I ventured out to a place I rarely set foot in and lived to tell the tale. A spot that glorifies an unending orgy of advertisements and instant-gratification: the mall. I can remember enjoying the mall as a teenager. It was a treasure trove of possibilities and quick distractions. I could find a quantity of delicious calories in the form of Jamba Juice or see what clothing I should be wearing. I could even delude myself into thinking I was sporty by looking at weight sets, sampling protein supplements, and getting advice on a new golf club.

This time I went in with a mission: to get a year’s worth of socks for ~$20. I had a definite need for some new ones. I pointed out some holes in Honey Shrugged’s socks and she courteously did the same for me. So I patiently waited for a deal to pop up. Sure enough, Slickdeals came to the rescue. As I passed by the kiosks, the store fronts, the endless screens, and cardboard cut outs all alerting me to the endless diversions available I couldn’t help but think “look at all of this useless crap.” I’m not sure what the difference is between the average consumer and myself; but somehow I can happily browse Fatwallet and Woot without feeling the need to jump on every offer. Even the pushy salespeople peddling stickers for my cellphone didn’t catch my fancy.

It made me feel wiser than normal walking past people in line for a giant overpriced carb-loaded pretzels and sympathetic for the parents who bring their young children. It’s almost an indoctrination process or a trial-by-fire to withstand having your children beg for every shiny object they see. I can’t imagine taking my own children here unless there was some sort of emergency. Why would I want to expose them to the refined advertising process that works on many adults?

I zigged and zagged to make my way quickly through the mall since I parked in a seemingly different time zone. All said and done it took about 30 minutes – not too shabby. It helped that I had pre-ordered my socks for store pickup. No delivery fee for me thank you very much. Plus, why would I want to miss out on earning some extra cashback through ebates? This transaction alone netted me $0.60! I’d need an extra $804 left in the bank for a full month to make that much in interest. Naturally I used a cashback credit card as well giving me an additional $0.20 or so.

These may not seem like a big deal but it all adds up. I don’t need to buy any more socks for at least another year. I saved major cashola by buying on sale, using ebates, and a cash back credit card. If I had just bought out of need I’d probably have gone through Amazon (best price is $30 for two) and confirmed this was the best price with an excellent Firefox plugin called Invisible Hand. It advertises itself thusly:

InvisibleHand gets you the lowest price on shopping & flights. Automatically. InvisibleHand shows a discreet notification when there are lower prices available on the product or flight you’re shopping for. It gives you a link directly to the lowest price.

Let’s check the math. JC Penny normally charges $20 for a six pack or $15 each if you buy two. Slickdeals provided me with a fantastic $10 off coupon code. I used ebates and a credit card to maximize my cashback (on my minimized expenditure). So my purchase looks something like this: $40 -10 -10.02 = $19.98. $1.75 was added for evil sales tax but I saved about $0.80 through cash back. Accordingly $19.98 + 1.75 – 0.80 = $20.93 for 12 pairs of socks ($1.74 each).