Great deals rarely last long. Perhaps that’s why so many people face the cold and darkness every Black Friday. The same principles driving those people can be applied to everyday purchasing decisions.

Preparing for a great deal comes in two forms: accumulating funds to cover the purchase and understanding the price point that makes a good deal a great one. Accumulating funds is critical if you truly want the best deal. Purchasing at a great price, only to have the balance sit on your credit card and accumulate huge interest charges quickly erodes the value of the deal. Knowing the normal and typical sale prices of the desired item will help you to quickly spot a deal too good to pass by.

There are a lot of ways to stay on top of the product you are watching, some general, some specific. You could periodically search on a price comparison site or configure a pricing alert. The alert will typically email you when your pricing criteria are met. For a specific item, you may want to look for a specific price alert site. When I was shopping for a Nintendo Wii, I refused to pay more than the MSRP. So I signed up with Wii Alerts to get a text message (on-screen and email alerts are also possible) as soon as a retailer had one in stock for the price I was willing to pay. A 3 AM text sent me running for my computer to make the desired purchase. At the time, Wii systems were selling on eBay for $500+. While Wii Alerts is great for video games and accessories, similar sites exist for many other products and services.

Proper preparation and understanding of prices are only going to get you so far. When the deal you are looking for finally comes along, it’s important to act quickly. I recently purchased a top-of-the-line car seat within 2 minutes of receiving an email that Target was carrying it for $40 with free shipping, even though it normally retailed for $280. Twenty minutes later, they were completely sold out. Since I knew it was a good deal and had the money in place, I had no reason to hesitate. As a result, I got the deal.

Shopping online allows us to get unbelievable deals, but only if we are willing to take advantage of them. At times it may be inconvenient (such as my middle of the night Wii purchase) but for the right price, it is certainly worth it. So get your money in place, understand the price that will get you to act quickly, and when the deal comes along, go for it!

What tools do you use to get great deals?

At the end of every college football season, athletes gear up for their final games, coaches prepare for the bowl season, and fans flock to see their favorite teams play.

Well, except that last part.

You see, this bowl season, fans aren't flocking so much as they are nesting, and bowl games are getting hurt because of it. Blame the economic landscape and high prices. This year's bowl season just won't be like it used to.

Signs of frugality are everywhere. Ticket sales are down for most every bowl. Travel packages are sitting around collecting dust. Fan gear is staying right on the shelf, thank you very much. This bowl season is unlike any other due to its lack of excess. Where is the pomp and circumstance? Where is the rabid fandom? Where is the money? (That last question was submitted by the chairman of the Humanitarian Bowl).

And it's not like all of these bowls can stand a year or two without support. These games have names like the Emerald Bowl and the EagleBank Bowl - long on originality, short on credibility and usefulness. If no one shows up to these games, these games might not show up on the schedule after this season. Hundred-thousand dollar losses don't go over too well in Emerald Bank land.

For a better look at just what some of these bowls are facing, let's examine the case of our friends at the Humanitarian Bowl. The H-Bowl, as it's affectionately called by locals and non-wordsmiths, began back in 1997, is played in Boise, Idaho, and sponsored by Roady's truck stops (of which there are none in the Boise area). The home team, the Boise State Broncos, has played there multiple times, which was great for the bowl game and great for the local economy. However, the H-Bowl let the Broncos go this bowl season so that BSU could play in a more prestigious, less truck-stop-sponsored bowl down in San Diego, and the Humanitarian got a matchup between Nevada and Maryland as a result.

Bummer.

Nevada put together a decent season, winning seven games behind one of the most exciting quarterbacks in the West. Maryland was in the thick of the ACC title race on the East Coast before falling at the end. The game could very well be an exciting contest between two schools with very different styles of play.

Not that anyone from either Nevada or Maryland cares to see it.

Ticket sales for the Humanitarian Bowl are lagging, which is putting it nicely. Each school is allotted at least 3,000 tickets to sell to their local fan base. In a perfect world, these tickets would be snatched up immediately by players' families, students, and season ticket holders. But in the very imperfect world of the Humanitarian Bowl, this is not happening, and how.

Maryland has sold less than 1,000 tickets to the game. Nevada has sold about 100. Can you feel that Humanitarian Bowl excitement? It's contagious! (But ultimately, easily remedied by DayQuil.)

What is the H-Bowl to do? Bowl organizers have pinned their hopes on local Boise residents, planning on the allure of "hey, look, football!" to draw in about 20,000 or so non-partisan fans. Boiseans have done it before. They don't mind braving the cold so long as there'll be hot dogs and legalized violence. This is also why the roller derby is so big there.

The Humanitarian Bowl is one of several smaller bowls struggling to get tickets sold and seats filled. In tough economic times, people have decided against traveling and supporting their team, and they instead have opted for sitting at home, supporting their team.

The big bowls aren't immune, either. Word spread quickly last week about ticket prices for the Orange Bowl, which is one of college football's most prestigious bowl games. As one of the five games that are involved in the BCS selection process, the Orange Bowl is a huge money-maker and one of the biggest bowls in all the land. Try telling that to stubhub.

The online ticket agency is selling tickets for three dollars...OBO. Three dollars is unheard of for a college bowl game. These days, three dollars is unheard of for a high school football game! But that's what the Orange Bowl finds itself with: game tickets for less than a game program.

The root of the problem could be traced to a number of different factors. First and foremost is the economy. That sucker is rough, and it undoubtedly has a say on what happens with the bowls. No money, no 50-dollar midfield seats. But who can pass up three-buck nosebleeds? The only thing you have to sacrifice for those is a night out at Wendy's.

Another factor bunching the Orange Bowl's pants is the two teams involved. While the other big bowls get matchups like Oklahoma vs. Florida and Penn State vs. USC, the Orange Bowl will have Cincinnati (yes, they have a football team) and Virginia Tech (no, they aren't fun to watch) duking it out to the delight of people with direct ties to Cincinnati and Virginia Tech - and no one else. When you look at the teams, three dollars might be high-priced.

Yet despite the doom-and-gloom forecast of ticket sales at bowls around the country, the Grim Reaper doesn't seem to be partying with any of these bowls. They'll survive.

What gives? Small attendance means small gate receipts, and small gate receipts mean terrified bowl organizers. But these organizers have been around second-rate, chotchky bowl games forever. They don't need people watching their bowl game for it to be profitable. The economics of bowl games is like the Twilight Zone of sports.

Bowl games make their money off of bowl sponsors and television contracts. And bowl sponsors and TV sets don't buy tickets. Games make deals with advertisers months (and sometimes, years) before the actual game is played, meaning that they could basically set their budget in the college football preseason, well before the bowls have played. TV contracts are set early, too, so that the networks can plan what games they'll be airing and when the games will run.

One of the bowl games' biggest coups is bowl sponsorship. Almost everyone has noticed this phenomenon creeping into the bowl schedule. The Capital One Bowl is sponsored by Capital One (obviously). The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl has the backing of chips. Nearly every bowl has a title sponsor that hands out thousands to be attached to the game.

Fine by bowl organizers. The money from the sponsors, advertisers, and TV execs keeps these bowls afloat.

And at times like these, this type of money flow is more important than ever. No one might be going to bowl games, but that doesn't mean that bowl games are going anywhere. Disappointing ticket sales aren't good, yet they aren't the end of the world. So long as the bowl games have their sugar daddy sources of dough pumping life into them, the bowls will be pumping life into the holiday season.

Well, maybe not "life." But at least, Humanitarianism.

References

• yahoo.com
• idahostatesman.com

It isn’t only employees who should shop around for better prices and benefits coverage before the end of the year. Elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries who evaluate different prescription drug plan providers also stand to get better coverage for lower prices, or at least a lower increase in the prices they pay.

The Associated Press reported that among the top 10 drug plans (based on enrollment), the average monthly premium in 2009 will increase anywhere from 8 percent to 64 percent. Cost increases are cited to be due to higher demand, increased drug costs, and the fact that plan providers who previously undercharged will be adjusting prices accordingly. Even with rising costs, the most popular plans were reported to be cutting the number of covered prescriptions by about 9%.

It’s easy to choose a plan and stick with it, but the effort to find a more appropriate provider may be worth the effort. The prescription drugs that you are taking as well as those covered by plans may change on at least a yearly basis. Sticking with a plan because it covers a medication you used when you originally chose a plan may no longer make sense.

Manual spending decisions are often made with more consideration than automated ones. Assuming that the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan you used last year will continue to be the best option for your money (and your health) is a risky proposition. As with all benefits, a careful review during the selection period will allow you to make the best choice. Changes to your Medicare Prescription Drug Plan provider for 2009 can be made through December 31, 2008.

Have you reviewed your coverage this year?

Automation is one of those concepts that can significantly improve your financial situation. This same power also has the potential to make things worse.

The power behind automating your personal finances is that it requires very little effort. After initial setup, the process happens automatically with little or no extra effort required. Saving through a company-sponsored 401(k) plan is one such example. After setting up your contribution and investment choices, money is automatically withdrawn from your paycheck without you having to do any additional work. You should periodically monitor your investment choices, but the process of saving has been taken out of your hands. Many automated finance topics, including 401(k) contributions, were covered in the bestselling book, The Automatic Millionaire, by David Bach.

While that book made a compelling case for automating your finances, you should be careful not to automate bad financial habits as well. A classic example of this is the gym membership that automatically drafts your membership fees from your checking account each month. I know that I would have cancelled my membership much sooner if I had to drive to the gym each month and hand over cash. That would have been much more painful and made me realize that the only reason I ever went to the gym was to pay for a membership I never used. Since the process was automated, I hung on much longer before canceling. Having other bills paid automatically can save time, but should only be done for expenses you definitely would have chosen to continue paying anyway.

The truth is that automating your finances is simply a way to get around your own laziness. It works well because once the initial setup is done, additional effort would be required to cancel the process. All things being equal, most of us choose inaction over action. To make the most of automating your finances, try to use it for as many savings and as few spending methods as possible.

Which expenses have you automated?

This is the time of year when those of us lucky enough to be eligible for benefits through our employer have the opportunity to choose benefit options for next year. The comparisons we do should extend beyond those options offered to what we could get on the open market.

In most cases, the prices and levels of service offered by your employer may be your best choice. Depending on the size of your company, the fact that they are buying benefits in bulk often allows them to offer benefits at significantly lower prices than you could hope to find on your own. For health insurance, this is almost always the case. Other benefits may not be so clear cut.

This issue came to my attention when I happened to get a life insurance quote through an online quote comparison site, Accuquote.com. I have traditionally purchased term life insurance through my employer to supplement the 2x salary coverage they offer employees free of charge. The weekly price I was paying for this added coverage seemed so inexpensive that I never thought twice about buying it in this way. Seeing the results from Accuquote quickly changed my mind. I was able to purchase twice the life insurance coverage through them for about two-thirds the price I had been paying through my employer. Getting much more for less is always something that I try to exploit.

I don't believe that my employer was intentionally trying to overcharge me, but rather that by offering a benefit to all employees (with varying risks, etc.) this benefit isn't tailored to my specific situation and needs. As a result of this discovery, I re-evaluated all of my benefits before choosing to pay for them through my employer. In the end, I still purchased many of my benefits through my employer, but went with third-party companies for many others. Before you blindly accept the benefits offered by your employer to you, the captive audience employee, shop around to ensure that those benefits offer the services you need at the best price possible.