Telemarketers

Today, I find myself getting super annoyed when the 1-800 number shows up on my phone and its telemarketers are calling my asking if I want a free trial of a new product. This is something that I immediately pick up the phone and then hang up the phone right away so that I don't have to talk to them. I begin to wonder if this is helping or hurting the companies that are calling me. I can only imagine that this is hurting the companies because when I do pick up I tell them to take me off the calling list. And I wonder when people answer if they will really try the product or not. As the technology progresses, I wonder if companies will switch the sending text messages or if they will opt to use Facebook or Twitter.

Do you answer the telemarketers when they call? Or do you let it go to voice mail, or pick up and hang up? Do you think that companies will switch to texting or Facebook?

Name Brand or Generic Brand?

Before I came to college, and I wasn't on a very strict budget, I found myself going to the grocery store and buying all of the name brand cereals, pasta, juices anything that I would get. After coming to college and being on a budget, I found myself instead of buying the name brand, buying the generic brand that the store carried. I know for things like cereal and pasta, there was at least a $2 difference in the product. Two dollars may not seem like a whole lot, but when it comes down to it, it adds up very fast. If you took every product in your cart and took $2 off everything, you could save a lot of money.

Do you find yourself going for the name or generic brand? Do you need to spend the extra money on the name brand to have the brand or do you just not even think about it?