Our First Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving is less than a week away. The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally when we decorate our house for Christmas. We take out the Christmas tree, string it with lights, ornaments and other decorations. We start decorating the outside of the house as well.

Our first Christmas out of college was rather pathetic in terms of decorations because we didn’t have hardly any of our own but we managed to scrape by. Wait a second… I didn’t say we went out and bought a bunch of stuff? Very observant of you! Here’s why…

Christmas Only Happens Once a Year

I know the fact that Christmas only happens once a year is a bit obvious. What is less obvious is what happens with this and any other holiday that occurs once a year. Stores stock up on decorations months in advance (especially for Christmas) and try to get exactly the right amount so after the holiday goes by they have nothing left to sell.

This doesn’t always happen though. In fact, there is normally a lot of left over decorations after holidays, especially Christmas. So what happens?

Christmas Clearance Sales

You guessed it! The day after Christmas almost every store will mark all of their decorations on clearance. This should shock no one. Remember Easter and Halloween? There was a ton of candy and decorations marked half off the day after. Same thing goes for Christmas.

Most stores will start discounting their items at 50% off. They will discount the slow moving items even more the longer they sit on the shelves. Everyone who pays any attention knows this happens with every holiday. A few people take advantage but the masses just buy when everyone else does, in the weeks prior to the holiday.

Your decorations from last year should cover your Christmas this year even if you normally buy a few new things. Don’t buy any new decorations before Christmas this year.  Instead you should…

Make a List of What You Want

There are a ton of great deals out there but if you buy stuff you don’t need or will never use you’ve just made a bad purchase. Instead, make a list of the things you want to get in the weeks before Christmas. Take a look over the list on Christmas day after things have settled down and decide what you really want to get.

Things go fast during the after Christmas clearance sales and not everything makes it to the clearance. If there is something you absolutely MUST have you better get it before Christmas. For everything else, number your list in order of which item you want most. Go for the items at the top of the list first before heading for the other items.

Personal Experience

Remember how I said our first Christmas was pretty slim in terms of decorations? We found a tiny Christmas tree in our rental house’s storage shed and set that up. We borrowed some ornaments from my parents.

I used some lights I had bought the day after a few Christmases ago (they were only a dollar a box when I bought them). That was about all we had in terms of decorations that Christmas.

The day after that Christmas we went out and bought an awesome tree for half off. We bought some glass bulb ornaments, again at half off and a few other items. We didn’t get any extra lights though. We had plenty of those and saw no reason to buy new ones.

Have you ever taken advantage of after Christmas or after holiday clearance sales? There is a ton of money to save if you can control yourself and buy for next year the day after the celebrations are over.

P.S. That picture up there actually is our first Christmas tree. My girlfriend took the awesome picture!

AT&T will love this post for sure but you all have to know this is possible. If you don’t ask for anything, you won’t ever get anything.

Last week I posted asking What Would You Do: Should I Get a Smartphone? Thanks to you all I came to the realization that it would be worth the money for me and it could help me be more productive during time in which I’d be doing nothing else. After all, I rarely spend money on myself.

There were only two problems I had to solve in order to get my first smartphone.

The first was my girlfriend. She has wanted a smartphone for months and I have kept telling her that due to her tight budget she couldn’t afford it and they weren’t really worth it anyway. Well now that I’m getting one I can’t exactly say that they aren’t worth it.  Her budget is still too tight to be able to afford one.

This is where Jason from Work Save Live came in to save the day. In the comments on my smartphone post he had a great suggestion and I plan to implement it! I am going to pay for her smartphone data plan for a year for an early present. Since her birthday, our anniversary and Christmas are all 14 days apart we’ll just call it an early present for one of these since they happen all at once.

The second problem I had to solve was the cost of the phone itself. I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the free phones and I wanted to make sure I got what I wanted. I am going to have this phone for at least two years so I might as well get one I’ll love. It came down to choosing between the HTC Vivid and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket.

I ended up going with the Samsung and it had a $150 price tag which was $100 more than the HTC Vivid. There was also the Samsung Galaxy S II for $100 less but it didn’t have 4G LTE like the Skyrocket and there were a couple other small differences that made me lean toward the Skyrocket. Now that I had decided which phone to get I had to figure out how to get a deal.

I did notice that they had the same phone refurbished for $9.99 online. This seemed like a great deal but they only had black and I wanted white. The warranty on refurbished phones was only 90 days instead of a year on new phones and as this was my first smartphone I really wanted a full year warranty.

I went to every AT&T store in the area, two Targets and Best Buy to see if I could get the phone cheaper than $150. I tried to haggle with all of the sales representatives but they wouldn’t budge. I found it cheaper on Amazon.com but it was still $125. I knew there was one more option but I had to plan my actions out to get the best discount possible.

I Called AT&T

I figured if I could call the cable company and get a discount why wouldn’t it work with AT&T. I knew I had to have my list of reason why I should get a discount on the phone and the price I was targeting in order to have a successful call. I figured since I had nothing to lose I would shoot for the stars and ask for the phone free.

So here were my selling points on why they should give me the phone. First, I was a loyal customer. We have had AT&T cell phones for as long as I can remember. We had them when they were Cingular so it has been at least 8 to 10 years.

Next, my contract had expired. If I wanted to I could take my number and move to Sprint, Verizon, Boost Mobile or any other company I wanted. Verizon also had some free phones I liked so I could use that to my advantage. The Samsung Galaxy S III (the next new Galaxy Phone) is set up come out in the next couple weeks which will likely lower the price of the Skyrocket.

Another thing in my favor was my contract expired a year ago. That was another year that AT&T didn’t have to subsidize a phone for me so I was actually saving them money. They just didn’t have any new phones I wanted and at the time I didn’t want a smartphone so I didn’t upgrade.

Finally, with a smartphone I would be getting a data plan and that would be even more revenue for AT&T. Discounting the phone would pay off for them in the long run. Now that I had my selling points it was time to make the phone call.

How I Pulled It Off

When I called AT&T I spoke with a nice lady but I’m pretty sure she was from a foreign country. She didn’t understand everything I said and spoke with a heavy accent but she was able to get the job done. I told her that I wanted to upgrade my phone to the white Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and that I was really hoping they could get me a better deal on the phone.

It took her a while to figure out which phone I wanted but once she finally got to it she told me it was going to cost $150 plus a $36 upgrade fee. I reiterated the fact that I was a loyal customer and I wasn’t bound by a contract and asked what she could do to keep my as a customer and get me a better deal on the phone. I reminded her that Verizon had some free phones that I like and they weren’t going to charge me a new customer fee like AT&T was trying to pull off with my upgrade fee.

After a long pause of many minutes she came back and said her manager had authorized her to give me a discount of $75 dollars. I thought this was pretty decent but it wasn’t my goal so I went through my list again and told her while I really enjoy being an AT&T customer and that I hoped I could continue to be an AT&T customer. I told her I really needed the absolute best deal possible and asked if she could with her manager again.

Another long pause ensued and she came back to tell me that her manager had relented and she could give me the phone for free AND waive the $36 upgrade fee. I was shocked but really happy. She gathered the rest of the information she needed and my first smartphone should be here in two to three business days. I verified what I thought I was getting and she confirmed it. I had succeeded.

I was surprised that at no point did the representative offer me the refurbished option. I think I would have had a pretty hard time arguing against them giving me a refurbished phone for free.

The key takeaway I’d like you to remember is that you’ll never get anything if you don’t ask for it. In this case, the worst thing that could happen would be that the representative said no and I would have to pay full price for the white version or buy the black version refurbished for $9.99. I can handle some rejection if there aren’t any serious consequences and the benefit ($186 plus tax) clearly outweighed the disadvantages (none).

So, next time you need a phone, call and ask for a discount on the phone. What is the worst that can happen?

I have followed this post up with two more you might like. Check out the Should I Get a Smartphone Update and iPhone 5: How Cell Phone Companies Can Afford to Give You a $450 Discount.

Will you ever try this out? Did you have a similar experience with a cell phone carrier?