Primed for Savings

You can't get money for nothing — unless you're the guys who sing that one song from the '80s or '90s or whenever it was — and money usually gets you more than, well, nothing. It's always a good idea, however, to try to get the most that your money can purchase. And, as we all know, the price of most things that you can buy with money is more of a suggestion (ever heard the acronym MSRP, or "manufacturer's suggested retail price"?) than a hard-and-fast rule.

The IT Insights Blog is in a deal-spotting mindset because tomorrow (July 11, or 7-11) is Prime Day. No, not Optimus Prime day, although there is a pretty awful — so we've heard — new Transformers movie in theaters right now. The Prime in question is Amazon Prime, the membership tier of the all-things-to-everyone online retailer that provides savvy shoppers with free two-day delivery, free streaming video content, and more.

Amazon Prime Day holds a special attraction for technology lovers because of the all the great deals that you can get on cool gadgets and gizmos. For example, Prime members can grab Amazon Echo, the voice-enabled smart speaker that launched the home assistant craze, for just $89, a discount of 50 percent off the standard price. Or grab a new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader for $30 off the going rate of $119.

Our point is not to trumpet the awesomeness of Amazon Prime, or Amazon in general. Just to remind the wise and prudent that you can get a lot more out of your hard-earned cashola if you wait for the opportune moment. Like the July 4th sale that just recently happened right here at TestOut Continuing Education. During that particular promotion, you could purchase a one-month subscription to any training course for just $4.

That's right: Just last week, we offered a monster savings of $75 off the standard single-course price of $79. Wow!

Now, before you get all cranky and in a "Thanks for letting me know too late to get the deal, jerks!" frame of mind, remember that the usual price, whatever it is, is just that: It's what the seller usually charges. We usually charge $79 per month to subscribe to one of our courses. (And that's a pretty sweet deal all by itself.) We don't always charge that price, however, and if you've been around these parts much, you'll know that there are, in fact, frequent sales.

So don't feel too bad if you missed out. There will probably be another sale in the future, and you can probably get a pretty great value for your money when it comes around. And just because we're awesome, if you want to be sure that you know the next time that there's a righteous deal, just scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your e-mail where it says "Sign Up for Our Newsletter." Sign up, and save money. It's as simple as that.