I get up early on Black Friday to snag the best buys. I check the price tags in grocery stores for the cost per ounce, but, the real financial challenge comes with the online discounts for a family calendar of our extended family.
The tradition began with a clearance item priced so low I had to have it: Small calendars with plastic sleeves above each month for holding one 4×6 photo. My husband helped me fill the sleeves and distribute the family calendars.
The next couple years, I prepared and he printed and collated calendars.
Then I discovered online digital photo companies and their selection of calendars. I choose a template, a background, type in the correct names and dates and make a calendar using uploaded digital shots.
Last year I began building calendars the day the company notified me that I could “buy one calendar and get the rest at 50 percent off.” My husband said, “I can’t buy the ink, paper and binding for less than that.” And that included the added taxes and shipping.
This year, I kept waiting and waiting for the 50 percent off sale. It did not materialize, but a lot of other discounts showed up in my e-mail – including discounts from one of the company’s online competitor. Sighing deeply, I decided to bite the bullet and pay for calendars which were NOT 50 percent off.
The competitor had a two-for-one calendar sale, but I would only be able to purchase the two and I could not combine that discount with the free shipping discount. Shipping and handling adds at least $6-7 to the purchases on both websites. I wanted at least half a dozen calendars.
I did a quick comparison with other websites. My preferred company gave free shipping with any purchase over $30, sold the calendars at 30 percent off (not my preferred 50 percent) and added an additional discount of $10 for any purchase from $30 to $50 and $15 for any purchase over $50. I just had to remember to enter to all the discount codes and use them before their end date early last week.
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I resigned myself to a mere 30 percent off as the lowest rate and began working on the calendar.
I spent several hours choosing photos and telling the computer to put them onto the top of the calendar. I reviewed the 12 pages and began ordering.
Actually I ordered three or four times. First all the calendars at once. Ouch! I deleted that order. That was a lot of money per calendar! I backed up and ordered half as much and the price went down because the $15 applied to fewer purchases.
I tried ordering two calendars at a time. With the additional discount applied over fewer dollars, the price plummeted to approximately the price I had paid last year.
I backed up and broke down my order to go through the check out numerous times to pare the price down to the least expensive fee. It added a few minutes to my time at the computer that night, but saved me some hard earned cash.
I went to bed knowing I had finished the calendar in time to enjoy the discount . . . Only to wake up to next morning to e-mails announcing the company was offering my preferred 50 percent off calendars and free shipping for orders over $25.
Now wait a minute! I lost sleep to wake up to this!
I wanted to back-up time, cancel my order and re-order the 50 percent of calendar.
I was annoyed. I could not believe I had waited that long only to miss the 50 percent off sale by one day.
Curious, I began figuring out exactly how much the new discounts would have affected my final cost. Without the $10 or $15 off any purchase over a certain amount, the bottom line showed that the 50 percent of calendars would have cost me $10 more than I had spent the previous night.
I gloated in my decision – until the company sent me another e-mail saying I could get a free calendar if I ordered $50. Again splitting my order, picking up the free calendar to add to my next purchase … it totaled within pennies of the amount I already paid.
So much sleep lost for so little difference.
Knowing me, I’ll probably do it again next year.
(Ever the cheapskate, Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at jhershberger@eldoradonews.com.)