Sale, or not?

This morning I got an e-mail from a sewing pattern company. It is a reliable one from which I've bought patterns before. So I was excited when I saw "All Butterick Patterns 5.99." I went to the site and chose 3 cute patterns for children's outfits.
And then I got to thinking...what about shipping charges? The regular Butterick site doesn't charge shipping in the USA (and Canada, I think). Would the sale price make up for the shipping charges?
So I opened up my calculator and did some math. My three patterns, including shipping would be $24. 32 from the first site. Same three patterns from the mfr's site...$20.13. This does not include sales tax, of course, but I assume it would be the same for either site--or at least close. Well, there's a savings of a little over $4, at least.
And speaking of shipping deals. Sometimes, a site wants you to spend X dollars to get free shipping. This is great if you're really in the market for X dollars worth of stuff. I needed some muslin and some white cardstock, which I bought from Joann's. In order to qualify for free shipping, I would have had to spend almost $20 more...to save about $7. So, needless to say, I paid the shipping.
It's all a math game, but in the end, the idea is to keep as much in your pocket as possible.

A commercial that annoys me

Too many commercials annoy me. Here's one of them. Anyone see the Kentucky Fried Chicken one where they express shock at a weeknight family dinner? Okay, I like take-out as much as the next person. We're having pizza tonight, and we probably have Chinese at least every other week. But this commercial makes it sound like people never, ever cook during the week. Uh...what are they living on, PB&J sandwiches? Nobody's asking anyone to be Rachel Ray (although her stuff is supposed to fast to cook), but the idea that cooking for your family isn't the norm is just stupid. There are plenty of us, I believe, who manage to fall between Martha-Stewart-perfect and open-a-can-of-Spaghettios. Either that, or I'm living in a fantasy world where the average family can afford to go out to dinner every night.