Not quite......I always remind myself that no one gives you any thing for free........I promise you that if they are offering you BOGO then you can bet your bottom dollar, you paid for two already.

I bought a little wallet credit card holder and paid the extra $7 bucks or whatever it was for shipping and they came together in the same little package.......

Yup, nothing is free. You pay for it by paying $$$ in supposed postage charges.

Yes, many times even tho they might come in the same box the second item is free and you are only paying for shipping and handling/
good deals too

You are wise to be suspicious grasshopper. It's not unlike ebay where the price is 99â for a trinket with a $12.95 S&H*. I just looked at some things on Amazon and saw a couple things with "free super saver shipping". There were similar items quite a bit cheaper but the shipping made it more expensive. Most people don't realize this little "tactic".

In fairness, with some things that are heavy and being shipped UPS or FedEx, the heavier weight will cost more to ship. But you often see the flat rate boxes used. And another trick used is to say you pay only an "upcharge" or something like that.

When you see the items in the retail stores for 1/2 the price of on TV, sometimes even less, it tells you that they're not trying to push just one, but two. Get a better deal from the manufacturer by having the volume.

Remember Ron Popiel's old spiel? If you PROMISE to tell just one friend, he'll take off one whole payment. Or if you promise to give one of the knives to a friend you'll get an extra set. Or whatever. The guy was a marketing genius. C'mon now, there has to be someone here with a Veg-a-matic or a pocket fisherman in the closet! :)

*A little trivia: The term "and handling" was added because they got into trouble charging more than the freight cost. By saying there's a "handling charge" or similar term, they're covered.

thanks for the info, KT friends. This is just something I'm curious about. I'm a firm believer in If it sounds too good to be true....it is. I was just wondering if they charge extra shipping the second item, if it comes in a separate box, because you paid for IT"S shipping, or do they just charge extra but put it in the same box as the first product. I'm also Leary of BOGO. In our mediocre grocery store, they were running a BOGO sale and I noticed they raised the price of the "buy one" so the "get one", wasn't free.

I always go immediately to the 'bottom line' to see what I'd be paying per unit for what I want. (I don't NEED another 'pocket fisherman'; can I pay more and not get one? LOL) Recently I saw an ad for return address labels. The per sticker price was about two cents, but the S & H made them more like five cents each.

Maybe I'll ask DH if he'll pay me for the 'handling' of his dinner plate from cooktop to table. He'd probably OK that but charge me for taking out the garbage.

The only Time I have bought from the TV was to buy music CDs. I returned one package with no questions asked, great service. I love music. I am listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Picked it up at the store after hearing one of the songs in a movie.

About a year ago or maybe a bit more I was in one of the big "discount" stores who shall remain unnamed and since I was in need of batteries soon I was making note of their prices. I noticed something strange. The various spots in the store had different prices on the price tags for the same batteries. I then took a package and scanned it and the price came up at the lower price. OK, at least it's at the lower price. As I put them back, I noticed the higher priced shelf tag was noticibly newer than the older, lower price. OK, there's going to be a price increase coming and sure enough, a week later as I was in there, the price was up. The following week I saw in their ad a big promo about a special sale price on the batteries. Yep, "dropped" the price to something like 10â more than the old price. I wondered what would happen after the "sale" and it reverted to the initial price.

Other times I've seen prices go up and shortly thereafter they go on "clearance" for the same price as before. A big grocery chain around here does a lot of "discontinued special" items. Sure, they're not going to carry them anymore but the special price is the same retail price but people scarf it up thinking it's a good deal.

I don't mind prices going up. It's a fact of life. I don't mind the sampling of something preying on peoples hunger at that time of day, that's OK too. The impulse items at the register are common business sense. But playing these games with the pricing is what bugs me. "Sale" does not mean a good deal. "Free" isn't always and often it can be expensive. Coupons can be very costly, not a savings. But so many people are so gullible it's scary. But it's their money to waste as they so desire.

"Coupons can be very costly, not a savings. But so many people are so gullible it's scary. But it's their money to waste as they so desire."

Would love to know why you think this??

If I see something I want I wait until it's at Walmart.
No shipping and if I don't like it I can take it back...

Happy to respond. As I said, though I think and see wastes of money it certainly is the individuals prerogative to do as they please but often they're fooled into thinking they're "saving" money which is often wrong in many ways.

As far as coupons, you can often do better with store brands for instance. There's a lot of ways. These B1G1F, B2G1 for 1/2 price or whatever. But the prices can often be so much higher you're losing on the deal. For example a week or two ago country style ribs were "on sale", buy one package, get one "free". The price was $4.79/#! This week, they're $1.88/#, no coupon required. Another example, I needed some spices. Store coupon for whatever off the big name brand spice. Almost got suckered but I know to check and compare prices. Sure enough, store brand was cheaper than the big name less coupon. And then I went to the "dollar area" and they had it for a buck!

One more example, though there's probably lots more that I can't think of offhand, is buying it because of a coupon. I had a discussion with a friend about this. I asked her if she would buy this without the coupon - no, so I said why buy it with the coupon? "I saved money!" My point is no you didn't save, you spent money you wouldn't otherwise spend! That's not a savings, that's a spending. Now there's times where I'll buy things at a certain price point but not over. And occasionally a coupon will bring it to the price point. But I still look at the bottom line. And if your brand loyal, and solely buy the name brand item(s) coupons can conceivably save you some money but as I said you can often do better by other alternatives. It takes being a savvy shopper.

A coupon (and we don't get that many in Canada) is only useful if it results in a lower price at the bottom line ... which also applies to the doubles, or half price for the second, etc. And how does this price compare with the regular price for that item?

And do I ordinarily use that product, or would like to? To have it sitting on the shelf for a couple of years isn't too helpful.

Bottom line.

Bottom line.

Bottom line.

How much actually goes out of my wallet.

I'm pretty near out of (big bag) of cat food for the barn cats. It regularly goes on sale ... and if it isn't on sale, again, soon ...

... I'll have to spring for regular price ... or let the cats go hungry.

Actually, they've been doing me a favour - leaving some feed behind in the dish, lately. Is it their generous nature, do you think ... or more than the regular supply of field mice, now that they're migrating to shelter from the cold weather?

ole joyful

Didn't mean to hijack Dotmom post with the coupon talk...sorry Dotmom! :) But I saw Cynics statement and wanted
a clarification. Because I am a HUGE coupon user....I do agree with what you are saying..I will check store brand..coupon brand and see which is actually saving me money..I wait for sales and if the item I need goes on sale out comes my coupons. and I buy enough to last me for a long time..if it doesn't then I toss out the coupon..
and yes occasionally I will buy something because I wanted to try it and had a coupon for it, but not that often.
Last week my cats food was on sale for 8.98..its usually about 11.something...I had two $1 off coupons..I bought two bags at 7.98 each...

But I have a friend that is right the opposite, she buys only because she has a coupon...she buys buys and buys..I had had her say.,..Ooops cant talk coupons are expiring and I have to go to the store.

Its like anything else..it takes knowledge.

Reminds me of a friend, years ago when green stamps were give with purchases. We were leaving the bowling alley and she said she really had to get gas because she was sure she was close to running on fumes. Well, I was driving behind her and she passed about three gas stations before she pulled into one. When I talked to her later I asked why she didn't stop at the nearest station and she said, they didn't give green stamps! I wonder if the green stamps would have mattered so much if she had ran out of gas on the side of the road. LOL

My husband is an As Seen on TV junkie. We have Miracle stitch, a hair eraser, loads of stuff that doesn;t work. Luckily he's never orfered two.