Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing what you need to do before
Speaker 1: your next online purchase. Yeah, Joel, you know with prid
Speaker 1: Day it's coming up. Man, it's right around the corner.
Speaker 1: It's quite timely that we're talking about online shopping. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about where we think it falls short. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the obvious downsides to online shopping, but
Speaker 1: as well, we're gonna wrap things up with how to
Speaker 1: be better at shopping online and saving money. So I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to leaving our listeners with some good tips. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they should be a fun one. In prime day, I
Speaker 1: know some people get carried away with it. They buy
Speaker 1: like eight instant pots because those are always on sale,
Speaker 1: or they used to be. What's it gonna be this year?
Speaker 1: Well it's been instant pots a lot of years. But
Speaker 1: then there's a ton of other gadgets as well. A
Speaker 1: little is yeah Toma Gucci and that like a little
Speaker 1: electronic toy. I just made up a word and added
Speaker 1: Gucci to the end of I think those were from
Speaker 1: the nineties, and I'm pretty sure they were pronounced differently.
Speaker 1: Yamagucci Tomagotchi. That's what. Yeah, there go, my little sister
Speaker 1: had one of those. Totally remember that. Speaking of my
Speaker 1: little sister, I wanted to quickly mention Matt that I've
Speaker 1: got her on board riding her bike to work. So
Speaker 1: she just moved kind of closer to her work, which
Speaker 1: coincidentally is also where I work. Oh yeah, we work together.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of fun. It's kind of fun that
Speaker 1: I get to work with my little sister every day,
Speaker 1: and now that she's only eight or nine blocks away
Speaker 1: from the building, so close, it's so close. It's been
Speaker 1: kind of nice. Like, so I hop on my bike,
Speaker 1: I ride most of the way, but I peel a
Speaker 1: little bit off my route and I go pick her up,
Speaker 1: and then we've been riding in and it's been really fun.
Speaker 1: It's been fun too, just to get to see her
Speaker 1: realize that hopping in that car for even just the
Speaker 1: eight blocks. I know most people don't live that close
Speaker 1: to work. That's pretty exceptionally rare, but really cool that
Speaker 1: she's seeing the value of biking to work. Man, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and literally the only two bikes in the park deck
Speaker 1: are the freaking large guard bikes. It's just me and
Speaker 1: my sister. That's right. Well you said you pick her
Speaker 1: up as well. It's not like she's actually jumping on
Speaker 1: the handlebars like little sister style. Yeah, I mean she
Speaker 1: has her own bike like you said. She right, she
Speaker 1: rides up to the to the building. Yeah, that's super
Speaker 1: cool man. You know she rides eight and nine blocks.
Speaker 1: How far is your house from work? Like eight or
Speaker 1: nine miles? Uh? Yeah, almost eight miles? Okay, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't know what the actual mileage was, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that's amazing for her to actually start doing that.
Speaker 1: And even though she's blood right, like she's your actual family,
Speaker 1: she's not super uber cheap like we are. Right, she
Speaker 1: doesn't out for the free haircuts like like you do.
Speaker 1: Or she doesn't buy all of her eyeglasses from Zinny
Speaker 1: like I do. Does she work, She doesn't wear glasses,
Speaker 1: does she know? But she gets haircuts a itt she does,
Speaker 1: but she doesn't get the free ones. And and that's
Speaker 1: okay and totally okay. She doesn't have to do everything
Speaker 1: the way I do it, but it is fun that
Speaker 1: especially just I mean, driving a car eight blocks seems silly.
Speaker 1: For the most part. She could even walk that right
Speaker 1: eight blocks that's like New York living right there. Totally. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she totally could, although the bike's just so much easier.
Speaker 1: It really is. That's fun, man. Yeah, So it's been
Speaker 1: t y'all are able to do that. Yeah, it's been fun.
Speaker 1: It's been kind of this nice little bonding experience, and
Speaker 1: I think it's been good for her confidence living in
Speaker 1: the city. It's been good for us as brother or sister. Man.
Speaker 1: It's just yeah, it's all around good times. Do people
Speaker 1: stare at ch'll see like the tall Norwegian couple, Uh,
Speaker 1: they think like right and thew They're like, well they
Speaker 1: look a lot alike and married and their brother sister.
Speaker 1: It was kind of fun too, just to see the
Speaker 1: faces like as we walk in holding our helmets or
Speaker 1: whatever of our coworkers and they're like, all right, maybe
Speaker 1: a little revolution is starting where we are. Probably not,
Speaker 1: it's probably just gonna be the tool. Is their music
Speaker 1: playing as you walk in with your helmets in like
Speaker 1: slow motion like that one scene from Garden State, you know,
Speaker 1: when they're like walking into the hotel room. In my mind,
Speaker 1: there is the hotel lobby. Does that count? That's all
Speaker 1: that matters? Yeah, all right, Matt Let's mention. The beer
Speaker 1: that we're having on the show today. We're drinking a
Speaker 1: beer called Fort by dog Fish Head Brewery and dog
Speaker 1: Fish had dude, crazy cool name and they've been making
Speaker 1: beers for a long time up there in Delaware. Yeah,
Speaker 1: dog Fish head Man, they were one of the original
Speaker 1: craft beer craft breweries. What was that guy's name? Do
Speaker 1: you like the head brewers? When it's Sam something Sam Coucio,
Speaker 1: And I think, is it really? Yeah? You with your
Speaker 1: craft beer trivia, you're a better beer drinker than I am.
Speaker 1: I guess. But I'm excited to have this one because
Speaker 1: this is one that we can't actually purchase in Georgia
Speaker 1: because of the A B V on it. And this
Speaker 1: is another one that our buddy Tyler donated to the
Speaker 1: show Man, And in particular, I think this is a
Speaker 1: beer that you're going to really enjoy because guess what's
Speaker 1: in it? Raspberries. We keep getting raspberry beers, and you
Speaker 1: typically don't like raspberry beers. Song it people stop sending
Speaker 1: me the raspberries. But you did enjoy the last raspberry
Speaker 1: beer that we had, and I can tell you're already
Speaker 1: digging this one too, So We've already had a couple
Speaker 1: of SIPs on this one. And the reason why I
Speaker 1: do like this one, well, I'll just tell you at
Speaker 1: the end of the episode. There we go. All right,
Speaker 1: that's called a tease in the radio biz. Joll. Everyone's
Speaker 1: on the edge of their seats right now. They can't
Speaker 1: wait to hear. All right, Matt, let's get onto the
Speaker 1: subject at hand. What you need to do before your
Speaker 1: next online purchase. And you were talking about online shopping
Speaker 1: and Amazon Prime Day just about to happen. Whether you're
Speaker 1: an Amazon Prime member or not, chances are you do
Speaker 1: a good bit of purchasing online. Man. I know you
Speaker 1: and I both do. Although the way we have viewed
Speaker 1: online shopping is changed over the years. I'll be see.
Speaker 1: We love getting a great deal, we love the convenience,
Speaker 1: but we think there are other considerations that should be
Speaker 1: taken into account at the same time. Just because we're
Speaker 1: getting a good deal, now, does that mean we're spending
Speaker 1: less money in the long run. Also, we're going to
Speaker 1: cover tools, plug ins, and the best sites in order
Speaker 1: to help you become a good online shopper. So a
Speaker 1: lot to cover here today. That's right, Joe. You know
Speaker 1: our family. I feel that we do a like an
Speaker 1: average amount of online shopping, but lately we have been
Speaker 1: doing a ton. We've had a lot of boxes showing
Speaker 1: up to the house recently, and that's because way back
Speaker 1: when we talked about if we should host an airbnb,
Speaker 1: you guys were thinking about doing that's sort of an
Speaker 1: airstream style. We were thinking about maybe doing that, you know,
Speaker 1: down in the basement. Well, we're basically at that point
Speaker 1: now we are furnishing that airbnb. So so that'll be
Speaker 1: a topic that we cover in an upcoming episode once
Speaker 1: that thing is up and running. Yeah, I want to
Speaker 1: hear the nuts and bolts it's actually like running an airbnb.
Speaker 1: I think that will help me make my decision as
Speaker 1: to whether or not I want to do it. So
Speaker 1: you're my guinea pig. All right, let's do it. But
Speaker 1: before where we get into online shopping, I think we
Speaker 1: should discuss what we're giving up to a certain extent
Speaker 1: when we do shop online as opposed to shopping locally,
Speaker 1: which is another option, right, And so I think that's
Speaker 1: a question that has come in to a lot of
Speaker 1: people's minds with the proliferation of online shopping, and really
Speaker 1: it seemed like in the beginning of online shopping mat
Speaker 1: that it looked like anybody could open up a store
Speaker 1: and sell their own wears online, and then actually online
Speaker 1: shopping was gonna open itself up to a proliferation of
Speaker 1: small businesses. And that has been true to a certain extent, right,
Speaker 1: Like sites like Etsy have really taken off, and people
Speaker 1: people dig that. But for the most part, the big
Speaker 1: players are still entrenched. Amazon has obviously made a name
Speaker 1: for itself, you know, Walmart, Target, Best Buy. Those are
Speaker 1: still some of the most widely shopped sites on the internet.
Speaker 1: And so we are giving up purchasing locally supporting small
Speaker 1: businesses when we seek to just shop for the lowest
Speaker 1: potential cost item. So let's talk about the aspect so
Speaker 1: shopping local that we're missing out on when we do
Speaker 1: just quickly opt to purchase online instead of thinking about
Speaker 1: where else we could go nearby our house. Ye. So,
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest things right that we
Speaker 1: are sort of foregoing, right, that we are sacrificing when
Speaker 1: we purchase online, is expertise. I'm thinking of specialty stores.
Speaker 1: Typically there's some sort of pro or somebody that has
Speaker 1: more experience with that item. That or the type of
Speaker 1: items that they sell. Who can help you, like, they
Speaker 1: can help you make a decision, they can educate you
Speaker 1: while you're there standing in the aisle. When I was
Speaker 1: first kind of getting more into photography going into the
Speaker 1: camera store, I guess who works at camera stores. Just
Speaker 1: a bunch of photo nerds, right, Like they know everything
Speaker 1: about every camera. It's like everybody there is really into it,
Speaker 1: totally geeking out over everybody that comes in because they
Speaker 1: want to, you know, talk about megapixels and whatever else
Speaker 1: was on the radar. Megapixels tell me more. People still
Speaker 1: like talking about that, but it doesn't really matter. But
Speaker 1: when you are able to go in person in the store,
Speaker 1: you have that knowledge there for you at your disposal.
Speaker 1: You can pick their brains, get a feel for, you know,
Speaker 1: what their experiences with that specific product, ask questions. There's
Speaker 1: just a lot of advantages when you're talking to somebody
Speaker 1: who knows the actual product and what you're looking at.
Speaker 1: Even you know, we're kind of discounting the big box
Speaker 1: stores a little bit, but even if you go to
Speaker 1: lows right like a local hardware store, chances are you're
Speaker 1: going to be able to learn something about the part
Speaker 1: that you're buying versus if you were just to make
Speaker 1: that purchase online from Amazon, right, No, that's completely true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think if you are a savvy online shopper you
Speaker 1: can find some of those resources online. Let's say you're
Speaker 1: searching for a smartphone and you want to read reviews first. Well,
Speaker 1: I think YouTube is a great place to turn. There's
Speaker 1: like m k b HD that dude makes some awesome
Speaker 1: videos about smartphones, tells you all the features, price point,
Speaker 1: what he likes the best, and savvy shopper can find
Speaker 1: just as many great expertise resources online in some categories. Also,
Speaker 1: articles on a site like wire cutter or whatever can
Speaker 1: be really helpful in helping you hone in on certain
Speaker 1: products that might have the features you're looking for. Consumer
Speaker 1: reports another place to turn. So there are some of
Speaker 1: those things available online. But I completely agree, especially for
Speaker 1: specialty products that face to face interaction with the salesperson
Speaker 1: that has extensive knowledge and use of the products that
Speaker 1: they're selling. A hardware store, a camera shop, places like that,
Speaker 1: it can be really really helpful to actually be there
Speaker 1: in person and ask the questions to someone who knows
Speaker 1: and you're giving that up in large part when you
Speaker 1: shop online instead of looking to buy locally. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: something else you're giving up is community, right. Oftentimes there
Speaker 1: can be an entire social network or group surrounding a
Speaker 1: specific store who's really into whatever activity uh that store facilitates, right,
Speaker 1: Like I'm specifically thinking of the local bike shop man
Speaker 1: that is in the neighborhood and right next to us.
Speaker 1: Greatest name for a bike shop loose Nuts Nuts, But honestly,
Speaker 1: a lot of the bike shops in Atlanta they facilitate
Speaker 1: just group rides where they all meet together at a
Speaker 1: certain point. They've got a set ride, anybody can join.
Speaker 1: It's just it fosters that community. There's just something so awesome,
Speaker 1: right and it's kind of hard to put your finger on,
Speaker 1: but it's just so sort of gritty and in real
Speaker 1: life when you're able to meet up with these folks
Speaker 1: who are also into what you're into, and it kind
Speaker 1: of surrounds a location, and geography is important when it
Speaker 1: comes to being able to do some of these things together. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, like the online version of that, you've got
Speaker 1: online communities and you can you know, get together with
Speaker 1: folks through maybe an app or site like meet up,
Speaker 1: but still there's something natural and organic that happens when
Speaker 1: you're able to go and get your bike teamed up,
Speaker 1: but then at the same time learn about a rye
Speaker 1: that's happening the next morning that you're gonna be ready for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I completely agree. I think sometimes if we don't ever
Speaker 1: think the shop locally, we're probably missing out on some
Speaker 1: really cool community experiences and meeting other people in the
Speaker 1: hood and hearing about other things going on. Totally. Another
Speaker 1: thing that we're definitely missing if we refuse to shop
Speaker 1: locally ever, and we're only shopping online is an experience,
Speaker 1: right to to create an experience with the people and
Speaker 1: the staff who run or work at this local business.
Speaker 1: Uh to to get a chance to know them, to
Speaker 1: see their well designed, their beautiful shop, right the smells,
Speaker 1: the variance of shopping somewhere that's maybe boutique, local, close
Speaker 1: by walking distance to you, something like that, even if
Speaker 1: that candle costs five dollars more than it would if
Speaker 1: you bought it on Amazon, or it might be a
Speaker 1: candle that's locally handmade, right that that's something that you
Speaker 1: can't even buy online, and so sometimes it might be
Speaker 1: worth it to spend more to support our local business
Speaker 1: and to get that experience of shopping locally, which is
Speaker 1: something that it's just kind of hard to put a
Speaker 1: price tag on. Yeah, I love what you said about
Speaker 1: the smells, right, and and like sounds as well. I
Speaker 1: think about there's a flower shop that I like to
Speaker 1: take the girls to when we're gonna get flowers from mommy,
Speaker 1: And you know what, we get to walk in there
Speaker 1: and there's people there, and there's flowers everywhere, and the
Speaker 1: girls get to pick out what flowers they want to
Speaker 1: include in the bouquet. But I mentioned sounds, and and
Speaker 1: that's because like the floors are old and wooden, and
Speaker 1: so you walk in there and like the floors are creaking,
Speaker 1: the door opens, and the little bell rings. There's just
Speaker 1: all these sort of intangibles that you totally miss out
Speaker 1: on that are all part of the experience. And for me,
Speaker 1: I'm more than willing to pay way more than I
Speaker 1: would if I were to get flowers that say Kroger
Speaker 1: that you score for really cheap. You know, those tulips
Speaker 1: were a good deal. Yeah, they're really good deal. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to special occasions or kind of making
Speaker 1: some lasting memories with the girls, uh, that's just an
Speaker 1: amazing way to be able to do that, and a
Speaker 1: local brick and mortar store like that just helps facilitate
Speaker 1: that so well. Yeah, and the last thing that we
Speaker 1: want to mention about considering buying local, it's just something
Speaker 1: that to me, the probably the most important reason to
Speaker 1: at least think about buying local before you make an
Speaker 1: online purchase is you have an opportunity to support these
Speaker 1: local business owners and and some of these local business
Speaker 1: owners might be your neighbors too. I think about a
Speaker 1: local CrossFit gym. I don't cross fit because I don't
Speaker 1: really got the time right now nor the enthusiasm to
Speaker 1: work out like that, but we have a lot of
Speaker 1: friends to go to that gym and the guy that
Speaker 1: owns it, and he's right around the corner from me,
Speaker 1: And so if I were going to start working out
Speaker 1: like that, I would totally consider joining a gym like
Speaker 1: that because it's part of the community. It's supporting local businesses,
Speaker 1: and I think that's like the cool part about shopping
Speaker 1: or doing business locally, is that your dollars kind of
Speaker 1: stay in the community helping people out who are your
Speaker 1: neighbors and friends. And I think that's a really good
Speaker 1: reason to consider buying locally as opposed to shopping online. Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: J that's right. These local businesses, the brick and mortars
Speaker 1: right near us, they're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: compete when it comes to price a lot of times
Speaker 1: because with the volume of goods that they're able to sell,
Speaker 1: I mean, they're gonna be able to sell it for
Speaker 1: much cheaper, and it's going to be a product a
Speaker 1: lot of times that might be not quite as good,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot cheaper. Well, and your local business
Speaker 1: isn't going to have robot assistance filling the orders like
Speaker 1: Amazon might have, Right, But because of that, I feel
Speaker 1: like that's why these things are even more important, right,
Speaker 1: like having the expertise or that community or that experience
Speaker 1: built into your local brick and mortar. Honestly, I do
Speaker 1: see the way we shop, I see our consumer economy
Speaker 1: changing over time, and I see these smaller local businesses
Speaker 1: not doing so well if they aren't able to provide
Speaker 1: something other than just a low cost. Right. I think
Speaker 1: that's a huge reason why instat cart and clicklist, like
Speaker 1: these different apps that allows somebody else to do your
Speaker 1: grocery shopping for you, Because why would you want to
Speaker 1: go to your local grocery store, your local big box
Speaker 1: grocery store. There's no community there, there's no experience really
Speaker 1: and there's no one really there that's going to help
Speaker 1: you make the best purchase when it comes to, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever type of produce you're looking at. Typically it's just
Speaker 1: a faceless chain grocery store, and there's just not a
Speaker 1: lot of personality there. There's not people really there who
Speaker 1: know you and are gonna like say your name and
Speaker 1: you walk in, right. It's not cheers, it's not cheers. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so for that reason, it makes sense that you
Speaker 1: would want to get your grocery shopping done for as
Speaker 1: cheaply and quickly as possible where it inconveniences you, you know,
Speaker 1: the least because you don't want to go there to
Speaker 1: begin with. I think it's just interesting to think through
Speaker 1: how small local businesses might have to adapt in the
Speaker 1: coming years to make sure that they're able to provide
Speaker 1: something that local folks are gonna want. Yeah, man, I
Speaker 1: think we are kind of at a time where the
Speaker 1: ease of online shopping is really nice, but a lot
Speaker 1: of us, at least four some segments of the shopping
Speaker 1: that we do. We're looking for a little bit more
Speaker 1: of an experience when we actually do shop for items.
Speaker 1: We want it not just to be the cheapest, quickest,
Speaker 1: easiest thing that we've ever done. We are actually looking
Speaker 1: for maybe a little more friction, a little more expertise,
Speaker 1: a little more of that actual experience of going to
Speaker 1: a small business that is thoughtful about how they do business.
Speaker 1: And as modern American businesses get bigger and bigger and
Speaker 1: bigger and fewer and fewer companies dominate the landscape, I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna see a reversion to an older, different
Speaker 1: way of shopping, at least in certain parts of our society,
Speaker 1: because that's something people crave. They crave an actual experience
Speaker 1: where someone cares about what they're getting and what they're
Speaker 1: putting in their mouth and what they're wearing on their body,
Speaker 1: as opposed to just getting the cheapest, easiest to get thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hear you, Like, I think folks are craving some
Speaker 1: of that humanity, right. You think it'll actually end up
Speaker 1: reverting back to like the old school grocery where you
Speaker 1: walk in and you know, you talk to them and
Speaker 1: they kind of weigh everything out and like cut the
Speaker 1: meat for you, and you want to talk about bunch
Speaker 1: style like oh, just like or whatever. It's a wonderful lifestyle,
Speaker 1: you know, like super old school. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's necessarily exactly where it's going
Speaker 1: to go. But there are like a little too boutique.
Speaker 1: We've noticed in our community a couple of local butchers
Speaker 1: popping up, right, and so it is kind of cool
Speaker 1: to see. And I don't know exactly for myself and
Speaker 1: my family how far I'm willing to go, but I
Speaker 1: do know that it's entering my sphere of thinking a
Speaker 1: lot more that when I am spending my dollars, I
Speaker 1: want the experience to be more satisfactory. And I don't
Speaker 1: want to just give my money to enormous corporations that
Speaker 1: are selling me stuff at the lowest possible price. I
Speaker 1: think that's what I wanted for a long time, and
Speaker 1: I've just kind of changed the way I view that.
Speaker 1: And there's some really cool people in our community creating
Speaker 1: really interesting stores and unique concepts, and that's the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff I'm more and more willing to spend my
Speaker 1: money on. It's good for my own shopping habits, buying
Speaker 1: fewer things, but buying better things and then also supporting
Speaker 1: my community at the same time. Yeah, man, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: couldn't agree more. Right, we're prioritizing where we put our
Speaker 1: money and just making sure that our money is aligning
Speaker 1: with our values. So on that note, though, we are
Speaker 1: going to actually talk about online shopping after the break.
Speaker 1: We're going to discuss the shortcomings of online shopping. All right, Matt,
Speaker 1: we're back, and we all know the benefits of online shopping.
Speaker 1: It's easy to find the best deal, it's easy to
Speaker 1: compare prices, and getting something shipped right to your door
Speaker 1: without you having to even leave your house. I mean,
Speaker 1: who doesn't think that's awesome. That is nice. That is
Speaker 1: a benefit, It's very nice. That is something I have
Speaker 1: appreciated throughout the years and I still continue to appreciate.
Speaker 1: So hope, in the first segment we didn't come off
Speaker 1: as completely anti online shopping, because we're not. There's some
Speaker 1: good reasons to do that. But you know what, in
Speaker 1: this segment here, we might still come across as a
Speaker 1: little bit anti online shopping, even though we're not. We
Speaker 1: just want to give you food for the thought before
Speaker 1: you click to purchase and it's healthy to recognize some
Speaker 1: of the shortcomings of online shopping and those downsides. So
Speaker 1: let's go through a few of those. Matt. You know
Speaker 1: you just talked about how it's easy, right, it's easy
Speaker 1: to find the best prices. I think sometimes it is
Speaker 1: too easy for us, right. When it is so easy
Speaker 1: for us to purchase things online, it can lead to
Speaker 1: over consumption, and we talk about that a good bit.
Speaker 1: There's just zero friction between you thinking of something and
Speaker 1: then just pulling out your phone and just tapping that
Speaker 1: one click purchase button right. So again at zero friction,
Speaker 1: but there's also a lot of zero price sensitivity that
Speaker 1: comes into account with new technologies that are encouraging us
Speaker 1: to buy more as well. Think about the Amazon dash
Speaker 1: buttons right that that are out there. It's amazing to
Speaker 1: me when those came out. I was like, really, people
Speaker 1: are gonna do this. It's literally just this button you
Speaker 1: might stick under the table or on your fridge or whatever,
Speaker 1: and anytime you run out a Sharpies or laundry detergent
Speaker 1: or whatever it may be, you click the freaking button
Speaker 1: and the Amazon ships that thing to your house. It's like,
Speaker 1: really kind of crazy, how far online shopping has come,
Speaker 1: and I think the Amazon dash button is like the
Speaker 1: perfect almost ridiculous example of that. And you don't even
Speaker 1: know the price when you're clicking order, and as price
Speaker 1: act happened all the time, you have no idea what
Speaker 1: you're paying for that laundry detergent today. Yeah. Man, that's
Speaker 1: it's just absurd, right like that you make these purchases,
Speaker 1: you're not even aware of the costs. It's insane. The
Speaker 1: other thing too, something else to consider our shipping costs.
Speaker 1: They add up. Not everyone is a prime memory on Amazon,
Speaker 1: and not all stores offer free shipping, and not only that,
Speaker 1: if it's something that you're not totally sure you want
Speaker 1: and you've got to make a return, well in that case,
Speaker 1: you're paying for shipping costs twice and again like those
Speaker 1: costs add up. Yeah. Another thing that's really important to
Speaker 1: think about when you're online shopping is the price fluctuations
Speaker 1: that occur constantly. Prices are changing online all the time,
Speaker 1: sometimes down to the minute. The price that you see
Speaker 1: one morning on Amazon or Walmart or best Buy or
Speaker 1: whatever for a particular item might have changed by early
Speaker 1: that afternoon, and then again by evening time. Online shopping
Speaker 1: has also actually made the original manufacturers retail price much
Speaker 1: harder to find. You might find the same item at
Speaker 1: different online sites and they might be citing different original
Speaker 1: retail prices for that same item, and so it's hard
Speaker 1: to know whether the item is actually off or off
Speaker 1: or you know what, that's actually the price they always
Speaker 1: charged for it. It's actually muddled pricing, surprisingly in a
Speaker 1: huge way than clarified it, which is what everyone thought
Speaker 1: online shopping was gonna do. It was gonna make pricing
Speaker 1: a heck of a lot easier for consumers to understand. Well,
Speaker 1: it hasn't actually done that, And sometimes prices are as
Speaker 1: clear as mud when you're shopping online, and in my opinion,
Speaker 1: that's one of the worst parts of shopping online. Yeah, Joel,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's almost at the core of what
Speaker 1: we're discussing here, is that online shopping is easily seen
Speaker 1: as this way to save a lot of money, but
Speaker 1: in the end, I think it really could cost us
Speaker 1: a lot more due to over consumption, unclear pricing, and
Speaker 1: just the host of the different reasons that we're discussing here.
Speaker 1: Another downside, right, another way that online retailers would have
Speaker 1: get you are let's talk a little bit about product images.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a photographer, I'm into pictures, but a
Speaker 1: picture of a product, it only goes so far. When
Speaker 1: you're in person, you can feel the texture of something.
Speaker 1: You can kind of like tap it with your fingernail,
Speaker 1: you can pick it up really good a feel for it.
Speaker 1: You can actually see the true color of it if
Speaker 1: you're looking at, you know, clothing. When you're shopping online,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to do that. So you order something,
Speaker 1: you have it shipped to you, and then you unpackage
Speaker 1: it and you realize after ten seconds of actually holding
Speaker 1: it in real life, that it's an item that you
Speaker 1: don't want, and so then you have to go through
Speaker 1: the hassle of repackaging it, you know, returning it, waiting
Speaker 1: for it to get credited back to your credit card.
Speaker 1: It's just a lot of hassle to do something that
Speaker 1: would have taken you a few seconds where you in
Speaker 1: an old school brick and mortar store. Oh Man, Online
Speaker 1: returns such a hasshole, be because then I gotta drive
Speaker 1: somewhere anyway just to return that item. I mean, maybe
Speaker 1: some people schedule their returns to be picked up at
Speaker 1: their house. That's probably a really good idea, but I've
Speaker 1: never done that, and I know some online retailers make
Speaker 1: returns a whole heck of a lot easier. It just
Speaker 1: depends where you shop. But then you're also talking, Matt
Speaker 1: about a double negative impact to the environment when we
Speaker 1: are giving the item ship to our house and then
Speaker 1: also doing the return shipping. The environmental impact of online shopping,
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to quantify. It's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to know whether it's actually more harmful to shop at
Speaker 1: big stores or something nearby that use a lot of energy.
Speaker 1: The cars it takes to drive there, the energy it
Speaker 1: takes to cool and heat those spaces. It's just hard
Speaker 1: to know which way of shopping is better for the environment.
Speaker 1: But yeah, then on the other hand, when you're ordering
Speaker 1: a ton online, like you said, you've got the truck
Speaker 1: driving back and forth just dropping off single packages, when
Speaker 1: if had you gone into the regular store, you could
Speaker 1: have picked up I don't know, ten items, maybe all
Speaker 1: at once, and instead you are making several purchases and
Speaker 1: so you're getting a few different ship and then if
Speaker 1: you end up returning all of those and you're swimming
Speaker 1: in that sea of cardboard. Man, I hate to admit this,
Speaker 1: but right now we are swimming in cardboard. We have
Speaker 1: almost an entire room that just is full of cardboard
Speaker 1: because we're making those purchases to kind of get that
Speaker 1: Airbnb ready, and so it feels wasteful. It feels like
Speaker 1: there is a lot that we are recycling. We're throwing
Speaker 1: in the recycling bin, breaking those boxes down. Like you said, Man,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to quantify, and I don't know which
Speaker 1: side of the fence I kind of fall on when
Speaker 1: it comes to the environmental impacts. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: the one thing that we have in our hands at
Speaker 1: least when it comes to mitigating or lessening the environmental
Speaker 1: impacts we make by our shopping is to a shop
Speaker 1: less in general, whether it's online origin stores, just to
Speaker 1: create less manufacturing of new goods, and then be to
Speaker 1: when we are making an online purchase, do it less
Speaker 1: often and lump more things that you planned on buying
Speaker 1: into one order so they can be packaged together. And
Speaker 1: I know that's not always possible, but it's just one
Speaker 1: good thing to keep in mind that will kind of
Speaker 1: cut down on the deliveries in the package. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: always an option, right when you're checking out on Amazon
Speaker 1: to kind of ship my packages in as few as possible.
Speaker 1: Have you seen Amazon has got this new Your Amazon
Speaker 1: Day thing where that where you basically choose the day
Speaker 1: of the week and they don't deliver anything to your
Speaker 1: house except for that one day. And so good for
Speaker 1: them for actually doing something like that. They're kind of
Speaker 1: taking a proactive step towards reducing waste. I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit of a skeptic, and so I know they're also
Speaker 1: doing this because they're trying to make their drivers more efficient. Right,
Speaker 1: It's like, if you have to go to a house,
Speaker 1: cut down on their own shipping costs exactly, if they
Speaker 1: haven't only have to go to a house one time
Speaker 1: out of the week versus you know, if you're ordering
Speaker 1: something every day of the week Monday through Friday. Well,
Speaker 1: you know that costs them a lot of money to
Speaker 1: make those shipments. But other way, it's it's sort of
Speaker 1: a win win situation. I think it's pretty cool that
Speaker 1: they're rolling that out. Yeah, just a couple more things
Speaker 1: about the downsides of shopping online. Well, it hurts the
Speaker 1: small businesses around us, like we mentioned before, and some
Speaker 1: of those small business owners are our neighbors. And also
Speaker 1: there are lots of options when you're shopping online sometimes,
Speaker 1: and I would say, this is what I get overwhelmed
Speaker 1: with is there's just too many options. Decision fatigue sets in,
Speaker 1: and when you are shopping online, it can be hard
Speaker 1: to stop your search and just make a choice, make
Speaker 1: a decision. And so if you're shopping for a faucet,
Speaker 1: let's say, for a bathroom, the choices seem endless when
Speaker 1: you're shopping online. When you go to a local hardware
Speaker 1: store or a Lows or something like that, there are
Speaker 1: a finite amount of choices and that just makes it
Speaker 1: a little bit easier, at least on my brain, because
Speaker 1: I can get lost in a sea of internet searches
Speaker 1: for a particular item, to find the perfect thing. Dude,
Speaker 1: have you ever been to build dot com? It's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a hardware it's basically a side dedicated
Speaker 1: to like renovating your house. No, I don't think I have. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's like I'm gonna guess, twenty two thousand facets that
Speaker 1: that you can sort of sort through and come through.
Speaker 1: It is insane versus Yeah, like you said, going to
Speaker 1: your local store, there might be twenty tops kind of
Speaker 1: all mounts it to the wall for you to look at.
Speaker 1: And this is you know that would be at a
Speaker 1: huge store or something like that. But I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: with you. The more options I have that the harder
Speaker 1: it is to make it decision because you think, well,
Speaker 1: is that the right one? Versus if you are only
Speaker 1: given you know, a limited number of options makes the
Speaker 1: decision process so much easier, Yeah, no doubt. And something
Speaker 1: else Man to talk about is speed. Even with the
Speaker 1: same day delivery, it still takes time for you to
Speaker 1: receive that item. There is an immediacy of purchasing something
Speaker 1: in person if you need that thing right away. It's
Speaker 1: not that hard to think of instances where we needed something,
Speaker 1: you know, very quickly, like we're talking about hardware, man,
Speaker 1: any sort of home renovation project where you think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this will take twenty minutes and I've got all the parts,
Speaker 1: ends up taking two hours and you've got to take
Speaker 1: a couple more runs to the store. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, right, I've been there too many times.
Speaker 1: Account or sometimes when you order something though a lot
Speaker 1: of times they can even be just seriously delayed or
Speaker 1: even back ordered. Something that would have taken you twenty
Speaker 1: minutes to run to the store, and purchases now taking
Speaker 1: you two weeks because it has to arrive in a
Speaker 1: container at a shipping port before it sent to a
Speaker 1: distribution center. Yeah, and on top of that, porch pirates,
Speaker 1: they're the worst. Man, I've never heard that term. I've
Speaker 1: been remember that term pirates. Yeah, that's the common parlance
Speaker 1: for people that steal packages, those jerks. How's that a
Speaker 1: turned that you use. We live in the same neighborhood,
Speaker 1: but I've never heard it when he's like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what, man, I feel like when you're reading online,
Speaker 1: that's what they call the people that steel packages. I
Speaker 1: love it. Yeah, So that is another problem, right for
Speaker 1: getting online deliveries, is something being stolen in the process
Speaker 1: of its sitting on your porch until you get home
Speaker 1: that evening. Yeah, I've never had something stolen out of
Speaker 1: my hand when I was walking from the store to
Speaker 1: my car or like before I got home, right, Like,
Speaker 1: no one's ever stolen something from me that just didn't
Speaker 1: happen that I remember. Yeah, you got knocked out for
Speaker 1: that one. Yeah, So that's just another thing you need
Speaker 1: to think about. They're all these potential issues with online
Speaker 1: shopping so on, which we know at least upfront. Others
Speaker 1: of which we've just discussed, maybe you hadn't even thought about.
Speaker 1: But it's nice to at least know that going into it,
Speaker 1: so you can make an informed decision as to whether
Speaker 1: you want to buy in a store locally, whether that's
Speaker 1: a locally owned business or a bigger business. But you
Speaker 1: know what, we've got some specific techniques and extensions and
Speaker 1: websites that you need to visit when you are shopping
Speaker 1: online in order to find the best deal. And we're
Speaker 1: going to get to that stuff right after the break.
Speaker 1: All right, Joe, we're back from the break. You know,
Speaker 1: we've kind of bashed on online shopping enough. I feel
Speaker 1: like the it's our duty as a frugal guys to
Speaker 1: not just talk about the best way is to be
Speaker 1: a great online shopper. Yeah, you know, I really actually
Speaker 1: like online shopping. Like a lot of probably people that
Speaker 1: are listening right now, they're like, what's going on? Why
Speaker 1: do these guys hate online shopping so much? And it's
Speaker 1: truly not that. I just really want people to know
Speaker 1: what they're getting into. These are the things that are
Speaker 1: going on in the back of my brain while I'm
Speaker 1: bruising online, I'm thinking about the fact that the M
Speaker 1: S r P is completely impossible to actually find. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about what it might cost locally before I actually
Speaker 1: clicked to purchase. Those are just the things I want
Speaker 1: you thinking about before you just clicked by mindlessly. Right.
Speaker 1: But obviously neither of us are against online shopping, and
Speaker 1: the most provable way to show folks that would be
Speaker 1: just probably just to take a picture of all those
Speaker 1: cardboard boxes in that room. Mate. We'll post that on
Speaker 1: Instagram maybe, and then I'll also post a picture of
Speaker 1: all of the Amazon dash buttons that you have set
Speaker 1: up around your house. Don't tell anybody, it's not true.
Speaker 1: What if you had dash buttons set up for Amazon Alexis, Dude?
Speaker 1: What if we had a dash button for craft Beer? Oh? Okay,
Speaker 1: that that actually sounds pretty s all right, you want
Speaker 1: to kick this thing off. Yeah, we need to talk
Speaker 1: about some of the sites in particular that will help
Speaker 1: you as you're trying to find the best deal when
Speaker 1: you're looking online, because, like we said, the waters can
Speaker 1: be murky and it can be hard to actually know
Speaker 1: when you found a good price or whether you're paying
Speaker 1: too much. And so there are sites like slick Deals,
Speaker 1: Clark Deals, and deal News, and those are sites that
Speaker 1: list a lot of deals every day, and so in
Speaker 1: my mind, the best way to use these sites is
Speaker 1: not necessarily for perusing. It's not just shopping for a
Speaker 1: random deal that might strike your fancy. And that's actually
Speaker 1: kind of how I used to use those sites. I
Speaker 1: liked shopping for a deal, and I would buy stuff
Speaker 1: that I didn't need, And so I don't recommend that
Speaker 1: you use them in that way. But when you are
Speaker 1: looking for specific items, in particular typing that item name
Speaker 1: into the search bar, you're shopping for a refrigerator or
Speaker 1: a washer dryer or whatever it might be, turning to
Speaker 1: those sites and then using the search bar to your
Speaker 1: advantage there on a deal's aggregator site can be really
Speaker 1: helpful and actually help you find the best price. You know,
Speaker 1: I hopped on there the other day looking for some
Speaker 1: Adita slides because I've got a pair that I keep
Speaker 1: at the front of the house. And it sounds kind
Speaker 1: of ridiculous, but I thought, you know what if I
Speaker 1: can only spend a few bucks and get a pair
Speaker 1: for the back of the house, so when I take
Speaker 1: out the trash, I would love to have a pair
Speaker 1: of shoes in the back door. You're the richest man,
Speaker 1: I know, that's the craziest thing. But come on, it's
Speaker 1: just like a few bucks and for me to not
Speaker 1: have to like walk to the front of my house
Speaker 1: to grab shoes so I don't have to walk barefoot
Speaker 1: through the rain in order to throw the trash in
Speaker 1: the trash can. For me, it would be worth it. No,
Speaker 1: all right, here's the thing. We're instituting a new rule.
Speaker 1: You have to do burpies to the front of the
Speaker 1: house in order to get those sandals before you can
Speaker 1: take the trash out. Well, what I was gonna share though,
Speaker 1: is that I found some Adita slides, but they just
Speaker 1: had like ridiculous sizes size six and then size is
Speaker 1: twelve plus. I didn't get any twelve not ridiculous. Okay,
Speaker 1: is that what size you're wear? Yeah? Come on, weirdo. No,
Speaker 1: but like, seriously, you only need one pair and just
Speaker 1: do the burpies to go get your dava sandals. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about burpies for? You don't even
Speaker 1: do cross fit? I don't, I don't, but can you
Speaker 1: even do a pull up. I just don't like to
Speaker 1: hear how soft you've gotten two pairs of Adita sandals. Dude,
Speaker 1: that's weird. I understand where you're coming from, right, my principle,
Speaker 1: it sounds pretty soft. You're wondering where your co host
Speaker 1: is gone. I'm just saying a few bucks there might
Speaker 1: improve my life drastically. That's all I want to say. Okay, alright,
Speaker 1: some items though that cost more than a few bucks.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about apple products. I stuck this in here
Speaker 1: because you know me, I love my apple stuff. You
Speaker 1: need to know about the mac Rumors Buyer's Guide. That's
Speaker 1: a website where you can go on and see all
Speaker 1: the different Apple products, and they basically will tell you
Speaker 1: it's sort of like a stoplight. It's either green, yellow,
Speaker 1: or red. They'll tell you to go ahead and either
Speaker 1: buy that now, or maybe you shouldn't buy that now.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is based on rumors, but you know,
Speaker 1: they do look at the specific product life cycles and
Speaker 1: they'll make recommendations on whether you should buy those things
Speaker 1: now or whether you should wait. However, a key distinction
Speaker 1: I want to make though, is that they'll tell you
Speaker 1: to buy something now. If there's a brand new product
Speaker 1: out right. Let's just say we're talking about iPads. If
Speaker 1: there's a new iPad out, they'll tell you to go
Speaker 1: ahead and by it now because there's there's a new
Speaker 1: one and they want you to have the newest, latest,
Speaker 1: greatest iPad. But what that tells me is to go
Speaker 1: ahead and buy it now, but not the new one.
Speaker 1: You want to make sure that you were looking at
Speaker 1: the old version, because chances are the prices have dropped
Speaker 1: on that one and you're gonna be able to get
Speaker 1: a much better deal in real quick too. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're looking at Apple products, definitely look at buying
Speaker 1: their refurbished items. They come with the manufacturer's warranty, they're
Speaker 1: basically brand new. Almost all of the Apple products that
Speaker 1: I've purchased in the past ten years have all been refurbished,
Speaker 1: and they've been great. Nice. Okay, Matt, let's talk about
Speaker 1: some techniques that we can use to shop online to
Speaker 1: help us get the best price. In the first thing,
Speaker 1: we're gonna mention, here is something I've never heard of,
Speaker 1: and you tip me off to. So why don't you
Speaker 1: fill this in? Yeah, man, And what you're referring to
Speaker 1: is to search Google for an image for more expensive items.
Speaker 1: What you can do, you can pull up an image
Speaker 1: of what you're looking for in Google Images, and then
Speaker 1: if you're in Chrome, you can control click or right
Speaker 1: click and select search Google for image. And what that'll
Speaker 1: do is it'll pull up some websites where you can
Speaker 1: potentially find a deal of the exact same item. It's
Speaker 1: just a different site with a lot of products coming
Speaker 1: from manufacturing plants, like a lot of times they use
Speaker 1: the exact same photo, and so if you're able to
Speaker 1: search that specific photo, you can basically source the identical product,
Speaker 1: but for a lot cheaper. So you're basically saying that
Speaker 1: sometimes manufacturers will have a different I D or something
Speaker 1: for that item, different I D or they'll just call
Speaker 1: it something completely different or you know, or it'll be
Speaker 1: a similar name, but it's just not the exact same item. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: that's cool. I mean, I think you're right in in
Speaker 1: this age of price comparisons and retailers not necessarily wanting
Speaker 1: to compete with each other on price, by just differentiating
Speaker 1: the item name or the item number, they're able to
Speaker 1: not have the price match, which is kind of a
Speaker 1: sneaky thing. But it totally happens all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Case in point, Kate, my wife, she found a bed
Speaker 1: you know, that she really liked online at West Elm
Speaker 1: and West Elm it's a little nicer of a furniture store.
Speaker 1: They got some nicer stuff there, and she tried that
Speaker 1: trick out and she searched that image and found it
Speaker 1: at World Markets for seven hundred bucks cheaper, which was
Speaker 1: a huge savings man for the exact same bed, at
Speaker 1: least from what we could tell, it was the exact
Speaker 1: same picture, looked exactly the same, and because of that
Speaker 1: quick search man, we saved a ton of money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a lawsuit that happened a bunch of years
Speaker 1: ago where someone had found something on a fancy site
Speaker 1: like West Elm and it was a thousand dollar patio
Speaker 1: furniture set, and they thought they were really smart and
Speaker 1: they did some searching. They found that exact same set
Speaker 1: on a site. I'm pretty sure it was wayfair for
Speaker 1: half the price. It was like five bucks, and they're like,
Speaker 1: this is a great deal, and so they ordered it,
Speaker 1: and then when the item got there to their house,
Speaker 1: they saw an old Walmart price tag on it for
Speaker 1: like two seven dollars, like half of the price they
Speaker 1: bought it for. And so that's the kind of thing
Speaker 1: that happens on the internet all the time. And yeah,
Speaker 1: if you want to be a smart shopper, doing something
Speaker 1: like this, image search can be really helpful so that
Speaker 1: you're not just searching the item name, because even just
Speaker 1: that can lead you to pay far too much, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it's kind of crazy. Yeah, man, it's it's nuts.
Speaker 1: You know. It doesn't always work. I don't want people
Speaker 1: to think that this is something that you can always do,
Speaker 1: but in particular for more expensive items, it's definitely worth
Speaker 1: a quick Google image search and then just searching Google
Speaker 1: for image, right, Like that's all you gotta do. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another technique you should consider when shopping online is to
Speaker 1: know the time to buy specific items. And so nerd
Speaker 1: Wallett is a really cool site that Matt and I like.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of great information and they have
Speaker 1: a comprehensive list of the best times to buy certain things.
Speaker 1: So seasonality is really important in retail, and it's just
Speaker 1: as important in online retail. So when you're looking to
Speaker 1: buy things online, what you're gonna want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're buying in the proper season. For instance, TVs
Speaker 1: are best to buy in January, and that's because of
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Furniture is best to buy in May,
Speaker 1: and you'll find the best deals on mattresses in September,
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, So yeah, it's a good list. It's a
Speaker 1: good thing to keep in mind that buying things in
Speaker 1: their proper season is going to be a good technique
Speaker 1: to help you save more money when you are doing
Speaker 1: shopping online. Nice man, now you know when you can
Speaker 1: get get your big boy, grown up adult mattress. I
Speaker 1: know I've been I've been waiting, been holding out, and
Speaker 1: and now I know I'm gonna have to wait a
Speaker 1: little bit longer until September in order to make that buy.
Speaker 1: And then finally, we want to discuss what we think
Speaker 1: might have one of the largest impacts on you saving
Speaker 1: money when it comes to shopping online, and that is
Speaker 1: through extensions through your web browser. Specifically, I'm talking about Honey,
Speaker 1: which you can download and install as a Google Chrome extension.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't heard of Honey, let me just
Speaker 1: tell you about it. I'm a huge fan with it.
Speaker 1: You don't have to waste time googling and searching for
Speaker 1: promo codes. It'll automatically apply this for you. Right, So
Speaker 1: when you are checking out in your cart, it'll ask
Speaker 1: you if you want to check for codes. It will
Speaker 1: automatically apply those codes to get you the best deal.
Speaker 1: And it cycles through all the codes that are out there,
Speaker 1: and there's a bunch of them and a lot of
Speaker 1: them notework And guess what, Man, I don't have time
Speaker 1: for that. Nobody got time for that. Over that, and
Speaker 1: Honey does that for me automatically. I love it. You know,
Speaker 1: there was an older service that I used to use
Speaker 1: called Invisible Hand, and it did something really similar when
Speaker 1: when I was on a web page looking at an item,
Speaker 1: it would tell me whether there was a better deal
Speaker 1: on another website. But I feel like Honey has kind
Speaker 1: of just jumped over where Invisible Hand was and they're
Speaker 1: providing a lot more value than just that. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it just works. It's a huge time saver and money saver,
Speaker 1: and that's nice. Yeah, you know, Invisible Hand they're still
Speaker 1: out there, they're just not quiet as it as they
Speaker 1: used to be, and like you said, Honey, they're just
Speaker 1: kind of crushing it these days. However, you might want
Speaker 1: to check out some other extensions. For instance, wiki by
Speaker 1: is one that's out there that is really good when
Speaker 1: it comes to, you know, different coupon codes. But then
Speaker 1: keep A and the camel Lizer, and that's from the
Speaker 1: website Camel Camel Camel. Have you ever heard of that one? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have because the name sticks out right. I don't
Speaker 1: think you don't ever forget the name Camel Camel Camel
Speaker 1: on the website. So it's definitely worth checking those out
Speaker 1: if you want. But bottom line, in my experience, they're
Speaker 1: they're not as good as Honey. They all do parts
Speaker 1: of what Honey does. Honey just does it all, and
Speaker 1: they do it better. Honey also does price history, which
Speaker 1: is what keep A and camel Lizer tout as one
Speaker 1: of the biggest features. They also have what's called a
Speaker 1: drop list as well, and that's where you can set
Speaker 1: up a price alert if you add it to your
Speaker 1: drop list, and you can even set a specific percentage
Speaker 1: as well. That way, if the price fluctuate is just
Speaker 1: a little bit, you're not gonna get, you know, notifications
Speaker 1: if it drops two But if you say, hey, if
Speaker 1: it ever drops more than ten percent, let me know
Speaker 1: because I want to buy it. Well, guess what, You'll
Speaker 1: get that message and then you'll know when to pounce
Speaker 1: because you'll get a deal that is slick. Man, that
Speaker 1: is really nice. Yeah, that's really cool. I think these extensions,
Speaker 1: these online shopping tools, taking into consideration the deal sites
Speaker 1: as well doing some searches when you're looking for a
Speaker 1: particular item. I feel like all those things in concert
Speaker 1: can kind of help people when they're shopping online to
Speaker 1: kind of make sure that they're getting a really good
Speaker 1: deal and kind of helped create some certainty in the
Speaker 1: online buying process because there is right now, at least
Speaker 1: a lot of uncertainty. It's just kind of hard to know.
Speaker 1: Despite the many sites and the ease of price comparison,
Speaker 1: you still kind of don't know whether you're getting a
Speaker 1: great deal or not, in spite of the fact that
Speaker 1: there's so much competition and ease of price comparison. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where these extensions come in. You know. The only
Speaker 1: downside with them though, is I feel like the more
Speaker 1: extensions you install on Google Chrome, the junk starts slowing down.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever noticed that, but I
Speaker 1: definitely have. Yeah, and honestly, just kind of getting bombarded
Speaker 1: with stuff in your face. That's the part that I
Speaker 1: hate the most, pop up aspect of it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, now something else I have to think about.
Speaker 1: But if it saves me money, it's totally worth it, right,
Speaker 1: that's the truth, man. And you know what, we'd be
Speaker 1: remiss if we didn't recommend to folks to consider mining used. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we've talked about eBay before. We love eBay. We'd also
Speaker 1: recommend for folks to check out shop Goodwill dot com. Joel,
Speaker 1: have you ever gone on to shop Goodwill and then
Speaker 1: made a purchase? No, but you're the first person that
Speaker 1: told me about it, and I have really done some
Speaker 1: perusing back in the day. I've never bought anything on there.
Speaker 1: I need to go give it another shot. So it's
Speaker 1: been a couple of years actually since I've been on there,
Speaker 1: and I will say I was checking them out today
Speaker 1: in preparation for this episode. They've totally made their platform
Speaker 1: look more like eBay. Like basically, I think when they
Speaker 1: sat down with their code guys that's what they're called, right,
Speaker 1: code guys, the technical term the code ladies. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: code ladies, can you make this site look exactly like eBay.
Speaker 1: But it really does feel a lot like eBay, And
Speaker 1: I say that as good thing, because before it was
Speaker 1: really tough to navigate those really jankie Now it makes
Speaker 1: a lot more sense and it's easy to use, So
Speaker 1: I might have to hop on there and purchase another
Speaker 1: pair of Sperry topsiders, which was the very first thing
Speaker 1: I ever purchased on a shop goodwill dot com. Do
Speaker 1: you remember how much you paid for him? I want
Speaker 1: to say, like nine bucks? Nine bucks. They're brand new.
Speaker 1: They're obviously exactly my size, which is nine and a half.
Speaker 1: By the way, not weirdoh size twell feet like you've got.
Speaker 1: I guess I got clown feet, But be sure to
Speaker 1: check them out. They've got some awesome stuff. I just
Speaker 1: take Shaquille O'Neil's hand me down shoes, So yeah, size
Speaker 1: matches perfectly there, all right, Matt. So let's get back
Speaker 1: to the beer that we had on the show today.
Speaker 1: We had a beer called fort by dog fish Head.
Speaker 1: I feel like it was quite unique in its presentation.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever had a beer that tasted
Speaker 1: like this before. I think I said that weird, but
Speaker 1: I didn't mean I like it Okay, all right. It
Speaker 1: tasted to me like a barley wine, which is the
Speaker 1: style I really like, and it had raspberry juice in it,
Speaker 1: which gave it just a little bit of brightness, which
Speaker 1: you really don't get typically in a barley wine. Usually
Speaker 1: there's zero brightness in a barley wine. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought the raspberry juice actually kind of cut through
Speaker 1: nicely and it made this beer feel nice and well rounded.
Speaker 1: And I can really appreciate this beer for what it
Speaker 1: is and the unique qualities that it brings. It's a
Speaker 1: one of a kind beer that I really enjoyed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind have one of these again, but only
Speaker 1: if Tyler is going to provide them for us, right,
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Tyler for donating this one to the show.
Speaker 1: But man, I'm completely with you. You're talking about how
Speaker 1: it tasted bright. I don't know what it was about
Speaker 1: this beer, but a lot of times I talk about
Speaker 1: like fresh, hot beers tasting bright or I'll say they
Speaker 1: taste alive to me. And something about this beer and
Speaker 1: this is aged Tyler. He sellers his beers, and so
Speaker 1: I know this one was at least three years old,
Speaker 1: and with my first sip Man, it tasted alive and bright,
Speaker 1: which you normally don't get from a darker beer like this.
Speaker 1: I can get behind the raspberries in this beer because
Speaker 1: it wasn't a really sour tart raspberry, but it was
Speaker 1: an oak aged kind of chocolate covered raspberry right like.
Speaker 1: It had these bigger, thicker flavors with the fruit that
Speaker 1: made it really easy and delicious to drink. It very
Speaker 1: much felt like a sort of like a decadent dessert,
Speaker 1: but at the same time pretty bright and alive. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they did it, but I'm really
Speaker 1: impressed with this beer. Man. I feel like dog fish
Speaker 1: Head on their kind of more extreme beers like this,
Speaker 1: they just crush it. I'm not really prone to pick
Speaker 1: up a six pack of dog fish Head, but they're
Speaker 1: one off like this. Like Doc, fish Head has always
Speaker 1: been a little extreme and how they brew beers. I've
Speaker 1: always appreciated that because they always come out with something
Speaker 1: unique because of it, and this beer is no exception.
Speaker 1: All right, Joe, Before we wrap this one up, let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and give our quick final thoughts on this episode.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, let's do it. I think what I
Speaker 1: want to leave people with I hope we weren't too
Speaker 1: negative about online shopping, because it is really incredible how
Speaker 1: quickly and easily we can get things shipped to our doors.
Speaker 1: And I know, especially with folks that have busy lives,
Speaker 1: big families, kids to take care of, two parents working, whatever.
Speaker 1: There's so many reasons that online shopping has proliferated, has
Speaker 1: become such a beast, and so there are a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons, a lot of positive benefits to shopping online.
Speaker 1: I just think it's important to reiterate here that we
Speaker 1: think about shopping local and when it might actually be
Speaker 1: a superior route for us, even if it ends up
Speaker 1: costing a bit more. You might miss out on some
Speaker 1: of those intangibles like the expertise of someone who works there,
Speaker 1: the community vibe, and the opportunity to support local businesses
Speaker 1: to your neighborhood if you only think about shopping online, Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't forget those local brick and mortar benefits. However, if
Speaker 1: you are going to shop online, make sure that you're
Speaker 1: checking out the different deal websites, specifically slick deals dot com.
Speaker 1: They're they're pretty much the best. They're really good. Will
Speaker 1: link to the others in the notes as well. Also,
Speaker 1: if you're not already using Google Chrome, it's way better
Speaker 1: than Internet Explore, way better than Safari. You want to
Speaker 1: use that anyway. But while you're at it, go ahead
Speaker 1: and download the Honey extension. There's a really good chance
Speaker 1: that it will save you money every single time you
Speaker 1: make a purchase online by automatically applying discount codes as
Speaker 1: well as showing you the pricing history. That way you
Speaker 1: know if you're getting a deal or not. Joel, I
Speaker 1: think that's gonna be it for this episode, man, say
Speaker 1: it ain't so bunny. This is fun. Let's wrap it up.
Speaker 1: Show notes can be found at how its money dot
Speaker 1: com and there will be sure to link to all
Speaker 1: these different websites and extensions that you can check out
Speaker 1: on your own. Yeah, and thanks to everybody for listening.
Speaker 1: If you found this episode helpful or our podcast in general,
Speaker 1: we would really appreciate it. If you'd consider leaving a
Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcasts. It means a lot to us
Speaker 1: and it helps new potential listeners understand what the show
Speaker 1: is all about. That's right, Joel. So until next time,
Speaker 1: best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.