We Are Not Going to Help Them Make Vegetable Soup out of a Stone and Water

Posted on | August 25, 2010 | 8 Comments

Read the original Timeshare Story, as well as Timeshare Part 1 posted earlier this week.

Talking with the agent from Casablanca Express was a little like the folk story of Stone Soup. Here’s the synopsis: a hungry foreigner comes upon a village with only a pot and no one will share their food with him. So in order to feed himself, he declares that he will make the most delicious soup from water and a large stone. One by one a villager passes by, and he declares that the soup tastes fantastic, but needs something else…like garnish, seasoning, onions, etc. And one by one the villagers give him the ingredients, mostly because they are curious at the foreigner’s ability to make soup out of a stone. This goes on and on and on until he has a complete vegetable soup…with a stone in the bottom. Everything was supplied by the townspeople and nothing but a stone and water was supplied by the foreigner…and yet the people walk away amazed just the same.

                Let me tell you, once I figured out that I was helping the Casablanca woman make a stone and some water into vegetable soup, I put a stop to her shenanigans. I was particularly impressed with all of the sneaky ways she and Casablanca Express had concocted to get me to basically pay for the trip myself while simultaneously trying to make me believe that we were getting a free deal. In a moment of true spite, I almost accepted the original deal (option # 1) just to make them pay for everything and to show them that I was not like other people (who supposedly 99% of the time turned it down once they saw what they were getting). Hey, it would have made a great article, right—truck stop gambling extraordinaire?  

My Initial Decision         

I decided to pay for our own airfare and get the upgrade to a hotel on the strip. It still didn’t feel right to me, but Paul’s birthday was coming up and I had to make a decision. I just so happened to have a free airfare reward with Southwest anyway, so I would just be paying for his ticket. The rep booked us for the Riviera on the strip, gave us a Las Vegas discount  card (which accounts for all the buy one get one free offers on restaurants she had told me about—undoubtedly a free promotion they have with a partner), and said that we would get an $82 refund from our $100 upon checking in at the hotel.

Our Final Decision          

But then…I looked at the hotel we would be staying at and found that during the weekdays any person could book it for just $27 a night. I looked up the discount card and found that it was super cheap as well. I had just let these people get away with paying something ridiculously cheap like $70 for our 3 days 2 nights all expense trip to Las Vegas. I felt shammed!

Paul’s birthday was on August 6th, so I gave Paul his gifts. One of them would have included the Las Vegas trip, except that he kept pestering me with the details of the trip leading up to his birthday and when I finally broke down and told him everything he said “get our money back, babers!”

I called the woman back from Casablanca and asked for a full refund of our $100. She obliged. Case closed. Las Vegas we will see you another time.

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Comments

8 Responses to “We Are Not Going to Help Them Make Vegetable Soup out of a Stone and Water”

  1. Kevin@InvestItWisely
    August 25th, 2010 @ 12:26 pm

    My motto is that if they have to try to sell you the great deal, it’s very likely not such a great deal after all. I’m glad to hear that you got your money back.
    Kevin@InvestItWisely recently posted..A Few Simple Frugal Tips to Healthy Living- Eating- and Exercise

    [Reply]

    Roshawn @ Watson Inc Reply:
    August 25th, 2010 at 10:22 pm

    I like and abide by Kevin’s model as well :)

    [Reply]

  2. Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
    August 26th, 2010 @ 2:01 pm

    I’m glad you are happy with your decision! Mr. BFS and I have a rule to only spend after having all the facts and knowing we’ll have no regrets. That’s worked for us so far. :-)

    Maybe you can take a Vegas trip yourselves – we’re going next summer again (4th time) and it looks like I can still get us 3 nights and 4 days with airfare for $600-$700 total, which is way below our $2000 annual vacation budget. If we spend like we did last time, we’d “only” be looking at $1200-$1300 again and a really great trip. :-)

    [Reply]

  3. Weekend Reading: Canadian Housing Bubble Edition | Invest It Wisely
    August 27th, 2010 @ 2:02 pm

    [...] WE ARE NOT GOING TO HELP THEM MAKE VEGETABLE SOUP OUT OF A STONE AND WATER [...]

  4. Frugal Confessions
    September 4th, 2010 @ 9:51 am

    [...] Read about our decision on the Timeshare Prize here. [...]

  5. Frugal Confessions
    September 18th, 2010 @ 2:27 pm

    [...] may also like: Deal or No Deal or Which Deal, our Timeshare Update We are Not Going to Help them Make Vegetable Sou… Related Posts: Category: Personal Spending, Ridiculous CostTags: [...]

  6. Canadian Doomer
    May 5th, 2011 @ 1:41 pm

    LOL Now I always thought that the end of the story was that the VILLAGE had a big pot of soup – the stranger had a bowl of it, fished out his stone and went on his way.

    In other words, he paid for his share of the meal by showing them how to work together and pool their resource. The villagers came out winners in that story.

    :D

    [Reply]

    Amanda L Grossman Reply:
    May 5th, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    Hi Canadian Doomer!

    Well–that puts a nice spin on things. I guess I saw it in a negative light. Thanks for your insights:).

    [Reply]

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