When you want something, do you ask for more than you want?

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Many years ago, I worked in the Accounts Payable department of a medium-sized home builder. As with any job, there were problems. We constantly had people calling us for late payments, no payments, incorrect payments. Then we had the people we worked with that never approved bills, didn't get bills to us, promised checks to people without telling us. We seemed to get it from both ends. Sometimes it was very stressful and one day I just snapped. I was tired of the pulling in every direction, knowing that it just wasn't working. I walked out, not sure if I'd be going back. I had quite a few of the guys in the field as well as some of the contractors call me telling me they'd help meet any demands I had. Well, I thought about it that whole weekend and wrote up a list of "demands" that would be my conditions of staying on. This list covered one sheet of college lined paper, front and back. I listed EVERYTHING - even things I KNEW I wasn't going to get. I figured they'd never give me everything I wanted, so I had to put things on there that they could say "No" to. Well, it worked. There was maybe one thing I really wanted and didn't get, but I got everything else that I thought was important, while letting them save face and feel like they compromised when they declined some of the requests. So, when you're presenting your list of demands, do you put "extras" on there that you know you wont get? Or do you just ask for what you want and hope you get it all?