Eight Tips For Looking Great On A Budget

Looking great on a budget takes time and patience, but you can have it. Here are some tips to help:

1.  Have a budget! You can’t seriously talk about looking good on a budget if you don’t have a budget. Know how much you’ll spend on clothes each year, plan your spending carefully to get the most from it and continue to adhere to your limit.

2.  Buy clothes that fit. No one looks good in clothes that are too low—or way too big for that matter, though that is rarely a problem. Generally, it costs no more to purchase clothes in the proper size than in buying clothes a size or two too small. Clothes that are the correct size will last longer. Don’t buy clothes that are too small as an incentive to do away with weight. Buy clothes that fit as a reward for losing weight!

3.  Shop seasonal sales. Nordstrom (it.Ly/ivSKd), famous for cool clothes and high prices have two sales each year for women and kids, two separate scales for men, and one for everyone each year. If you need to see professional for work, save you money on these sales. Many other fine stores also have sales with substantial discounts on a scheduled basis. Select the web sites for detail.

4.  Purchase a few nice things. For work, church and other occasions when you want to do your best, buy a few nice articles of clothing rather than having lots of things from discount stores. The higher quality clothes should last longer and make, you look better than having lots of outfits from discount stores.

5.  Buy versatile clothes. Don’t purchase any item of clothing that you can only wear with one outfit; look for clothes that you can mix and match. Five shirts and five pants that you can wear only in matching sets give you five outfits. Five shirts and five pants that you can wear interchangeably will give you 25 outfits.

6.  Take excellent care of your clothes. You don’t need expensive furniture and cedar wood hangers for your clothes, but they shouldn’t be tossed in piles on the floor. Wash, fold and hang your clothes so you can see what you have, find what you want and protect it all.

7.  Two words: machine washable. If you build your wardrobe around clothes you can wash and dry at home, you’ll typically spend less on clothes, and much less on caring for them. You’ll also avoid the temptation to wear dry clean only clothes too often (showing up to serve in a wrinkled suit with ketchup stains—not pleasant).

8.  Shop thrift stores and consignment shops. Don’t purchase anything in a thrift store you won’t wear; you’re just wasting your money. You can often find clothes for about 20% of the retail price in thrift stores, saving you 80%. Remember, once you wear the clothes you buy extra in a department store, they’re used, too.

Everyone can be accomplished with a budget. You can decide whether to spend a fortune and not look respectable. Perform the following tips and you’ll always be pleased with your look and proud of your wallet.

Seven Ways Your Family Can Be Doubly “Eco” Minded (Economically And Ecologically)

There is growing social pressure on all of us to carry out our part for the environment, but some of the pressure we feel conflicts with the economic pressure on our families. Here are some ideas that are both ecologically and economically friendly.

1.  Reuse and repurpose everything possible. Your younger children should certainly have some new things, but hand-me-downs from older siblings are a wonderful tradition that families have used for generations. Before throwing just about anything in the trash or even in the recycle bin, consider for just a moment if there isn’t another immediate use for that item—especially one that would help you avoid having a purchase. Nonetheless, don’t save junk on spec! That’s a recipe for hoarding!

2.  Donate your used stuff to a thrift store like Goodwill so that it doesn’t end up in the landfill and you’re not paying to store stuff, you don’t utilize. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll find a lot of stuff in your home that you never ever use. Don’t blow it by filling the space with extra junk—just enjoy the openness created by having less clutter around the house, fewer shirts in the drawers and toys that have all been outgrown.

3.  Sell your cherished old stuff on eBay (but.Ly/FSAEQ) or Craigslist (it.Ly/dq4otk) (use the former for things that you can easily ship and the latter for things that would be expensive or difficult to send out).

4.  Walk to the grocery store. Not only will it save on gas and protect the environment, but you’ll find you can’t carry nearly as much, forcing you to make wise decisions in the store. If you have lots of kids or live too far from the store, try organizing your errands carefully to cut down on the miles you drive.

5.  Buy groceries in bulk (if you’ll eat them). Buying in bulk not only tends to be cut the cost per unit down, but often results in less packaging per unit, reducing the landfill pressure. A big jar of peanut butter, for instance, may cost half as much per ounce as the small jar. In the landfill or in the recycling process, one gigantic jar will end up doing less damage than the set of smaller jars required for an equivalent amount of peanut butter.

6.  Use Skype (it.Ly/M3QgK) or a Hangout on Google+ (bit.Ly/NSNFGC) to see far away friends and family instead of going see them. (You can do this for business, too.) The energy saved by avoiding travel can be huge!

7. Go gets a train instead of a plane. Be careful, it isn’t always cheaper, and in the U.S. it is rarely faster, but a train ride could be a real adventure and is much greener than air travel.

There are a lot more ways to be green and cheap. What do you suggest?

Tracking Your Spending Empowers You

It doesn’t matter how you do it, but if you carefully track your spending and savings you’ll likely improve your results. There is an old adage in management theory: what gets measured is done and what gets measured and reported getting done better.

If you carefully track your spending, it will allow you to see how you’re spending your money and make strategic changes. Consider the following examples:

1.  Credit card statements do not represent a substitute. Reviewing your credit card statements when they end up wise for a variety of reasons, including detecting fraud, but it isn’t a substitute for carefully tracking your spending by category. Just reviewing the statements won’t tell you how much you’ve spent dining out or on your favorite hobbies (even if the card statement can separate restaurant charges from grocery stores, it can’t tell whether you bought a new drive, a bag of groceries or baby clothes at Walmart).

2.  Much of our spending is discretionary. Because we make choices about most of our spending each month, it is important to track it. We make hundreds of purchase decisions each month. Without tracking our spending, we have no practical way of knowing whether we’ve overspent in one area or not. This is especially true for the categories of spending that are the most flexible, like entertainment and dining out.

3.  Income and spending are divided. The problem is compounded for families because there may be several people both earning money and spending it. How will you know what your spouse spent if you’re not tracking the spending and sharing the data?

4.  Real time reporting is better than periodic reviews. The closer you can need to go to track spending as it happens the better. Optimally, you’d be able to update the reports daily so your spending for the 20th day of the month is guided by knowing what was spent the first 19 days. Even monthly reporting is better than nothing because understanding where you overspent last month can help will bring spending under control next month.

5.  Technology makes it easy. In this electronic world where much of your spending is being tracked by others anyway, it is relatively easy to track your personal spending. Mint.Com provides on-line software that tracks all of your spending in real time at no charge. You can customize reporting and planning tools to make everything simple and easy. Quicken also offers software, which you can download for a fee, with more robust capabilities and that can download data from the internet in real time to enable you to track your spending.

6. Tracking spending may lead to budgeting. Even if you never set up a formal budget, if you track your spending carefully and regularly, you’ll begin to adjust your spending to fit your long term goals. Eventually, tracking your spending guides your spending, having the effect of a budget and empowering you to accomplish what you want with your money.

Spending is simpler and more natural than saving. If you want to do more of the latter and less of the former, tracking your spending is a powerful way to take control of finances. With today’s technology, it is almost effortless and it’s free. Just a few hours each month can help you take control.

Making Christmas Meaningful On A Budget

Christmas shouldn’t be a matter of presents, but our modern culture, some people only know Christmas for gift giving. Throughout much of Asia, Christmas is celebrated enthusiastically. Christmas carols are played around China, where I went through a year in 2011-2012, but no one there knows what the holiday originally celebrated. For many people, there is no meaning in Christmas.

If you are in a position where Christmas needs to become more modest than in the past, there is a point you can do. If only so you can avoid the holiday credit card hangover, you can remake Christmas this year to be less expensive and more meaningful. By making Christmas more about giving than getting, you can make savings and make a happier holiday.

Consider this plan to help you enjoy the Christmas season in a whole new way:

1.  Plan as a family. As the holidays approach, gather the family and discuss your desire to obtain a more meaningful Christmas—one that won’t cost as much. Have everyone in the family helps to a discussion of how you can make something kind for a significantly less fortunate family? You may wish to review a one-time service project for a family you know, an evening serving meals at the homeless shelter during the Christmas season, or perhaps a twelve-days of Christmas anonymous surprise for a family in your neighborhood.

2.  Involve everyone in service. Do not forget to involve everyone in the family in doing the service. Youngest to oldest, everyone should participate. By including everyone in the plan, you can help each one of your children reframe the holiday season.

3.  Be enthusiastic. As you plan, organize and execute your holiday service, feel that way about gusto. Act as if you, personally, is enjoying every minute. Don’t ever give your children the impression that the service you’re doing is a chore or a take the trouble to you. Anticipate joy and you will experience joy. If your children see you happy about this, they will search for the spirit of it as well.

4.  Shop modestly. As you do here your Christmas shopping, cut back from past years. Focus on buying the things that your children will need, like new clothes. Work strategically to acquire only things that your family will truly appreciate.

5.  Don’t surprise them. If you are making cuts sharply on the Christmas shopping budget this year, don’t let your kids find out Christmas morning. Ensure that they understand that your service activity is related to cutting back on the extravagant Christmas spending.

6.  Share your faith. Whatever your faith, are ready to exchange with your children at Christmastime. Help them to find out your worldview. Provide them with the gift of your faith. They’ll never forget the lessons you find out how.

By framing your holiday with a service to people who are genuinely less fortunate, you’ve given meaning to the holiday and satisfaction to your children, regardless of the scope or scale of what’s under the tree. You can, with less money, give your kids a happier and more meaningful holiday.

I Just Got A 10% Raise; What Should I Do With The Money?

Being aware with a race may determine whether or not it even mattered. If all you do with a raise is to spend more money on eating out and entertainment, it won’t matter much to your family in the long run that you even got the raise. Being strategically with the money can get a big impact on your family’s lifestyle in the long run.

Consider which of these circumstances best describes your situation and follow the guide to obtain the most out of your raise.

1.  Awash in debt: if you can barely make ends meet each month because you’re over extended, with credit card debt, car loans and maybe even a payday loan or two that are eating away at every penny you bring home. Put the money from the rise toward the smallest debts—probably the payday loans—to quickly reduce the monthly outflow for debt payments.

2.  Barely scraping by: if you’ve been frugal forever and have successfully stayed out of debt, but you haven’t accumulated much and don’t own a home, now is a great time to put your focus on buying a home. Put the race toward a savings account for a down payment and get serious about putting your family in a stable, permanent situation.

3.  House poor: if you just bought a home and haven’t been able to do much else and haven’t even been contributing to your 401k or saving for your kids’ college, now is the time to start contributing to the 401k and/or saving for your children’s college education

4.  Still driving the clunker: if you’ve been driving the same car for a decade it would be tempting to implement out and get a brand new car on credit. The dealer will make it more convenient for you. Don’t fall into that temptation. Save for six months, take the cash plus the clunker and upgrade to a car you’ll be happy to be able to be able to drive for a few more years while you continue saving for a car you’ll really be excited to drive. Make your car payment to yourself!

5.  On top of the world: if you have everything under control, the cars are payable for, retirement savings and college savings are on track, think how you can do some good with the money. When you have been blessed it is your great opportunity to become a blessing to others.

While none of these situations may describe yours perfectly, you may come out some ideas about how to use your raise. Making decisions that will benefit your family in the long run will ultimately bring the greatest happiness. A few extra basketball games or dinners at Applebee’s won’t provide stability that helps families build for the future. You want your kids to ride in a stable home, get good grades, go to college and become healthy adults, grateful to their parents for the sacrifices they’ve made. Envision the future you really want and then go build it.

When Renting Rather Than Owning Makes Sense

For homes and cars, it generally starts a fresh financial sense to buy them rather than rent them—over the long haul. Many rent-to-own programs help families double or triple the amount of money they are required to spend on computers, furniture, televisions and other home furnishing. Saving for and purchasing for cash your computers, furniture and televisions is much wiser than using a rent-to-own program. But sometimes renting makes sense.

Here are some examples.

1.  Boats: Unless you live where you can boat every week and you’re sure you will boat regularly, it makes a lot of sense to rent a boat for a day or a week every year rather than buying a boat to display proudly in your driveway 355 days each year.

2.  Motor homes: Unless you are going to live in your motor home (and if you do, I’m a little jealous—my wife won’t let me) you should think about renting one for your vacation rather than buying one and parking it for all but a few weeks each year.

3.  is: Unless you live in a rural area where you can—or need—to ride your ATV almost every day, it makes more sense to rent them once or twice a year for a weekend than to have them filling the garage, decorating the driveway or paying even more to have them stored off-site.

4.  Hotel rooms, condos: For most people with average incomes, it makes much more sense to rent a few nights in a hotel or a vacation condo than to buy a time share. Those who have purchased and enjoyed time shares in my experience are folks with the money and time to travel extensively and make use of all of the extensive privileges. For the rest of us, it’s simply wiser to rent a few nights here and there.

There are of two general rules that can guide you in making your rent v. buy decision. You may more reasonably consider a purchase if either of these conditions is true.

1.  Frequency of use: If you reasonably plan to use an item frequently, the way you use your home, your car and your favorite socks, buying is likely much cheaper per use and much cheaper over time than renting each time. If you will only serve as occasionally, you may be better off renting. To find out, rent it a few times before you decide to purchase to see if you want it and will use it as much as you hope.

2.  Appreciation v. depreciation: If the thing you’d like to buy is reasonably likely to appreciate—like a condo on the beach in Hawaii—it makes more sense to buy it than if it will depreciate like a car. You may only visit your condo in Hawaii once a year, but if it is going up in value and not costing a lot when you’re not there (and you have the resources to buy it for cash) it is hard to argue against the purchase.

Owning stuff provides a certain satisfaction. We’re proud of the things we own. Nonetheless, there are some things that it makes no sense to have. We can rent them instead and save thousands of dollars each year that we can use to buy things that it would actually be a reason to buy.

Don’t Walk On The Heels Of Your Shoes And Seven Other Tips For Taking Care Of Your Stuff

Long ago I remembered hearing some excellent counsel: Don’t walk on the heels of your shoes. It was not merely a definite direction for how to make sure your shoes last for a long time, but it was (and was meant to be) a metaphor suggesting the need to care for all of our stuff.

Stuff isn’t as important as people or our relationships with people, but if we care for and respect our stuff, we’ll be the new it less often, which is both good for the environment and for our wallets. So here is a different tip in the spirit of not walking on the backs of your shoes.

1.  Wash your car regularly. By washing your car, you’ll be more comfortable in it, making it appear to be more appropriate to get it serviced and cared for in a timely way. By making your car past a long time, you empower yourself to really save.

2.  Hold your yard neatly trimmed and clean. Not only will your neighbors think you, but you are sentenced to identify potential problems with bug infestations, sprinkler problems, even problems with the exterior of the house if you are out in the yard regularly mowing the lawn and trimming the bushes.

3.  Teach the kids to look after their toys. Not only are bicycles and skateboards left in the front yard an eye-sore, they are a mighty temptation for the neighborhood punks who might somehow find it amusing to ride a six-year-old girl’s bike into the nearest river or watch it bounce down a nearby hillside.

4.  Repurpose and repair clothes. When one child emerges from something, with any luck, there is a sibling who can go to get some use from it. When buttons fall off, replace them. When a dress shirt gets a stain or the cuffs become too worn for the office, a yard-work and painting shirt has been born.

5.  Keep your house cleans. Getting a few things out of place is a wonderful reminder that a family lives in the house and that’s what makes it a home. On the other hand, if you can’t find the vacuum and there is stuff growing in the fridge and the shower, you are wasting money. Everything in your home will last longer if it is uncontaminated, not only because the dirt, mold and mildew will ruin it, but you and the other people in the home will not respect the things that are dirty.

6.  Give up on the stuff, you don’t need. If you haven’t been worn that sweater in two years, chances are you won’t. Give it away. There are numerous charitable thrift stores in virtually every city in America. Periodically purge your closets, basement and garage to ensure that you aren’t accumulating things that you don’t need and use. Having unused “junk” lying around the house will create an environment that is that disrespects and cheapens your belongings.

I Wanna Get Rich Quick. How Do I?

The art of getting rich quick can be summarized with one word: luck. The key to making money quickly is. In many cases, to do the opposite of what you should do if your goal is to retire at 65 or 70 with plans to golf three days each week. To make money quick, you are taken by ignoring your family, your community and your faith and instead focus entirely on yourself. Ready?

Here are the surefire ways to get rich quick:

1.  Quit your job today. If you remain in your job, it may take the rest of your career to accumulate a million dollars—if you ever do. Start your quest for instant wealth by walking out the door. Never mind the bridges you’ll burn, you’re going to be amusing, quick! Whatever you do here, don’t stay in your job for the next 30 years contributing to your 401k—that surefire way to wealth will take too long.

2.  Need to get to Vegas and bet it all. If you are committed to getting annoying fast, head to the nearest casino and gamble until you have achieved wealth. Of course, you understand that it is almost certain that you’ll lose all of your money, but if you don’t get it all right now, you can’t get annoying quick. Whatever you do, don’t put the gambling money in the bank where it will earn interest at a lower rate than 1%.

3.  Let all of your money in one stock. If you don’t be off to Vegas to gamble, you can put all of your money on one risky stock. Perhaps it will rise tenfold this year. It’s happened before. Of course, it’s equally likely to go bankrupt as to risk so much. The most probable thing is that it will go up or down a little and you won’t be loaded quickly at all. You absolutely don’t want to diversify your portfolio with a dozen or more stocks to eliminate the risk of one filing bankruptcy because that eliminates the benefit of one going up tenfold. More than anything, you don’t always want to invest in well-researched collection of mutual funds run by professional managers. The way they work, it could take 30 years of prudent saving and investing to get rich. That’s clearly not for you.

4.  Forgets stocks, invest in options. If you are committed to getting rich quickly, you can use the leverage of options to make your games even bigger. Options give you the right, but not the obligation to buy (or sell) the underlying stock (or bond, or commodity contract). With a few thousand dollars, you can buy options potentially worth a million dollars if just the right, highly improbable thing occurs. Of course, that means that almost certainly you’ll have lost all of your money on your initial investment. Nonetheless, it will have been lots of fun. Of course, you would never want to build your investment portfolio of plain old ordinary mutual funds that can reasonably be supposed to appreciate in value consistently over the subsequent thirty years. You don’t have the patience for that.

5.  Not a financier, tries entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are heroes. They’re cool. They’re sexy. Make any of your money, call yourself an entrepreneur and then think of a business. It’s easy. Never consider that most businesses fail. Disregard the fact that businesses built around the simple premise of making money quickly fails faster than average. The last thing you’d want to do if your goal is to have fatty quick, would be to carefully build a team around you that includes people who are generally smarter, older and more experienced who could help you launch a business. Whatever you do, if you want to get rich quick, don’t start a business that you actually care about, where you’d want to work for the next 30 years. That sounds an awful lot like having a job, working hard and waiting for a long time to actually become productive.

If none of these strategies sound fair to you, perhaps it’s because you don’t really want to get rich quick. Maybe what you really want is to put your family first, to build a career based on integrity, to buy a home where you can raise your children, and to partner with your spouse in the greatest effort in life: to plan to spend quality time with your grandchildren.

How Spending Cash Can Save You Money!

One straightforward way to control spending on discretionary, personal items is to give yourself an allowance, just like a twelve-year-old, in cash. Then, when it’s gone, it’s gone.

The following guidelines will help ensure that this principle applicable for controlling spending.

1.  Define what the money is meant for and what it does and doesn’t cover. For instance, you may decide that your allowance covers lunch but not dinner or snacks at the movies but not the theater tickets. Presumably, you’ll use a debit card or credit card (or write a check—does anyone still do that?) for expenses not included in your allowance. You have to be honest with yourself about this and with your spouse! You don’t want to have a fight mid-month when the cash runs out over what you spent it on.

2.  Define uses of cash narrowly. If you use the cash for a variety of purposes, you’ll have a much more difficult time tracking where your money goes. Credit cards seem to offer the best automated tracking of purchases and are typically reported in real time. If want to keep track of your cash, you’ll find your wallet fills up with receipts in a big hurry.

3.  Define the time period that the case covers. Depending on the convenience of getting to the ATM (and whether you need to be given a few there) you’ll want to decide how often you’ll go pull out some cash for your allowance. Your rule should be easy to use, for instance, once each month on the same day, twice monthly on the 1st and 16th, or every Monday morning. Design a rule that will work for you.

4.  Strictly avoid using cash for things it was not designed to cover cover. If you’ve decided your allowance money doesn’t cover dinners with your spouse, when you’re out with him for dinner, use your card to pay for dinner. If something comes up where you have an obligation to use some of your precious cash for something outside the plan, keep the receipt and pull out some extra money for that purpose.

5.  Do not forget to inventory your cash periodically. If you are on a prearranged plan, you’d hate to have your allowance all gone before the end of the month. Check to make definite what’s left!

6.  When go out, stop spending. If that means taking a sack lunch to push for a few days at the end of a month, so be it. Allow yourself to suffer the natural consequences of over spending.

7.  Feel free to treat yourself with the surplus at the end of the month. If you do hire a good job and have money was still, reward your discipline with a treat, whether that is an ice cream cone or a new top of the Gap, enjoy your just reward.

Needing to find out a way to limit spending and to develop self-discipline will empower you to save more and build a future for yourself that is safe and secure.

Tips To Help You Eat Out Less And Save Money When You Do

Americans eat 20% of their meals in mercantile establishments, meaning that on average folks are eating out more than four times per week. If you are among the 50% or so of Americans who eat out that much or more, consider the following tips to cut back on eating out.

1.  Special occasions: save dining out for special occasions.

2.  Buy frozen dinners: many frozen dinners offer the convenience of a meal out at lower prices and with the added benefit that you can do your meal planning for good health. It’s harder to eat healthy in a restaurant; even if the calories are posted, most of the nutritional information continues being lacking.

3.  Learn to make the foods you love to eat: if you find that you don’t enjoy the food you cook at home as much as you enjoy the food you eat out, take a class and learn to cook the food you really love. Most people grow up eating and learning to cook what their parents eat. Countless Americans over the past generation learned to love Mexican food eating out but don’t know how to cook it at home. If you love Mexican food, Indian food, Chinese food, you can learn to cook it at home.

4.  Invest modestly in the kitchen: it would be easy to blow a lot more money on the kitchen than you spend eating out, but buying a few handy items for the kitchen to make food preparation easier and faster could be money well spent. The most used appliance (apart from the fridge) in our kitchen is a $50 mixer that gets used virtually every day. No more smoothies at the mall!

5.  Eat lunch marathon: prepare dishes that can be frozen for future meals on the weekend, then pull them out of the freezer and eat them during the weeks that follow.

6.  Daily deals: sign up for Groupon and LivingSocial to get the daily deals they offer. Be disciplined about it. Purchase only the deals for the places where you’d eat anyway so that you are using coupons to save money, not to try fancy new restaurants.

7.  Check the restaurant web site: if you have a favorite restaurant, check the website for an opportunity to sign up for special deals, coupons, etc.

8.  Water vs. soda: soda you buy in the grocery store may cost as little as 1/10 of the price in a restaurant. Drink soda at home and drink water in a restaurant.

9.  Specials: there are two sorts of specials in restaurants—good ones and bad ones. The nice ones are often regular menu items discounted (the nice ones). The guilty ones are dishes the chef seemed to be nice to try that are often more expensive than other menu options. Watch out for those when you’re dining on a budget.

10. Pass the valet: whenever possible, pass the valet and park your car yourself. Save your money for the food!

By dining out less often and with a keen eye on the budget, you can still make use of the experience without burning so much money each month.

How To Save Money On The Things You Absolutely Have To Buy

The easiest way to save money on a purchase is not intended to make make it! When you absolutely have to make the purchase for food, clothes, shelter and transportation, you need to get on the best deal you can. Here’s how:

1.  Visit CouponMom.com today to learn how to cut your food bill using coupons in combination with in store specials, using the online resources there that will help you never to miss a good deal you need. The site features in depth training to maximize your savings!

2.  Find great thrift stores in your town where you can buy used goods, especially clothes for a fraction of the new price. Remember, it will be used as soon as you wear it once anyone—why not pay $4 for a shirt instead of $20.

3.  Shop garage sales on the weekends for the things you need. Don’t be drawn in by the opportunity to purchase someone else’s junk, just because you can buy it for 75 cents. On the other hand, if you need a student desk for your kids, you may be amazed at what you can get at garage sales for $5 or $10.

4.  When buying a car, look for a used car being sold by an individual. If you can afford a relatively new car that is either still in factory warranty that is especially trustworthy. Be sure to visit CarFax.com to check the status of the title. A “salvage” title means that the car was once totaled and someone salvaged and, you hope, restored the car. A salvage title does not mean the car’s warranty is voided, but it does mean the car will be worth less as a trade in or when want to sell products it.

5.  Learn about Craigslist (it.Ly/SEyQE) and eBay (it.Ly/FSAEQ). Racialist is like a giant, ongoing garage sale. When is there too, before you purchase a new one, check for a used one in good condition on Craigslist. Bay is particularly useful for things that can be shipped efficiently—relative to price. I’ve bought and sold several cars on eBay, some which had to be carried out shipped across the country. (Once you’re comfortable buying on the sites, you’ll learn how to sell there, too—but that’s another topic.)

6.  Racialist and other sites also feature homes for sale by owner, which sometimes sells for a bit less than homes sold by brokers—if only because everyone involved in the transaction knows there is no broker. If you try that, you may wish to hire an agent or an attorney to assist in the transaction—for less than the standard commission.

7.  Zillow.com will make an unbiased, scientific estimate for the value of virtually any home, which can help you avoid overpaying for your next home.

8.  Whenever you buy something on-line, you’ll often notice a little box for a discount code. Before you surrender your credit card, do a quick Google search for the thing you’re purchasing at the store you’re purchasing it with the words “discount code” added to the search. Dozens of sites to track and share codes—many of which quickly expire—but can save you big bucks when you take a look at.

Whenever you must buy something—or simply choose to buy something because you can afford it—take an extra few minutes—or a few hours for big purchases like homes and cars—to get educated, find the discounts and the opportunities so you never overpay. However, don’t ever forget. You’re not saving money if you’re spending it!

Finding Cheaper Hobbies Or Cheaper Ways To Enjoy Your Hobbies

Hobbies and sports are important parts of a balanced life, but some can get expensive in a real hurry. Consider how expensive golf can be, with special equipment (clubs, an expensive bag to hold the clubs, and a variety of little gadgets to go in all the pockets), supplies (balls and tees), clothes (special shoes, hats, shirts and pants), lessons, practice at the driving range and then finally green fees and a cart. Golf can get really pricey.

If you don’t golf and your spouse does, I suspect you’ve known that golfing can be very costly for a long time! Numerous sports and hobbies get expensive quickly. Here are some ideas to help cut down on the costs:

1.  Running is a less pricey sport than cycling. If you are interested in getting in shape, try running (you may need to try walking first, I know I did) rather than cycling. Not only is the bike expensive, but the carriers for the bike on the car, special shoes and clothes all make up make cycling more expensive than running.

2.  Golf on a cheaper course. Presuming you’ve already picked up golf as a sport, consider looking for cheaper courses to play or playing just nine holes rather than 18

3.  Make handicrafts pay for themselves. If you like crafting and want to do some money from your hobby—at least enough to cover the hobby—is careful not to over invest. Before you spend thousands of dollars on a quilting machine, borrow one to find out if you like using it and if you can sell what you made.

4.  Make it, then sell it. If you will very much like to restore old things like cars or furniture, you should get out all of your money back—and then some—when you sell the things you restore. It may be located in a position to earn a living with your hobby, but you can at least pay for all the resources required for it.

5.  Try genealogy. You may be shocked to learn how little you know about your grandparents and may know nothing at all about your great grandparents. Tremendous amounts of information are accessible to free from FamilySearch (it.Ly/h8stkr). Not only is genealogy easy and cheap to start. It will make you and your family a greater sense of who you are.

6.  Get it from the library. Have your books from the library rather than at the bookstore. You can even check out digital books at the library now!

People, even parents, all need a little time to play, to challenge themselves and to learn new things. Don’t be afraid of having a hobby—be scared not to have one. If your budget is tight, try things that are virtually unrestricted, like genealogy, walking, and reading. A hobby doesn’t have to be posh to practise; a hobby you can enjoy with your spouse and kids—at least some of the time—may be the best of all.

What Can You Live Without? Four Rules To Help You Decide

For everyone who’d like to spend a little less and save one little more, deciding what you can live without often becomes a key question. Thankfully, very few people in America—though not none—are faced with this question in a literal sense. For most, the application of the question, “Can I do without this?” usually involves an item much more like a Prada bag or an iPhone than food or medicine. So why should you really decide what you can “live” without?

1.  Utility and productivity: If your washing machine breaks and you have four kids, it could quickly become a real problem to not have a functioning washing machine. The utility and productivity of the washing machine would easily justify the purchase in most homes with children. On the other hand, it may be difficult to identify the utility of a cute new top. Unless you don’t have any, chances are the top is functionally interchangeable with half a dozen others at home. You can probably manage without that.

2.  Affordability: If you’re out running errands and you find yourself dead tired, stopping at Starbucks for a scone and a cold beverage won’t likely ruin your budget for the month (if you don’t do it every day) and it may just get you through a busy day to take a moment for yourself. Stopping at Nordstrom for a new pair of pumps for $300 as a reward, on the other hand, may blow the budget and undo weeks of progress.

3.  Rude v. Community: The last time your husband spent $350 on himself without wanting to speak with you first, you likely wanted to break his new putter over your knee. On the other hand, if he walked in to suggest a long weekend in a cabin with the whole family that would cost about $350, you’d maybe celebrate. Figuring out a way to really share the joy in an occasional splurge will make it more convenient for everyone to swallow any setback to the budget.

4.  Budget: If you’re fortunate enough to have a budget that allows for you to purchase a new Dolce & Gabbana Handbag, more power to you. If, on the other hand, a new handbag from the Gap isn’t in the budget, it may not matter in your household that it is 1/20th the price of the D&G bag, you still can’t afford it.

You’ll likely notice that there isn’t a rule for how much cooler it is than the thing it would replace. It really isn’t a fair question to ask whether the new iPhone is 18% lighter or 10% bigger. It certainly doesn’t matter than some shallow-minded spendthrift is satisfied that you just can’t be cooled without the latest iteration of some modern technology. Subject your iPhone purchase of the rules above and if it works, intense—otherwise wait!

Spend Too Much On Things You Don’t Need? You Can Change!

Virtually everyone splurges once in a while, spending too much on something that they don’t need. If you’re like most people, this pattern doesn’t represent a financial problem or even much of an opportunity. You probably cut back on spending naturally for a few days—or weeks if needed—to offset the splurge and everything falls into balance. If you have a real problem, an habitual pattern of splurging, however, you may be dooming your financial future.

First, let’s try a financial diagnosis to determine if you get a problem. Do not leave credit card debt right now that exceeds all of your available cash? In other words, if you had to be paid it all off today, could you do it? If not, you may get a problem. Now, consider whether you have purchased things in the last 60 days that you haven’t yet used. If there is an issue or even two, it’s not a big deal. If you can walk around the house and open closets and cupboards and find jackets you’ve never worn, shoes that have never been out of the house, kitchen gadgets that have never been in the dishwasher, tops or skirts that still have tags on them, camping gear that’s never seen dirt, home decorations that are stuck in closets and have never actually decorated anything or apps on your phone that you’ve never even used, you’ve got a problem. Keep reading!

Now, let’s think why you’re buying things you don’t need. (I’m not a psychologist; I’m someone who loves to spend money.) Buying something is satisfying a need, perhaps for power or control, which should be coming from something else in your life. Think about your biggest problems—apart from the spending. Give particular thought to things that make you like you want to go shopping. It may be the way your boss makes you feel. Anything that makes you powerless, anxious, or unappreciated, could be contributing to the problem. If you can identify the problem, you may be able to determine an alternative to shopping.

If not having enough money makes you apprehensive when bills come—and they come often—you could be shopping with your credit cards as a (futile) way to regain control over your finances. If your boss belittles you at the office, mocking your contributions, spending may give you a sense of power that helps compensate. If your spouse or children has been taking you for granted and you don’t feel appreciated, splurging on yourself may be means to soothe your hurt feelings.

If you can identify the trigger, the pain point that most drives you want to shop, you may be able to identify another behavior that would reduce the impact of the trigger. Just understanding that you shop because your boss yells at you could help you resist the temptation to shop. Even more constructively, you could talk to your boss about the problem. If that doesn’t work, you could even look for a new job. By trying to solve the problem at the root of your problem, you may be able to take charge of your life again.

It may take some time, but each time you feel the urge to splurge, asks yourself the question, “why?” When you find the answer, you may need to be able to solve two problems at once: you may be able change or get away from an unhealthy situation and enable yourself to quit spending money you don’t have.

Are You A Spendthrift? Three Tips To Overcome Bad Spending Habits!

If you love to spend money, you are not alone. Many people have a bit of buzz from spending money. That feeling is there when you make a purchase may be slowly driving you into the poor house. Here are a few tips to overcome your spendthrift ways.

The book The Power of Habit (amen.To/VdlB1X) explains the nature of a habit in three steps, the cue, the routine and the reward. Whenever we draw up a habit, according to the book, it follows that pattern. A core acts as a trigger. My phone beeps. We respond with the routine—the habit itself. I check my email, Facebook and Twitter and return to my work ten minutes later. We then obtain a reward. I feel loved because someone interacted with me.

The same simple pattern is working with spending. If we’re in a store, we’re surrounding with signals to buy. For the worst spendthrifts the biggest temptations are deep discounts. Substantial discounts to justify our guilty pleasure of spending money. Is the reward, really having the new thing? Maybe not. The reward may be the slight buzz we get from spending money. How to break the habit?

1.  Look at the cue. If you love to window-shop but tend to go from looking to purchase, start by not looking. Get something else to do that won’t put you in harm’s way. If you are placed on a restricted budget, window-shopping may be pure torture.

2.  Focus on the routine. Identify those times when you actually spend your money on things that you really don’t need. What could you do instead? If clothes are your actual problem, make a deal with yourself that when you don’t purchase clothes that you were considering, you’ll do something else you love instead—that isn’t so costly. It could simply be purchasing a soda or an ice cream at the food court instead of that cute new top. Change the routine.

3.  Check the reward. If when you change the routine, you don’t feel as good or better afterward, you may not be satisfying the craving. Try a different substitute. Try getting to a movie or renting a DVD, anything else, to see if you can find the same pleasure with less money. Very quickly you’ll change the habit and save some money!

Recall that when you buy something on sale that you don’t need, you’ve still spent money you didn’t need to expend. One way to find out if you have a problem is to inventory your closet. If you find lots of clothes you didn’t even remember you had, you can make use of a little bit of habit therapy. Read The Power of Habit (amen.To/VdlB1X).

Shopaholic? This One’s For You!

It is obvious that if you don’t have the money to buy things you want, you shouldn’t go shopping. The world seems full of people, however, who have charged purchases they can’t afford. If you are a self-described shopaholic, here are some tips to help you avoid buying things you don’t need with money you don’t have.

1.  Don’t need to get to the mall when you don’t have money for shopping. Don’t go to the food court “just for lunch.” Don’t take your dry cleaning to a shop in the mall. Don’t get your prescriptions at a drug store in the mall. Just stays away until you have money to be spent.

2.  Don’t watch QVC or HSN as a way to get your window shopping fix. It is infinitely more difficult to talk about yourself out of purchasing a specific thing at a specific price when there are only 16 left and they’re going fast than it is to talk yourself out of not watching the channels at all.

3.  Watch only recorded television where you can fast forward through the commercials. The budgets spent on television advertising are huge. Ginormous, in fact. Advertisers wouldn’t be advertising if it didn’t work. The easiest way to not let Madison Avenue talk you into buying stuff you don’t have to be done not like to listen to Madison Avenue at all!

4.  Have ever visit your favorite shopping web site, Amazon.com or whatever it may be, unless you have the money to purchase something specific. Then buy what you need and get out-of-the-way. Fast.

5.  Don’t research your purchase before you’re ready to purchase. If you plan to replace your car in three years, it is dangerous to have a subscription to Car and Driver, or to spend hours on the internet reading reviews and checking prices and deals on cars. The same is true of washers and dryers, refrigerators and every other major purchase. There will be plenty of time to do the research when the time to make a purchase comes.

6.  Throw catalogs away before they even go into the house. When you pull a catalog out of the mail box, drop it immediately in the recycling bin. Don’t keep it around, with its imploring cover, asking you to peruse its special prices, new colors and fabulous designs. It is not hard to say “no” to the catalog than it is to say “no” to the cute top on page 44 that would look so good with your favorite shoes.

You’ll find that if you completely remove the reminders of shopping from your life, you’ll not only spend less time shopping, you’ll spend less money. Before you realise it, you can shake the shopping habit.