A few years ago AARP sent us our first piece of mail. I wasn’t even fifty. I thought, “You bastages! Don’t bug us until we’re 65!” My husband on the other hand was excited. He had heard all the marketing campaigns they’ve got on television and how much they “can” save you. Alas, my husband is easily sold by these marketing ploys. I know because when I sleep in on the weekend he and my son watch, well, infomercials. I can look forward to my weekend routine beginning with a recap of what they “have seen on TV”. When they tell me about the latest gadget, bed, or fixit goop being sold I can always tell by the way they explain it. The first time they explained an item they saw, they went into so much detail about the construction, and the abuse it can take I finally asked them; Have you guys been watching infomercials? My husband stopped, thought and sheepishly said yes.
So without further ado my husband turned around the offer of a one year subscription for the low price of $12.99. And I mean no ado what-so-ever. No research to find out how and why they save us money, precisely. So I said we should keep track of when, where and how they save us money to see if it pays for itself, otherwise it’s useless to us. We saved $8 once the first year, costing us $4.99 to be in the AARP club, group, society or whatever. I equate it to OLD. We do travel but we are certainly not the jet set. We don’t do enough vacationing to use the hotel discounts at all. Now if we could save even 10 percent at the Holiday Station Store, or Cub Foods, that alone would be worth it. He didn’t renew.
We still get the AARP magazine, I suppose in the hopes we will come back, not to mention the money they get from the adds in it.I know insurance companies pay big bucks for marketing and so do attorneys and financial advisors. Everyone wants our money in their pocket! Ah, capitalism. I am still only 53
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