Can you afford to save all that money?

As I go along, I keep encountering all of these really
great deals to save me a lot of money. Does that ever
happen to you?
Well the problem is that the source of all these
goodies is trying to sell you something that you might
not otherwise buy.
Let's take for instance the discount coupons. Oh I know
that you could really save money. Sometimes up to
fifty percent off of the price of a "name brand" item.
The catch is that quite often the "store brand" item may
cost less the coupon item after you use the coupon.
Also, quite often the "store item" is made by the maker
of the "name brand" item and it costs a lot less. Of
course after the coupons are gone, you still go out
and buy that "name brand" item and bingo, they've
got you.
Then, here are all of those freebie web sites. If you want
to judge there effectiveness for you, then you must
first realize that they are "in it for the money".
They make their money when the maker of the subject
item pays them to give it away. That's because the
maker of the item thinks that you will continue to
buy it after the freebie is used up. They feel that they
get a loyal customer.
A good rule of thumb is not to get the freebie unless
you really want it anyhow. Then, at least you might
be satisfied with what you get.