Let me tell you a little story 'bout a man named Jed...

I thought you guys might get a kick out of this. In the mail the other week, I received a bunch of junk mail (as usual). However, in the spirit of trying to save money, I’ve been going through it scouting for sales and coupons. I came across this scratch off thing from Marietta Dodge. Got a coin and did a quick scratch to see if I won a shopping spree (no free cars). There were nine boxes and if 3 match, you win whatever is in the boxes. I matched for $1000 shopping spree! A $1000 ONLINE SHOPPING SPREE! Right before Christmas! How lucky! Then rationality set in, and I thought “well that was too easy.” So I called up the phone number at the Dodge place and was told that there was no gimmick and congratulations. I won $1000 shopping spree. I was only responsible for shipping and handling and a processing fee. All I had to do was drive over to Marietta Dodge and claim my gift certificate.

So, Mapgeek and I loaded up and headed on over to the car dealership. We actually didn’t have to listen to a sales pitch, which we thought was part of the thing. And, to top it all off, the guy said just to show their appreciation for us coming in, they would DOUBLE our shopping spree. $2000!!!! Unbelievable. So, we got our gift certificate and left, plotting our shopping spree all the way home. Big screen TV, Ipod for me, the best baby toys, etc.

We get home and I get the laptop booted up to start my shopping extravaganza. First thing I noticed is that there are no big screen TV’s, that being the first item to shop for. Then I started noticing that it’s all these generic company’s items and most are things we’d never buy, much less use. But no matter, it’s still free money so I’d find something. Then, I decided I’d better go see what this “processing fee” was going to be, especially if I was going to order a bunch of junk. For spending the full $2000 on our shopping spree, it was going to cost us over $600 for S&H and a processing fee! That’s over 30%!!!! And the less you spend, the more the fee is!

So, in a nutshell, y’all are all getting fruitcakes for Christmas. Sorry.

(Clark Howard would be so proud!)