When did we as consumers give up on saving money?

I was the youngest of 5 children in a one income household.  So when we went to the grocery store it was a treasure hunting expedition of sorts.  After all, we were only looking to find products that matched the images on my mother's large stack of wrinkled coupons.  It might have taken us a half hour longer, it might have dictated what we ate, and it might have only saved us $5-$10.  But that was money in our pocket and that is what people did back then....maximized income through savings.

Flash forward to the present......we have now created a mentality where discount = junk or discount = scam.  Granted, there are more scammers now then there was back then.  A couple years ago I went to a place I saw in the penny saver to get my thermostat changed in my Honda.  The price was low....I didn't think inappropriately, but better than the competition.  I ended up getting the work done and the car overheated while driving the very next day!  I bring it back and the guy tells me that the deal I bought didn't include some part which they recommend because this very thing could happen.  So he wanted another $100 or so to finish the work.  That to me was a lot like going to a restaurant and ordering a delicious steak, only to find out that you have to pay extra for the silverware.  So I accept that there are more unscrupulous characters now than there was back then.

So there are more scammers....some would also say that we have trust issues because of the whole Bernie Madoff scandal.  I don't mean to sound insensitive because what happened to a whole lot of people is appalling and unconscionable to me.  That being said, that was not a discount or savings.  Bernie Madoff dangled the carrot of unbelievable returns....and guess what....they were not only unbelievable but also impossible. 

But does this mean that we should just stop shopping and go with the biggest, oldest company we can find?  Is MySpace better than Facebook?  Is Barnes and Noble better than Amazon or Itunes?  Is Blockbuster better than Redbox?  My point is, we need to question motives and realities of savings, but dismissing them altogether just prevents competition and innovation. 

So when I tell you that you can buy a house with me and I will give you $4000 at closing.  Ask me how is that possible or why would you do that.  Don't dismiss it outright and run to the nearest corporate conglomerate.