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11:02 AM
CJ
What if I told you that all these money saving sites were actually costing you more money than the savings they're promising?
Living Social or Groupon have to be one of the biggest offenders of costing you more than the alledged savings their touting.
Sure, they're got some great deals on things you didn't know you needed. 50% off hot air balloon rides? 75% off a Spa day? Discounted tickets to your local comedy club?
These offers sound awesome, but in reality, they're costing you money. Take my past experience with Living Social as a lesson in savings lost.
Living Social was offering this great deal on a 80's themed party boat ride around the city. Tickets only cost $25 per person. $25 for a night cruise ride around New York City? That's a fraction of what it would normally cost for a wonderful night out in NYC.
The only problem, by night's end, I wound up spending over $200.
As the great Desi Arnaz once said, "Lemme splain".
I picked up my wife from work (we were both based in White Plains, a 30 minute car ride from the city) and we headed to the location where our boat was docked.
Extra Cost #1 - Gas and Tolls. Normally, I'm not headed into NYC on a Thursday night, and don't normally need to fill up my tank and pay the insane bridge crossing tolls that allow you to get into Manhattan.
Once we got close to our destination, we needed to park the car.
Extra Cost #2 - Since we drove (carpooled for that matter, we had three others in the back of my old CR-V) we had to pay for parking. Final cost for parking led to me shelling out $45. That's just short of the total cost of the two boat tickets.
After sprinting four blocks to the dock, we all quickly headed over to the bar.
Extra Cost #3 - First round was on us, which only cost $40 (mixed drinks were $10 each, beers were $7). On a normal Thursday night, my wife and I are at Chili's restaurant, spending roughly $40 on dinner and drinks.
About half way through the boat ride, the Living Social folks announced that "food" was being served.
Extra Cost #4 - For $10, you could get something that resembled a meat and rice sub. Not only was the food overpriced, you should never ever ever eat a hot pie on a boat ride.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the event. We all had a blast, probably the most fun I had in a long time while in NYC. We never took into account the extra money we were about to plop down on an event that was billed as a saving extravaganza.
After the boat pulled back into port, and after dropping a couple extra Jacksons on beers and drinks, we all decided that the hot pie wasn't substantial food. We headed over to a 24 hour diner and ordered dinner (at 1 am, a hour I'm not quite familiar with anymore).
Extra Cost #5 - My wife and I ordered rueben sandwiches and I ordered another beer or two which came with a $35 price tag. I was hesitant to add this extra cost into the article, because technically, we would have needed to eat dinner anyway. However, we rarely spend $35 on ruebens and beer at one in the morning.
So, in closing, Living Social's promised savings actually put us back a weeee bit. Their $50 tickets to a boat ride wound up costing us more than we normally would have spent on a Thursday night. Sure, we had a great evening and we had a blast hanging out with co-workers, but the idea that we saved money that evening is completely ridiculous.
Living Social or Groupon have to be one of the biggest offenders of costing you more than the alledged savings their touting.Sure, they're got some great deals on things you didn't know you needed. 50% off hot air balloon rides? 75% off a Spa day? Discounted tickets to your local comedy club?
These offers sound awesome, but in reality, they're costing you money. Take my past experience with Living Social as a lesson in savings lost.
Living Social was offering this great deal on a 80's themed party boat ride around the city. Tickets only cost $25 per person. $25 for a night cruise ride around New York City? That's a fraction of what it would normally cost for a wonderful night out in NYC.
The only problem, by night's end, I wound up spending over $200.
As the great Desi Arnaz once said, "Lemme splain".
I picked up my wife from work (we were both based in White Plains, a 30 minute car ride from the city) and we headed to the location where our boat was docked.
Extra Cost #1 - Gas and Tolls. Normally, I'm not headed into NYC on a Thursday night, and don't normally need to fill up my tank and pay the insane bridge crossing tolls that allow you to get into Manhattan.
Once we got close to our destination, we needed to park the car.
Extra Cost #2 - Since we drove (carpooled for that matter, we had three others in the back of my old CR-V) we had to pay for parking. Final cost for parking led to me shelling out $45. That's just short of the total cost of the two boat tickets.
After sprinting four blocks to the dock, we all quickly headed over to the bar.
Extra Cost #3 - First round was on us, which only cost $40 (mixed drinks were $10 each, beers were $7). On a normal Thursday night, my wife and I are at Chili's restaurant, spending roughly $40 on dinner and drinks.
About half way through the boat ride, the Living Social folks announced that "food" was being served.
Extra Cost #4 - For $10, you could get something that resembled a meat and rice sub. Not only was the food overpriced, you should never ever ever eat a hot pie on a boat ride.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the event. We all had a blast, probably the most fun I had in a long time while in NYC. We never took into account the extra money we were about to plop down on an event that was billed as a saving extravaganza.
After the boat pulled back into port, and after dropping a couple extra Jacksons on beers and drinks, we all decided that the hot pie wasn't substantial food. We headed over to a 24 hour diner and ordered dinner (at 1 am, a hour I'm not quite familiar with anymore).
Extra Cost #5 - My wife and I ordered rueben sandwiches and I ordered another beer or two which came with a $35 price tag. I was hesitant to add this extra cost into the article, because technically, we would have needed to eat dinner anyway. However, we rarely spend $35 on ruebens and beer at one in the morning.
So, in closing, Living Social's promised savings actually put us back a weeee bit. Their $50 tickets to a boat ride wound up costing us more than we normally would have spent on a Thursday night. Sure, we had a great evening and we had a blast hanging out with co-workers, but the idea that we saved money that evening is completely ridiculous.
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