Lowe’s mailed Phillip this coupon, imploring him to deny logic and spend $250 to get what at first glance appears to be the maximum savings. But Phillip used some mathemagicianal reasoning and discovered that it pays more to spend less in the case of this coupon set.

He writes:

I received this Lowes coupon in the mail. While I am grateful for any kind of discount (especially this time of year), I noted something a little odd.

When you spend at least $50 you get $10 off or 20%.

When you spend at least $250 you get $25 off or 10%.

At first glance I think most people would be inclined to try and spend $250 to get the “maximum savings” but percentage wise using the $10 off $50 purchase is a better deal.

I am an avid fan of The Consumerist and wanted to pass this information on to help prevent others from falling into a spending trap.

The coupon seems like a trick question on an IQ test. How have you used latent math skills on the fly to save you some green?

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