If it’s free, you probably don’t want it

There’s an old saying that goes “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” which just means that you can’t get anything of value for nothing in return. If someone offers to buy you lunch, they probably want to sell you something. When I was a kid, my parents would take me and my sister to Sam’s Club to do some bulk shopping. The best part of this for me was the free samples. Being the chubby chap that I was, I would gorge myself on the lukewarm little piggies in BBQ sauce, mini-quiches filled with dodgy meat products and VERY questionable seafood salad that was not properly refrigerated. At the time, I couldn’t believe that they were just giving this stuff away. I’m sure the profit margins on those products were outrageous and that’s why they were pushing them. Or they were so overstocked that the just had to get rid of them. Either way, it is a great marketing trick to get ol’ Tubby here to try some and ask Mom and Dad to buy a gallon of King Triton’s Seafood Salad. The point is that you need to learn the difference between price and value. Just because something is affordable doesn't mean that it is a worthy investment. On the other hand, expensive doesn't always mean better. I’m sure those little piggies were pretty low in price. But they were even lower in value. And after what King Triton did to my stomach, I know for a fact the only thing I valued after eating that stuff was a bottle of Pepto. The next stop on my path was the bathroom!