Frugality Archives - Page 2 of 7

Using the Power of Cash to Your Advantage

As our society moves more and more away from cash and toward other methods of payment, many people forget just how powerful cash can be. If you'll use cash to purchase big ticket items, it can save you quite a bit of money. Here are a few things to consider about using cash more to help your financial situation:

Cash Prices

One of the big advantages of paying with cash is that you can sometimes take advantage of cash bonuses with certain merchants. Many merchants have one price for cash and another price for credit or debit cards. This is because it costs the merchant something to be able to accept a credit or debit card payment.

They have to pay the credit card processing company two or three percent of the purchase price. Because of this, they can afford to sell the product for less money when a cash payment is made. Any time you make a big ticket purchase, ask the merchant if they can give you a better price for cash.

Negotiation

When you use cash, you also have a little bit of room for negotiation. Many merchants may be willing to negotiate with you if you have a big stack of cash to work with. Ask them what the lowest price is that they would take for a cash payment. This can sometimes net you a pretty good deal. You can even negotiate in some places you might not have imagined, for example, on your hospital bills.

Be Patient

If you are shopping with cash, patience pays off. Instead of taking the first deal that you find, try and shop around a little. There are a lot of places that will give you a good deal for cash, and you can have fun shopping around a bit. You can always go to a normal store and buy the item for full price, but sometimes you can find a better deal.

Overall, having cash on hand can come in very handy. Whether you need to shop with a local department store, or with an automotive dealer, you can really get some great deals with cash. You also don't have to worry about finding a merchant that accepts credit cards, debit cards, or some other chosen payment method.

Almost everyone takes cash, and if you get in the habit of shopping with it, you'll be able to score some great deals and save money.

Amanda Green is a freelance writer who normally writes about personal finance and business. Her normal finance writing can vary on topics from saving money on groceries to using services like expertbail to stay financially afloat during times of trouble. You can read more writing by Amanda at paidtwice.com

Finding Alternative Methods Of Getting What You Need

By Miranda Marquit 3 Comments

We live in a society where it's fairly easy to simple to just head over to the store and buying something when we want it. Indeed, we often pay money for things without stopping to think that there might be a better way to acquire them.

You don't have to buy new all the time in order to get a good value. Here are some alternative ways to get what you need:

Buy Used

There are plenty of goods that you can buy used, and it's not just used cars that work well. Head to the local thrift store, or look in the Classifieds or online for items that you want to buy. You might be surprised at the quality of products you can get used. Check out estate sales and garage sales. Many people also have yard sales as they plan to move. This can be a great opportunity to purchase items in good shape. Before you buy new, consider whether or not it makes sense to buy used, and then make those purchases.

In some cases, you might not even have to buy. Craig's List and Freecycle are both full of items that people are getting rid of for free — and the items might even be in good condition.

Barter and Swap

You can also barter and swap for what you need. Since the recession, many people have started bartering and swapping for the things that they need. If you have some old exercise equipment that you don't want, you might be able to exchange for some yard tools that you are looking for.

It's also possible to exchange a service you can provide for other services, or even items. I have exchanged writing and editing services in the past. They key with bartering and swapping, though, is to make sure that you can come to an agreement in which all parties feel as though they are getting a good value. This can be a great way to save money on purchases, and stretch your dollars further.

Rent Items You Won't Need More than Once

In some cases, it makes sense to rent something that you'll only need to use once, or for a specific project. You might even be able to get out of paying money at all if you can borrow it from a neighbor (just make sure that you let your neighbor borrow things when he or she needs them). Renting something for a single use cost less than buying the item, and it prevents you from having another thing to clutter up your home.

Do You Really Even Need It?

Of course, sometimes it's best to take a step back and figure out whether or not you actually need to buy something at all. For many of us, luxuries and wants have been artificially transmuted into necessities. Don't let your wants turn into needs. Instead, examine your motives. Figure out why you are planning to make the purchase, and decide whether it's really something that you need. Can you do without it? If so, you can really save by not buying it all.

Why The Savvy Shoppers Are All Online

By Contributor Leave a Comment

It’s virtually impossible to avoid shopping. We all need to buy things, but there are ways to make each purchase more frugal and efficient. Purchasing things online can save you time and money. It offers convenience and helps you to avoid all the unnecessary extras that seem to end up in your shopping cart.

Like so many aspects of our lives, shopping experiences have been improved by the internet. Smart shoppers go online instead of heading to the mall.

Secrets Of A Savvy Online Shopper

Here are some secrets that savvy shoppers use when shopping or researching online.

Go online to conduct some quick research:

Check out weekly ads online to spot sales without needing to wait for the Sunday paper. To conserve your time, visit a site that has weekly ads for multiple stores or bookmark a site that you visit often.
If you plan to go to a store or restaurant, you can search for free printable shopping coupons and restaurant coupons.

Go for convenience:

If you’ve ever experienced the hassle of loading and unloading shopping bags from the cart to the car to the home in the rain and getting the kids or the dog in and out, you can appreciate having your purchases delivered straight to your home or office.
Have you ever driven to a store and realized it wasn’t open? Imagine stores being open when you want them to be. You can buy online any time of day, even when the retail stores are closed.

Experience less pressure to buy what you don’t need:

You are in control when you shop online. You can avoid the pushy sales staff’s influence to buy complimentary items and prevent yourself from loading up on impulse buys.
Viewing your electronic shopping cart and seeing the total bill before checkout allows you to modify your order without the embarrassment of deciding to put items back while at the cash register.

The opportunity for more savings:

You can find free coupon codes to save money at nearly any store. A quick search on a coupon website can uncover multiple offers at the each store for free shipping, a percentage off or free items with purchase.
You can earn cash back for free when you shop through a savings website. In addition to using coupons, you can actually earn a percentage of your transaction in a free account. When you are ready to collect, you simply request a check.
You can use a rewards credit card to earn points or more cash back. In addition to coupons and cash back, you can rack up rewards on a credit card when you use that to pay. When used correctly, a credit card can actually help you save. Consider any fees when you select your card and be sure you know how and when to redeem your rewards.

Give yourself gift cards:

For stores you frequently shop at, consider purchasing discounted gift cards online. You’ll pay a fraction of the price.

Become a free member of group buying sites:

For more savings on top of the already great discounts, you can purchase Groupons through a savings site to earn cash back on top of your savings. The rate today (3/13/2012) at BeFrugal.com is up to 8%.

Jon Lal is founder of BeFrugal.com, which offers free money-saving resources including coupons, Cash Back, tools, advice, weekly ads and more. For a limited time there is a $10 bonus offered when you sign up for a free account.

Do You Really Need Coupons To Be Frugal?

By Miranda Marquit 7 Comments

One of the popular ways that many frugal people save money is with the use of coupons. I, however, could never get into penny pinching or clipping coupons. I've tried, at different points in my life to use coupons, but I'm not a coupon maven, and I wasn't willing to put in the time or effort. But I'm not sure that you even need coupons to be frugal. In my mind, frugality isn't just about completing a laundry list of items like clipping coupons, and buying the cheapest thing you can find.

Frugal is more of a state of mind — and a lifestyle.

coupons and frugality

Best Value For The Money

To me, one of the essentials of frugal living is getting good value. A frugal lifestyle doesn't have to be about getting the cheapest thing imaginable (and using coupons to do it). Instead, it's more about getting the best value. Sometimes, the best value isn't the cheapest thing out there. My favorite example is shoes. I buy high quality shoes that cost more — but they last longer. Instead of replacing shoes every six to eight months, I can keep them for years. I still have the hiking boots I bought 10 years ago. They've held up much better than the cheap pair I bought less than a year before I spent the money for a better product.

Whether it's food, clothing, tools, or other items, sometimes the cheapest thing you can get is not the best value for the long term. It is worth it to carefully evaluate what your buying. In some cases, the truly frugal choice is to buy the higher quality item without the coupon. Saving $2 now isn't going to be a big deal if you have to spend another $15 in a few months to replace a low quality item.

Do You Even Need (Or Want) That?

The savviest couponers, I know, only clip coupons for what they need/really want. However, there are many more who are convinced that they are being frugal because they bought something with a coupon — even though they had no intention of buying that item in the first place. Using a coupon to buy something you don't want or need isn't true frugality. Instead, you are still spending money, no matter how much you think you are “saving” with the coupon.

A problem with using extreme couponing to stockpile food is that it can go bad before you use it. If you have to throw away items in your stockpile, what's the point? Another problem is that many of the foods you can buy with coupons are pre-packaged and outright junk food items. This isn't healthy, and can cost you more in the long run as health care costs go up. Pay attention to the types of things that coupons encourage you to buy, and be wary of them.

In the end, coupons work well for some people. They enjoy the challenge, and don't mind spending the time. However, I would rather use the time to make more money, and not worry so much about saving a few dollars at the store.

What do you think? Can you still be frugal even if you don't use coupons?

Retiring Wealthy On An Average Salary: The Story Of The Charitable Cook And Contractor

By Mr. Money 7 Comments

I've had a continuing series on this site over the past couple of years that I like to call “Retiring Wealthy On An Average Salary”. It looks at the inspiring stories of men and women who made what might be called average salaries during their working years, but in the end retired wealthy, with plenty of money to spend and give. How did they do it? By being good with their money, spending lower than their means and saving regularly while they still made an income. I've also found that to a fault most of them were very generous. You almost wouldn't think that would make sense, but it seems to be true.

Today I found another story, that once again speaks to just how powerful saving your money and being conscientious about your spending can be. It can lead to a big nest egg that in the end can help a lot of people.

The Story Of The Charitable Cook And Contractor

Elinor Sauerwein didn't seem like someone who had money according to a lot of folks that knew her. In fact, a lot of people thought that she was poor because she had few outward signs of wealth – choosing instead to live frugally and save as much as she could to be able to leave a large amount of money to the Salvation Army. In the end she left them almost 2 million dollars.

She was taught by her mother to never waste a thing. She never purchased a dryer, hanging her laundry on a clothesline in the backyard. She painted her home when it needed a touch-up and mowed her lawn until her early 90s. She refused to go to restaurants, the movies or pay for cable TV.

It could be said she took frugality to a whole new level.

Needless to say, it was a shock when a check for $1,731,533.91 from the estate of Elinor Sauerwein was presented to a California branch of the Salvation Army last Christmas Eve.

“It was a surprise and a blessing,” Capt. Michael Paugh of the Salvation Army in Modesto told ABC News.

Paugh was getting ready to head home for the holidays when he got a call from John Bullock, Sauerwein’s longtime friend and financial adviser, who had power of attorney over her affairs. Bullock was on his way over to present the freshly printed check to the charity.

“She said every dollar I save is another dollar that could go to the Salvation Army. Her goal for years and years was to amass as much as she could so it would go to the Salvation Army,” Bullock told ABC News. “She did an excellent job at it.”

She was able to save a large amount of money over the years through some pretty extreme frugality by some accounts. I'm not sure most of us would be able to duplicate her level of frugality, but it's still an object lesson on how someone with a smaller salary can amass a fortune.

By all accounts, the scrimping started early. In the late 1930s, after she’d graduated from college, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Crookston, Neb., traveling to her job on horseback. When she arrived, she’d light a fire to warm the room for the schoolchildren, teach, clean the room and hop back on her horse for the ride home.

She soon met her husband, Harold, and they married in 1945 and moved to California, settling in Modesto, where Sauerwein cooked for ranch hands on the ranch where her husband landed a job. She later worked at LM Morris business machines, according to the Modesto Bee.

Harold Sauerwein became a contractor and built their two-bedroom home with his own hands, said Bullock. Harold, said Bullock, was just as conservative as his wife when it came to spending money. When Harold Sauerwein died in 1994, Bullock promised him he would “look after Elinor.”

When Elinor Sauerwein died on Oct. 30, 2010, Bullock started compiling her funds for the big donation that she’d planned for “years and years.” By December 2011, everything was in order. The only restriction on the money was that the Salvation Army had to use it in the Modesto community. This posed no problem, said Paugh, and the charity was happy to comply.

“The money will stay in the community. The neat thing is we stick it in an endowment, and her gift will be helping people 50 years from now, even 70 years from now,” Paugh told ABC News.

“Her gift will keep on giving for years to come.”

While we may not be able to duplicate her extreme frugality, I think Elinor had a positive goal in mind and a reason for doing what she did. She wanted to make a positive impact for others and improve others lives by denying herself a few pleasures.

Does this story of living on an average salary and retiring wealthy help you realize just how powerful frugality can be? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!

Money Matters: Avoid Being Cheated

By Contributor 2 Comments

We all get scammed at one time or another, sometimes we just don't know it.

Life has become so hectic, that we don't always have time to think things through before we buy. We can do our weekly food shop, only to realise later on that we've paid more than usual. We can go to a mechanic, and get charged for a service our car doesn't even need.

Unless you have time to check on lovemoney.com or other useful financial sites, you won't always know a scam when you see one. Luckily there are simple measures you can take to ensure you are not cheated out of more money than a product is worth.

Double Check Receipts

Always check your receipts after every purchase. It isn't unusual for an additional charge to be added on. For example I once bought a DVD, only to discover when I got home that I was charged for it twice. Check for discrepancies.

Consult An Expert

Sometimes we do not have the knowledge required to know exactly how much a service should cost. Take someone with you who does. Many contractors will bump the price up, if they think you won't know the difference. Another set of eyes is handy to flag up any problems on your behalf.

Price Comparison

It is extremely irritating when you buy from a store, and discover the same product is selling for half the price elsewhere. Check around. This is easier to do via the web of course, because you can just jump from site to site, but don't avoid it at the mall, just because it takes longer.

Use Common Sense

To not be cheated, you often have to use your common sense. Especially when a store is giving you a deal. Be wary of ‘buy one get one free', ‘three for two' and other offers. Very often a store will bump up the price to make up the difference for the free item. Do the math before you buy in order to make sure that you're actually getting a good deal.

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