Coupons, they can be misleading.

Beware, sometimes coupons don't save you a dime. In fact, sometimes coupons advertised as a savings are priced at the same or even a little more than if you paid retail. Do your research before paying too much of your hard earned money for a "discount" coupon.

I am a coupon shopper. I cut them out of the local newspaper, magazines or wherever else I can find them. Bulletin boards, store receipts and mailbox promotions are chock full of money saving coupons too. They are an excellent way of stretching my wages and living the good life. I do not however, pay money for any discount coupons. I have found many of these coupons to be unreliable and misleading. I am not saying that there are not any real deals out there, I am only saying that I have not found any and am passing on my opinion to you.

Recently a good friend informed me of a website that sells discount coupons and, knowing I am a coupon clipper felt I may save a bundle of cash. Several of the coupons offered appeared at first to be a considerable savings on a couple of purchases I was considering, that is until I did my research. One service in particular caught my eye. I was considering it as a gift to a friend. The advertisement said that I could purchase the coupon for $79 and it inferred that I would be receiving $208 in services. Wow! That is a savings of $129. however, the ad was totally misleading and the services described could actually often be purchased at the business itself for $69 or less, either there or at comparative businesses. I was very disappointed both for myself and for those people who had already purchased the coupons.

Every time we use a coupon and actually save money we are increasing our purchasing power. The problem I se with these misleading coupons is that, because we feel we are saving so much money we may be purchasing something we ordinarily buy. And, if we are paying the same or more we are just wasting our money. That's not my idea of a good buy. I suggest you do your research before buying a coupon. Don't waste your money. It's too hard to earn these days.

End of the recession

Over the weekend one of the greatest minds of the modern world made a very profound statement of her opinion: "The end of the recession will begin with the action of only one person. That's all it takes for the economy to turn around. I'm speaking of the entire world here, it's as simple and complex as that." Wow! Just one person is holding the financial future of the population of the world in their pocketbook. I wonder if they know it? I also wonder who it is? Is it Warren Buffet? Is it the Royal leader of Saudi Arabia? Bill Gates maybe huh?

I sure wonder just how literal she was being with that statement? But, somehow it has an appeal to it. One person has changed the world before, several times actually. Gandhi, Hitler, Jesus, Charlemagne, The Hunt brothers and others too many to list. Who will it be? Do you have any idea? Is it you, me or the person standing next to you in the grocery store? I wonder if I will be there when that person pulls out their wallet and spends the dollar that sets the process in motion, effectively dissolving the negative financial crisis causing the need for businesses to begin hiring at an increasing rate and putting millions of able bodied people back to work, one worker at a time. One more of us working creates one more paycheck to buy more goods, more goods require more people to make them, more people are hired to accomplish that and so on. It's happened before, it will happen again sometime soon.

So, if that one person is you I'd like to make a small request: Would you kindly get off your rear end and buy something? It'd be nice if it would be a lot of those somethings too. There are more than a few people just waiting to make them for you. One person! That's what she said. I wonder which country that person lives in? Greece, China, Iraq, Canada or the United States or Russia all have the potential. Who has the courage?.........................Joe