Apologies for the 6-week disappearance. I ran out of juice. I tried to do too much at once. Consistency is harder than I thought, and I’m still striving to become better.

And now, onto the fun stuff.

Pilgrims didn’t have turkeys for Thanksgiving. The poor Pilgrims could barely survive in the harsh winter, and they were lucky to yield any crops, let alone have turkeys. So why is turkey associated so heavily with Thanksgiving?

Marketing. Yup, some farmers had a few too many extra turkeys and sought ways to get rid of them. And they deployed a brilliant marketing strategy that worked! (Read more here.)

Currently (right before Thanksgiving day), turkeys at Costco cost $0.99/lb. I remember last year the price of turkey plummetted on the day after Thanksgiving to $0.33/lb or $0.20/lb, I can’t remember exactly. But it’s significantly cheaper!

That’s how I’m planning on eating turkey this year. Not on Thanksgiving Day, but after. And I’ll have plenty of turkey meat loaded up.

Don’t follow the trend. That’s stupid.

More so, it’ll cost you. When everyone wants something, that drives prices up. The price of turkey is the perfect example.

Other examples of off-season deals:

Notice that right before and right after a school semester ends, the prices in/out of the college towns skyrocket to 3-4x? Unfortunately, college kids don’t really have much choice if they want to go home and see their families.

But for working professionals without kids (like myself), I can take advantage of this by going traveling during November or February, right in the middle of school semesters.

Want to go to Disneyland on Christmas Day? Well, so does everyone else. Disneyland has peak-pricing and block-out dates for pass-holders for a reason. Go on a workday to take advantage of lower prices if possible.

What better example than the market to explain supply and demand! When everyone thinks a stock has great promise, that will push demand up and prices up. The risk is lower, and thus the reward is also lower.

Now, I’m not saying that we should completely invert our lives and ignore all trends. Because we humans are social creatures, trends will inevitably exist everywhere.

Trends is a form of safety and confirmation by the crowds, but it can also dangerously mislead large numbers of people.

Find your balance between following trends and going off-season.