Money Crashers » Deals

Great LCD TV Sales This Week

Erik Folgate — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:37:27 +0000

Westinghouse 37″ 1080p LCD TV from Buy.com for $570
Samsung 1080p 40″ LCD TV w/ 500,000:1 contrast ratio! by Vanns.com for $1200
Toshiba REGZA 46″ 1080p LCD TV w/ Cinespeed by Newegg.com for $1170
Phillips 42″ 1080p LCD TV

by Newegg.com for $999.

Great Deal On an LCD TV This Weekend

Erik Folgate — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:46:55 +0000

ON Frys.com you can get a Philips 47″ LCD 1080p TV for $999 plus shipping! Shipping runs from $35 to $65 dollars.

Contrast ratio: 1500:1
Number of HDMI Inputs: 2
Brightness: 500 cd/m
Response time: 8 ms

Fry’s offers same day shipping, and they are currently in stock. Philips is a decent brand, and you’ll get a 1080p HUGE LCD for under $1100 bucks! Check it out.

::I am not receiving any advertising compensation for this post::Related Posts:

Great Deal On an LCD TV This Weekend is a post from: Money Crashers

How To Find Free Money Today

Erik Folgate — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:13:00 +0000

Do you need some extra cash? You may be entitled to some, but never knew it. There is such a thing as free money, well it’s not free, but it feels like it’s free because you never knew it was there waiting for you to claim it. Each state should have a bureau for unclaimed property, and many of them allow you to search by your name to see if you have unclaimed money to recover.

Here is the website for The Florida Bureau Of Unclaimed Property.

Warning: You’ll be addicted by this website. I’ve known about it for some time, but I just thought that I would pass it along to those of you that aren’t aware of it, yet. But be warned, you’ll be on the site for hours checking everyone’s name that you can think of. My wife’s step-father had two unclaimed property pieces!

I want to hear from those of you that found unclaimed property. How much was it? What was it from? It’s kind of like winning the mini-lottery, even though it was your money to begin with! Related Posts:

How To Find Free Money Today is a post from: Money Crashers

Five Steps To Getting a Great Sale On An LCD Or Plasma TV This Weekend

Erik Folgate — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:11:29 +0000

If you walk into an electronics store this weekend, you’ll most likely see a big promotioin for sales on Hi-Def LCD, Plasma, and DLP televisions. Retailers will be putting together their final push to try to persuade you to buy a big-screen TV for Super Bowl weekend. Frankly, I think it’s insulting that retailers think we would go out and purchase a big TV just for one game that hardly ever features a good matchup. Does anyone really think that Eli Manning is going to beat The Golden Boy and New England? And by the way, it will snow in Miami before New England thinks about not playing Brady in the Super Bowl.

Anyway, I think it’s silly to get pressured into buying a big screen just because you want to watch the big game on it. But, if you were already in the market to buy an LCD or Plasma TV and you’ve saved up enough money to do it, then this is a great time to get a good deal on a TV this weekend.

First, narrow down the type of television you want to buy. You’ll need to make a few decisions on a couple of things. First, how big do you want? This will depend on where you’re going to put it. If it’s going to be your main TV in your living room, I suggest not going lower than a 40″, unless you live in a small apartment. Anything between 40″ to 52″ is the perfect size for a medium to large-sized living room. If you’re buying it for your bedroom, you might want to consider between 26″ to 37 inches. Next, determine if you want LCD or Plasma. If you’re clueless about this one, don’t worry, most people wonder what the differences are between the two technologies. I’m not going to bore you with all of the techy jargon. Just do a google search like “LCD vs. Plasma” and you’ll get plenty of information on it. I would also suggest going to retailer and look at the different TVs. Pick which picture you like best. I picked an LCD, because it has less glare than a Plasma display. LCD’s sacrifice a little bit of sharpness, but I can’t tell that much. The other thing you need to consider is the connections that the TV offers. Make sure you get a TV with at LEAST 2 HDMI inputs. HDMI is the hook-up of choice, and soon all of your peripherals will be hooking up via HDMI.
Second, print out all of the weekly ads from retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Wal-Mart, and others in your area that have a good selection of televisions. Then, do some research on the internet on sites such as Amazon.com, Tigerdirect.com, and Buy.com. Target the type of TV that you have narrowed down, and try to find out where you can get the best deal. Conventional wisdom says that the internet has the best deals, but I got my 40″ Samsung LCD for $899 last August at Circuit City. I actually bought it on the Circuit City website and picked it up in-store, because you received an extra $100 off for purchasing online. The downside of purchasing on a site such as Buy or Amazon is that you might not receive the TV by next weekend. But, if you don’t care about getting it for the Super Bowl, then go for it. The best way to search the best internet deal is checking out a site like Price Grabber.
If you’re going from a 20″ tube televison like I was when I bought my Samsung, then you can save a TON of money this weekend by picking up one of the models that retailers are trying to push out the door. Many retailers like to push out the models that are being discontinued during times of big sales. There are different resolutions for Hi-Def TVs such as 1080i, 720p, and 1080p. Believe me, if you’re replacing a tube TV, you won’t be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p, and you can get a GREAT deal on a 720p model. Even some of the older 1080p models are going for cheaper right now.
As far as brand goes, there are definitely differences in quality. Sony, Samsung, and Sharp look the best, in my opinion. But, they’re also the most expensive. If you don’t mind sacrificing some quality in picture, check out a Syntax Olevia, Vizio, or Sylvania. But, my suggestion would be to scour for a great deal on a Sony or Samsung, because you’ll be mesmerized at the rich colors and smooth tones that their pictures provide.
Look for open box or floor models. If you find an open box or floor model that fits the general type of TV you were looking for, immediately find a sales clerk and offer them a price on the television. DO NOT walk out the door with getting that television for 10 to 15% off the ticket price. They will try to tell you that there’s no extra discount on it, but I guarantee you they will budge on the price if you persist enough.

My wife laughs at me, because I am in love with HD channels and more specifically, watching football and basketball in HD. It’s a wonderful thing, but make sure you don’t go out of budget. Set a budget for how much you are willing to spend and stick to it. It’s so easy to just put the TV on a credit card, but do you really want to pay interest on a COMPLETELY unnecessary purchase? Good luck and post a comment if you’re someone that found a good sale this weekend.
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Five Steps To Getting a Great Sale On An LCD Or Plasma TV This Weekend is a post from: Money Crashers

Share Your Black Friday Experience

Erik Folgate — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:48:54 +0000

My wife and I were a part of the Black Friday mayhem, but it may be our last experience with it. I’ll give you a brief rundown of our morning…

I am woken up at 4am to the sweet smell of my dog’s breath, because my wife woke up first, so my dog was excited that we were getting up so early. She took it upon herself to be my alarm clock and give me a big lick on the face. I got up and looked at my wife, and we said to each other, “wow, it sounds so much more fun to go shopping at 5am for great deals until you actually do it”. But, we were already awake, so we decided to get up and go! We got to the mall area around 4:45am where Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, and Kohl’s are all within a one mile radius of each other. I wanted to stop at Circuit City first, but I took one look at the line, and my motivation was gone. We went to Wal-Mart to check out some of the toys they had on sale for our nephews, and what we saw was no surprise. We saw hundreds of people throwing in LCD TV’s, desktop computers, and DVD players into their cart like it was milk and cereal. Literally, some people had a 42″ LCD, a 32″ LCD, a laptop computer, and a desktop computer all in two carts. We walked around a for a few minutes, picked up some of the toys that we had circled on our list, and proceeded to wait for about 30 minutes in line. My wife’s brother-in-law and I then went to Best Buy. Best Buy was a bust. They had no good deals this year, and you could tell. It was busy, but not like it has been in the past. Who really wants a 32″ Dynex TV

Then, I went back to Circuit City and the line was moving pretty well. We got into Circuit City, and picked up a bunch of $4.00 DVDs and a $7.00 iPod armband. We put the items back when we saw the line to check out and how slow it was moving. We went back an hour later after that, and we still waited 45 minutes in line to check out for $25.00 worth of merchandise. We hit up Target and Kohl’s after that. It was in Target where I had that moment where you say to yourself, “What the hell am I doing here?”. I went to find Call of Duty 4 for Xbox 360, because it was $48 instead of $60, but they were all gone. I turned around and all I could see were red carts. I was literally trapped on all sides. I could not move, because there were shopping carts on all sides of me. I could do nothing but stand in the middle of the aisle and look like an idiot. Then, we went to Kohl’s, which we found a lot of great deals on toys for our nieces and nephews. However, my sister-in-law waited for about 45 minutes to an hour just to buy a watch! Apparently, Kohl’s only has two registers where you can purchase jewelry. They were very prepared for their everyday items, but not for their jewelry.

So, that was our day. We were out for about 6 hours, but it was fairly productive. We got all of our Christmas shopping done for the children in our life plus a few superflous buys for us. If I had to rate the stores we went to based on the best deals, I would say that Circuit City and Target had the best overall deals. It was a down year for Black Friday, in my opinion. The deals were not that earth shattering, and none of the door busters were that eye catching. Hands down, the best doorbuster was the 42″ Sharp Aquos LCD TV at Circuit City for $799.00. If you picked up that TV, you got a great deal. Those retail for $1299 to $1499. The 37″ Olevia LCD at Target was also a good deal, but I’ve seen that price for those TV’s online.

Tell us about your Black Friday. Did you stay at home? Did you shop online instead? Did you find any great deals? Did you get in any fights? I sure hope not, because the deals just weren’t worth it this year. Related Posts:

Share Your Black Friday Experience is a post from: Money Crashers

Don’t Forget to Check Out the Cyber Monday Sales

Erik Folgate — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:29:59 +0000

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday. If you’re like me, then you’re probably trying to recover from the time off. We had a busy time, but luckily I was able to relax today and do NOTHING. I’ll blog about my Black Friday experience tomorrow. Let’s just say that I might not be doing the Black Friday thing next year.

For those of you looking for good deals this holiday season without waking up at 4am to wait outside of Wal-Mart, it started today. Cyber Monday, the online version of Black Friday, actually started today. Check out BF ADS for a synopsis of all the major retailers and their Cyber Monday deals. I didn’t see any earth shattering deals, but you should be able to get free shipping and 10 to 20% off on electronics and appliances. I recommend that site, so that you dont have to go to each individual site to scour through their deals. Related Posts:

Don’t Forget to Check Out the Cyber Monday Sales is a post from: Money Crashers

A Real Life Story About Earning A MacBook Pro For $400 Bucks

Erik Folgate — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:08:40 +0000

I asked my best friend, Timmy, to write about his experience with one of those “get a free laptop” sites that require you to complete promotional offers from the most obscure companies on the planet. Many of you are probably weary if they will ACTUALLY send you the free gift that they boast, and it may hinder you from trying it out. After hearing about his story, I was convinced. I finally knew someone personally that had done it, and received the gift. You can definitely get screwed over if you don’t know what you’re doing, that’s why I asked him to explain the process of how he earned a $2,000 laptop for $400 bucks!

————————

So I hear my buddy Erik is a financial professional. Ok I don’t hear it, I’ve seen it in action, and frankly… it makes me feel bad about myself. He’s good. I’ll stop.

It’s hard to write about this sort of thing without sounding like an infomercial so I’ll err on the short and sarcastic side of things to keep it real as they say. About a year ago I became desparate. I needed a new computer. I do funky music stuff with my computer. I edit video. I love macs. I was poor. You see the problem here.

I have standards

Apple computers are not cheap, but I needed one. So I do what I always do and I googled “free macbook pro.” I’m not big on recruiting friends to make me get free stuff (I have a hard enough time telling people about Jesus) so all of the sites that had any element of refer-a-friend were out. I was going to do this stuff on my own so that when I failed I could sweep it under the reputation rug. My budget was about $500 for a computer and that would get me a Dell. I didn’t need a Dell, I NEEDED an Macbook Pro. This brings me to a side note: When you’re trying to get things for cheap you need to have needs; you need to have a spending limit; and you need to have patience. I also made a pact with myself that if this failed I would never do anything like this again. Sure I would be down $500 bucks and computerless (almost) but I would be a resilient loser. Scams would never darken my tower again (says The Streets).

What I did

I finally found a site that seemed legit. I scoured the fine print and ultimately just lowered my head and started filling out the forms. The setup (and this is a dominant format for refer-a-friendless sites) was three pages of offers that the user would complete. 3 offers on the first page, 6 on the second, 9 on the third. I had to stick to the format, and I plotted out the expense of each offer on each page to get within my spending limit and fulfill the requirements. I could go into more detail but bottom line I ended up spending $400 bucks over the course of two months completing these offers and filing a tax return paper thing. The laptop came immediately after I mailed in the tax form…a week or so. Plus, I did this right at the time when Apple upgraded the Macbooks to the 2.0 ghz and the one they sent me was the upgraded version.

I called customer service during the course of my madness just for some comfort and to check on offers that hadn’t been completed, etc. It turns out that the company offices were a town south of where I was living at the time, so the proximity was a comfort, but ultimately I just stuck it out there and waited to see what happened. This brings me to what I would do differently.

What I would do differently

The internet is beautiful. It provides easy access to stuff I need to know. I enter my questions into a text box and I get exact answers. Blam. What I don’t do sometimes is follow up on the information. Sure I googled free macbook pro and I came up with a site that would satisfy, but take that to the next level and I would have found a guy who was decorating his house with “*free stuff” and posting tips on how to do it cheap.

The reason I spent $400 dollars was because I didn’t know what I was doing. There were two $5 offers that I didn’t comb through and ended up getting auto-billed for 60 on each. If you see something that says Auto-Ship you’re going to get dominated. I also could have done other offers that would have cost more out of pocket initially, but in the end would have fully refunded my money.

Josh Clark is a pro at this stuff, and I wish I found his site sooner. He’s just posted a link to a new Macbook Pro site that is 10 offers and 1 refer a friend. He hates using people too so he does this thing called a conga line. I’m not going to explain it, just give it a look. Ultimately, I should have shoveled a bit deeper down the google pile. Josh got his MBP for 90 bucks. He’s also picked up a flat screen, wii, and every other toy that will eventually burn in the apocalyptic fires for next to nothing.

If you remember something, this would be my pick

I like habits. I have many of them, and most are disgusting, but my habitual googling is a good thing. The internet teaches me things. Do you know what the difference between a State and a Commonwealth is? Erik? Do you? I also don’t like spending money on dumb things. Maybe I’m overly optimistic, but I’m pretty sure there are cost friendly solutions to many wants or needs in the annals of the internet. I need bookshelves. DIY is the way to go. I need a photoshop like program… Open Source it is. Try it out. If you have questions, ask Erik.

Spending Money Should Not Make You Feel Guilty

Erik Folgate — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:21:08 +0000

I was in Kohl’s the other day, and I freakin’ love Kohl’s. It’s the perfect store for someoe who’s about to discover maturity, but doesn’t have enough money to fully embrace it. My wife and I bought a bunch of cool stuff for our apartment, and she bought some new shoes. We came for the shoes, but we walked out with an extra $60 worth of loot.

First of all, I’m a sucker. You know how retail stores put up signs saying everything is 50% off, but they really just jack up the MSRP, and the 50% price ends up being the normal price, anyway? I fall for that scheme all the time. I always feel like I’m “getting such a good deal”. I didn’t walk out of Kohl’s feeling guilty, because we could have done much worse damage. However, I did feel a little shameful buying some stuff that we didn’t intend on coming in to buy. Here are a few things that I’ve learned from being a sucker to spending in retail stores.

Walk in with a plan. We had a plan to buy my wife some new running shoes, but we started out browsing in the home goods section. This is not good. We found a bunch of stuff at reasonable prices that we liked, and there you have it — impulse buys. I understand that browsing is part of shopping. You may not know what you are looking for until you see it. But this leads me into my next point.
It is possible to budget for impulse shopping. Factor in your budget some money to do whatever the heck you want with it. This is why I walked out of Kohl’s feeling a little guilty. We didn’t really budget the money that we spent. We just used money that made from a side business. If you’re like me, then I don’t think you should kid yourself. You’re going to walk into Target or Best Buy and end up buying a CD, DVD, or something else that tempts you every time you walk by it. Be real with yourself and budget out impulse buys.
Try not to be an idiot and fall for marketing schemes like me. Buy one, get one free. 50% off the entire store. 0% interest for 40 years, or whatever it is. These are all ways to get you to SPEND more than you normally would spend. I fall for them, and I’m sure some of you do, too. Buy one, get one free is like music to my ears. Publix, a popular grocery store in the Southest, does this all the time. I don’t really need two cartons of sour cream, or two salad dressings, but it makes you want to buy that particular brand. But in reality, they just increase the price of the product, and then you almost end up paying just as much as if you would have bought both of them on a regular day. They also do this to push certain brand names on you. I hate it when retailers get pushy.
Don’t try to keep up with technology. I’ve expressed my frustration towards Apple in the past. They want you to buy every new iPod that they come out with. And conveniently enough, they come out with one about once a year! Now, DVD’s aren’t good enough. We need BluRay and HD DVD. But soon enough, it’ll be affordable enough to have a hard drive underneath or possibly even built in to our TV’s to store all the movies we want. Technology wants to lure us into trying to keep up with their latest and greatest models. They love to prey on people like me. I always pick up the Sunday newspaper just to look at the weekly fliers for Best Buy, Circuit City, and various other electronics stores. Ugh, technology sucks.

I don’t think we should feel guilty when we spend money. Money was meant to be spent, saved, and given to other people. You can’t save all of your money, you can’t give all of your money away, but you CAN spend all of your money. This is why we have to monitor our spending more than anything else. It will make us or break us, but it should still be FUN to spend money. I may be in the minority, but it’s always more fun spending money when I have control of it. Going out one night and blowing $200 bucks on alcohol and food may sound like a crazy, fun night, but then you wake up in the morning and throw up thinking about it. Or, you just throw up from drinking too much. Related Posts:

Spending Money Should Not Make You Feel Guilty is a post from: Money Crashers

Stay Away From The “90 Days, Same As Cash” Trap

Erik Folgate — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:24:39 +0000

So you go out one weekend to look at furniture. That couch with the funky smell and the 1970’s style dining room table just aren’t cutting it anymore. You don’t really have the money to spend on new furniture, but you deserve it, right? You walk into the furniture store to the smell of fresh popcorn and oven-baked cookies, two of the most alluring smells on earth. You go and get yourself a snack and you start browing around the store with no real intent on buying anything today. The saleswoman approaches you and introduces herself with a warm smile. She’s not too pushy about selling you anything, but she’s there to answer any of your questions. Then, without any warning, you spot the leather couch of your dreams. A beam of light is shining right down on it. It’s dark, plush leather and the perfect size for your place. You walk over to it and the experience sitting down on the couch is even better than the experience of looking at it. And what a coincidence that this leather couch comes with friends. You can buy the entire set which includes the full couch, loveseat, chair, and tables for only $2499! You think to yourself, “What a bargain, but I don’t have $2,500 right now”. Somehow, the saleswoman heard you say this to yourself and she chimes in with the magic phrase, “Well, we are running a special right now where you can purchase this set and get 90 days, same as cash financing. Your ears perk up and you start doing the math in your head. “Well, I’ve got $500 now, and I could probably scrounge up $700 bucks a month for the next few months. Sold!”

This may have been an overdramatized version of what really happens to someone when he or she goes shopping for big ticket items such as furniture, but I bet you can think of a time when you weren’t serious about buying something, but the special financing offer lured you into making an impulse buy when you didn’t have the money. The appeal to the “90 Days, Same As Cash” gimmick is that it makes you feel like you are beating the system by getting a free loan for 90 days. Many stores will also give you 6 to 12 months of interest free financing if you sign up for their credit card. Best Buy and Home Depot are notorious for this gimmick. So, you are so smart if you cheat the system by going for one of these specials, right? WRONG! The fact is that almost 80% of people that go for these deals NEVER pay off the balance in full by that 90, 180, or even 360 days. Companies know this, and that is why they offer it! They get you to make the purchase, and then they start making money off the financing once you don’t pony up the money right away. And it’s not that you are a totally irresponsible person. Life took control of the situation. Maybe you car had to be repaired or your kid needed new glasses. Life’s little emergencies pop up and hinder us from paying off things that we planned on paying off. Sure, you might be part of that 20% of people that have paid off the balance in full and “beat the system”, but did you really? It’s much harder to negotiate a deal when you are financing something like appliances or furniture. If you had walked into the furniture store with $2200 in cash, you may have been able to walk away with that set for a 10% discount, but instead you are sweating it out for 90 days hoping that you can get it paid off.

Another reason why the interest free gimmicks are a bad deal is because many programs will back date the interest during the interest free period and charge it to you in a lump sum once the interest free period has passed. Also, that 0% interest will most likely turn into an obscene rate like 24, 32, or even 38% interest! These deals will also go sour if you are late on a payment. Many programs will void the special if you are even one day late. Do I need to give you anymore reasons why these deals only benefit the company in the end? The easiest thing to do when buying a refrigerator, couch, or patio furniture is to just pay cash! It’s as simple as that. Related Posts:

Stay Away From The “90 Days, Same As Cash” Trap is a post from: Money Crashers

Negotiation Techniques To Score a Great Deal

Erik Folgate — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:50:30 +0000

I’ve been interested lately in sharpening my negotiation techniques. I figure that if I could combine my negotiation skills with my wife’s negotiation skills, then I could score some great deals. I guess that is why we only tend to get great deals when we are buying something together. I tend to have more a laid back approach where I get to know the person and I win with consumer knowledge of the product. My wife tends to win, because she is hard-nosed and will not back down to counter offers. She knows what she wants to pay, and she won’t pay a penny less. My skills backfire when a salesman is aggressive enough to pressure me into the sale. My wife’s techniques fail when the salesman is not desperate enough to go for the deal, so he lets her walk away. For all of you Dave Ramsey fans out there, here are some techniques that he suggests that you try that I found interesting when listening to one of his audio speech seminars on getting great deals.

The power of silence. Sometimes we talk too much during the negotiation process, because we get nervous and we feel that we should keep talking to move the process along. What happens is that we end up talking ourselves into making the deal for more than we wanted to originally pay for the product. Salespeople know this, and that is why they will continue to let you talk. Check out the way a good salesperson will treat you during the negotiation. Many times they will stay quiet and choose their words wisely. They want you to keep rambling on and telling them more information that they did not need to know but will use to help close the deal. Reverse this technique on the salesperson and be silent. Make an offer and stand there with your mouth closed. They will be surprised at the silence. It might make them uncomfortable enough to accept the deal or make a counter offer that is acceptable to you as well.
The “That’s not good enough” technique. You may have heard Ramsey talk about this negotiation technique. It can be very powerful if you have a stone-cold, poker face. Basically, what you do is take a look at the sticker price of a car, washing machine, or whatever and say, “That’s not good enough”. Then, follow that up with some awkward silence. Recently, I tried this technique when buying some appliances for our condo, and the salesman took a momemt and said, “Well, what is good enough”. You then reply, “I don’t know, but I know that’s not good enough”. He ended up knocking off another 10% and THAT was good enough for us. The point is that if you don’t reveal what price you are willing to pay, then their drop in price may be even lower than what you were initially going to offer to pay. If that happens, then the negotiation process is over and you go home early getting a great deal!
Acting Like You Have Something To Receive Something Else. Salespeople probably use this technique on you all the time. The way this works is you say to the salesperson, “okay, I’ll do the deal if you throw in DVD players into the head rests of the car”. Then, the salesperson kindly responds, “I just can’t do that. My manager isn’t going to go for that”. Then, you say, “okay, well if you can’t give me the DVD player, you’re going to have to come down on your price”. See what is happening here? You’re acting like you already HAD the dvd player, but they are taking it away from you, so you are demanding a reduction in the price! Believe me, a good salesman will subtly do this to you without you even realizing it. Turn it around on them and see what happens. You may not get a reduction in price, but you might get some extra features or a bonus item thrown in that was never a part of the original deal.

What if you made a vow today to never pay retail for a large purchase ever again? How much money do you think you’d save over a lifetime? You’d probably save enough to retire on, and that is my point! Refining your negotation skills is a key element to winning with money over the long term. I can guarantee you that many self-made millionaires are great negotiators. They are informed consumers, they know what they want, and they refuse to pay full price for a car, appliances, real estate, big toys, and even smaller purchases. If you can overcome embarassment and shyness, I guarantee that you will start getting better deals and saving a ton of money. You owe it to yourself. After all, it’s YOUR money, not their money! Make them work for it.