Thursday, September 03, 2009

The shopping was good Tuesday, so now we can start filming

What does one have to do with the other?

Well, I had wanted to try making a video to enter in the YouTube Twenty09 Challenge, which I learned about from reading David's blog. The idea is to show some really great thing that you could do with twenty dollars and nine cents. For instance, David is buying all of the food he's going to eat for the next twenty days with twenty dollars and nine cents.

I even got it into my head that I could make more than one video. I think the rules say that you can enter five videos. My problem with that being that for each video, I would be spending twenty dollars and nine cents, and that if I made five videos I would spending about a hundred dollars.

I don't have a hundred dollars.

So, I guess that I'm back to the idea of making one video. I had this idea that I was pretty happy with, and I started writing down what I should say and what we should take pictures of, etc....

And just when I was really starting to get into this, I discovered that I wasn't going to have twenty dollars and nine cents left over to buy this stuff to make the video.

So that was sad. I started trying to figure out another idea for a video, something that I could do with things that I had already bought, so that I didn't have to actually go out and spend twenty dollars and nine cents, just say that is the amount that I spent. So I had an idea for a second video, which I didn't like as much as the idea for the first video, cause it was very similar to another video, and I think that people already like that video and I wouldn't have a good chance of winning if I were in direct competition. But it is either make a video with stuff that I already bought, or give up on the idea entirely. So I started writing down what I would need to say in the second video.

And then I went shopping Tuesday. It was a long shot. A while back I had seen something that I wanted at Walmart for less money than what I had been paying at Home Depot. And I really didn't think anything about it. I just thought that Walmart was cheaper. I was in a hurry, and I didn't buy the stuff, I just made a mental note of it so I could come back later. Turns out the stuff was marked down for clearance, and that the regular price of the item is only eleven cents cheaper at Walmart than at Home Depot. Just that particular Walmart was trying to get rid of the item, and I couldn't even remember which Walmart I was in to go back and look to see if they had any left. I've just been going around looking at different Walmarts whenever I happen to be near one. I would either find the item at it's regular price, or I would find that the item had been marked down, but they were all gone.

So, I went to one more Walmart. I found the item, but there was no price on it. I asked an employee, but he didn't seem to know anything about prices, and he was busy moving things around. I went to look at other things. I had hoped to look at some Halloween stuff while I was out, but all they had was candy and t-shirts, no decorations yet. I looked at a few more things and then I was ready to leave.

On the way out, I saw that the item had been moved. This doesn't always mean that the item is on sale, but I thought that I would have a look anyway. The item had been moved next to another item that was on clearance for a dollar. And that was the only sign up, the one that said a dollar. Was the item I wanted also a dollar? It was normally three dollars and eighty-eight cents. The other item that was marked down was normally even more than that, so it wasn't impossible, just unlikely. I went to ask an employee for help. She said that the item probably was marked down to a dollar. She would go with me to the cashier and tell her it was a dollar.

So I grabbed three of the item. I needed four to make the video, but I was having trouble pushing the cart with just three. If the item turned out to be a dollar, I would make another trip and get the rest of them, even the ones I didn't need for the video. I think that there were only six or seven left anyway.

So we get to the cashier, and the item rings up at regular price. After a really friendly discussion, it was decided that the dollar sign should be taken down, and that I could buy the three that I had for a dollar each, but that I could not have the rest of the items unless I paid full price. I was happy with the three that I had. I paid and left. One of the employees watched my cart while I went to get my car.

I saved about nine dollars. I have most of the rest of what I need already at the house. I now need just one more of the item, which if I cannot find on clearance again I can buy at full price for about four dollars.

I think that I can handle four dollars. So I can make the first video, as soon as I go back and get one more of the item.

And I suppose that I can make the second video too, though I'm still thinking that it isn't as good of an idea as the first.

I think that I can start filming some of the video today, just to get started, and then maybe I can buy the item later today or tomorrow and film the rest of it this weekend.

This might actually be fun.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh no. you don't have to show how you are spending it. As long as you can capture the concept and idea, you are good. Just get the camera up and tell the world how you would spend it, that is just good enough.

Ananda girl said...

What a great bit of luck! I hope we get to see the finished video.

Unknown said...

Ananda girl. You should make one too: )