Wal-Mart and Mystery Discounts

Over Christmas I did my normal minimal Christmas shopping, and thanks to this I have become quite puzzled by the pricing practices at Wal-Mart and the Bay.

At Wal-Mart I have run into situations where the prices of items are not what is charged when you get to the cash register. I am not complaining, but it’s very confusing for someone who likes to do arithmetic before they get to the cash register (add in the GST and estimate how much the entire order will cost).

As an example on Friday night my family was visiting my in laws. We went shopping at Wal-Mart and found an air mattress and sleep bag combination product with a picture of Lightning McQueen on it for my son to sleep on(We had forgotten his air mattress) and the price on the product was $29. That seemed fine and we went and picked up a few other items and got to the cash, we paid what was asked and when I got to the car I told my wife, “Something is wrong with that total, we should have paid about $110 not $85″, sure enough we looked at the bill and the sleeping bag combo was actually $15 but it had not been marked down. I was happy to get the discount, but confused as to why Wal-Mart doesn’t advertise the actual sale price in the store (maybe I missed it when I picked up the item).

The Bay and the Wheel of Fortune Pricing

I have given up trying to figure out how much any item at the Bay costs, especially if it is a sale weekend (which is pretty much every weekend).  I never know what the final total is going to be and I have given up even trying to attempt an estimation. Two examples of this are:

• On the scratch n’ save weekends, the items I seem to buy are already on sale and then the scratch ‘n save kicks in and then there are sometimes other magical discounts too. One time I bought a set of trousers that I thought were $65 and ended up paying $36 total (after taxes). I asked the clerk if she was mistaken she just shrugged her shoulder and said, “I just work here”.
• I was purchasing a traditional Christmas gift for my wife and when I got to the cash, due to the number of sales and discounts the cashier asked me, “How much are these?” (she asked this AFTER she attempted to scan it, and got a price she didn’t believe). I said, I think they are on a one day sale for $3.99 each, so she overrode the price and sold it to me for that price, and I found out later that the price was actually $4.99.

My real question is how do stores stay in business if this kind of price methodology in place? It suggests a few things to me:

• Their mark ups must be astronomical because they don’t seem to care how much they sell any item for these days (wish the gas companies did this).
• The retail business right now is SO cut throat “discounting” is now the norm and not the exception (or at least making the consumer think they are getting a discount).

Does anyone have any insight as to how these firms can stay in business?

Welcome 2009 a Year of Great Hope

I wish all my readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2009.

Remember to write 2009 on your cheques if you write any! Remember you have 2 months to clear up your RRSP story for 2008, but that is the only thing left you can do about 2008 in terms of Taxes. Start your plan for 2009, write it and start executing it, because 2009 is here!

I will be taking a short vacation and will return on January 5th, until then enjoy your families and relax to be ready for the coming year. Enjoy the Football bowl games, Hangover remedies and enjoy the weather and snow that the new year brings for us all.

New Year Means New Slippers

Start something NEW this year, I challenge you!

This has been one of the most interesting years in my life and in the financial world, and I will not lament it’s end, but it is certainly not the worst year of my life (but it isn’t one of the top 10 either). 

This year has seen:

• My retirement savings drop by 20% in value thanks to the stock market implosion, caused by the shenanigans and tom foolery over low rate mortgages in the states, and the financial apocalypse.
• My career at Nortel finish at 20 years (I am still looking for gainful employment), but maybe that is a good thing at the end of it all. With this I have taken complete control of my retirement savings, as well.
• My oldest go off to University and now I am learning how the business of higher education works (and it’s ins and outs). 
• An election that seems to have resolved nothing and we are more likely than not off to the polls again in 2009, which always makes for fun writing.
• The birth of the TFSA, but I am not sure how I am going to use it yet.
• Gas prices going up and down have caused havoc with any kind of budgeting attempts by my family, but the cheaper prices now, has managed to balance mid-year large outlays for fuel.
• Interest rates remain at historic lows and inflation has calmed down with the drop of fuel prices as well, where will this lead? I have no idea, but I hope interest rates stay down for a while longer, then they can sky rocket (remember interest rates low good for borrowers, bad for bond holders).
• I await a “bail out” by the government for me, but I guess for the common man, the “bail out” is called buying lottery tickets. Maybe I should change my name to Ford?
• I have written well over 250 posts this year, which is the most active writing year I have ever had.

I thank you kind reader for your patronage this year and hope you keep coming back to see my view of the Personal Finance world in the coming year.

Bye Bye 2008

Man that was a tiring year

The end of year is fast approaching and here are a couple of points that you might want to think about before you close the books on 2008.

Charitable Donations

Why not top up your charitable donations for the end of the year and take advantage of the holiday season to give to folks who might need your help (and give you a bigger tax credit as well). 

RESP Top Up

Given this is paid quarterly it isn’t as important really, but still a good idea that if you have extra money or were given money for Christmas or Hanukkah, maybe put it in a savings vehicle that will help you save for your child’s education?

TFSA 

Go to your bank and get set up for a TFSA, but make sure there are no hidden fees as I found out when I went and talked to TD about their TFSA. This makes a lot of sense for anyone who is going to save, or just use it as a place to store your Christmas fund every year? 

Christmas Fund

Start a Christmas Fund for next year. See how much you spent this year, divide it into chunks for each pay cheque and set up an automatic savings vehicle to put money aside so that you have money for Christmas next year. I did this with CSB’s for the longest time and it worked very nicely.

RDSP

The Registered Disability Savings Plan comes into effect now (I think), and if you have a child or loved one who can take advantage of this new vehicle, set one up and get it moving as well. I know of many parents who could take advantage of this program for their disabled children, hope they do.

Remember only two days left in 2008!