedom, however we are not financial advisors or professionals, just everyday people. Share our journey from a negative networth and email us if you have questions or comments! :)



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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Finding the deal for our Baby's Crib and everything else!


After searching for the past couple weeks, we have finally found the perfect crib we want. Its from the retail conglomerate BABIES R US which has priced this crib at about $600. My wife is a bit of a skeptic when I say that if there is a store out there, there has to be a deal or coupon or discount that its giving. So off I go in search of a discount on the web/newspaper and I go to the normal sites google.com, fatwallet.com, coupon section, craigslist.com and even the actual online store. After a few hit and misses Im usually back onto Ebay! Step 1: the big break (discount) and of course I read all the restrictions because I dont want to go to the outlet/store and them not honor my purchase.

Step 2: Find discount gift cards on Ebay. Apparently Ebay has become such a saturated site for people wanting discounts. Its funny to me that people are willing to pay $26 for a $25 gift card...?? That to me is stupid and thats a whole other story. Anyway, I always do an advance search for what prices people have gotten for that particular gift card/item. Then I work out a percentage like if I see a $100 gift card and best consistent deal wins at $80 WITH SHIPPING, thats 80% total. I'll put my highest bid at 80% of the value. This will differ in every auction depending on if the person is reputable, has good feedback, doesnt look like a scam, etc... I might raise it up and pay 82 or 83% of the price. Again I love crunching the numbers, because at the end of the day you want a 15% discount off of a 20% discount of an item. So you pay basically $320 for a $500 item; definately worth it. With so much competition and people doing the same thing, sometimes if an auction gets too high and you KNOW its not a bargain anymore, MOVE ON... theres always another auction and always another deal.

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