So I really needed to get new tires for my Jeep. I called around today to get different quotes. One tire place gave a really awesome price for Wrangler P225 R75/16. Normally, the white lettering runs around $140 each. Most everyone I called gave me a discount of $125 to $129.99, until one of the tire places let me know that the black lettering was $69.99. Wow, what a difference. Not wanting to drive to far out of town to this particular tire place, I called back the tire place that gave me the lowest bid and told him the black lettering price. He said Okay. I got four tires, balancing, front-end alignment and taxes out the door of $339.20. I sure saved some money by calling around and negotiating my price first.

But, the kicker was that the guy at the tire place that actually did my tires was so impressed with my get-the-best-price tactics that he came to talk to me in the waiting room. He was wondering what I did for a living. I said "this". I actually have a couple degrees, but I stay home and raise my kids and treat my life like a business. I like to keep as much of my money as possible while getting the best price.

Most everything is negotiable. The only purchase I found not to be negotiable lately was Apple Mac Computer products. My son needed a new computer for recording. Apple knows they have the edge in that area, and were not willing to budge anywhere in price. The salesman tried by calling headquarters, but they wouldn't budge. They wouldn't even throw in a mouse. Well, what do you do. He needed to really upgrade his system due to how busy he is lately and the quality of his recording, so we bought it. My son is very satisfied with its performance; and if it goes on sale in the next 30 days, they will refund the difference.