Two trips to Wal-Mart in one day are hell

I needed a printer for school and I got a sales paper from Wal-Mart in the mail today. Their little marketing strategy worked on me. It was $39.63 for a Hewlett Packard deskjet 3740 printer and it was listed in the sales paper. Wow, that is cheap I thought. I spent over $100 for a printer for Rachel when I was married. I didn’t need anything fancy; just something to mainly print papers for school. I will also have to register online for the spring semester and will have to print out my class schedule from the internet.

So I drive all the way down there and pick up one of those printers. Did I mention I hate shopping and I especially hate Wal-Mart? Yes, this was a trip out of utmost need. I would never go down there unless I absolutely had to have something. This was the first time I have been shopping in months and months. I get everything home and unpack the box. WTF? No USB cable and no black print cartridge? Ah, I thought, no wonder this printer was so cheap. I should have read the fine print on the box but was in a hurry to get the hell out of that place.

I get in the car and drive back down there. A USB cable was $12.99 and the black print cartridge was $18.74. This little sale was quickly growing expensive. No way was I going to pay for that Belkin USB cable. Surely the cable from my old scanner that I haven’t used in years will work. I gambled and it did. I did have to buy the black print cartridge and that ate into my weekly grocery money. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches will be on the menu for a few lunches this week. Those print cartridges are such a rip off and by the look of the size of that thing they don’t last very long either.

I also needed paper and it was $4.74 for a pack of Hewlett Packard brand inkjet paper. I looked around and they didn’t have any generic brand packs of paper. I decided to check Family Dollar and hope they might have inkjet paper on the way home. Good news! They had 100 page packs for $1 each. At least I came out good on the paper front and the cheap paper works just fine.

The Total Bill ------- $65.20

That little sale of $39.63 almost doubled. That’s why I hate shopping and know that sales are rarely really bargains. I should know better but I did have to have that printer for school.