Money and Stuff

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Some items should be timed

I spoke recently about the law of supply and demand. Try to keep it in mind when you know that you are going to have to budget for a big expense.

If you are planning a trip, know that the longer you wait to buy travel arrangements, the more you will pay. Especially, don’t wait until the last 60 day mark on airline tickets, because the fewer seats, the pricier they become.

On the other hand, if you are the adventurer type, definitely use the last minute and weekend getaway deals to save.

Avoid buying a fridge during
the summer, if you can.

On the practical side, if you want to replace an unbroken home appliance (that is the best way to replace appliances, by the way; when you know that they’re at the end of their lifespan but before they break, which would force you to scramble out to get one), shop knowing when they will be cheaper. That is in January, because shops want to make room for inventory. But also September and October because manufacturers put out new models and that means last year’s models will be at their lowest. By waiting, not only will you get a better price, you will also have time to research and make a more informed purchasing decision. Oh, and never buy a refrigerator May till August, they will be at their priciest.

Regarding clothing and other needful items, try to pay attention to when your basics go on sale and learn to get them at those times. Try to learn to shop on sale, period. It will save you money for the rest of your life.

Don’t be tempted

Are you on every catalog’s mailing list, and signed up to receive offers from all the stores where you shop. Do you really need all that mail, be it paper or electronic? Review your paper subscriptions and plan to cancel, at least, one third every year. And try Unroll Me, a free software that does various handy things: first, it shows you in one glance every single subscription you have (I’ve heard this experience can be scary); then you can unsubscribe on the spot from anything you don’t want, and thirdly; you can select to have all your wanted subscriptions’ emails rolled into one single email, and you pick the day of the week on which you get it. I have not tried it yet, but will do so as soon as I am done here. Nowadays there’s an application for everything, isn’t there?

Reward yourself, too

Unless you want to be a minimalist, you cannot live an exclusively frugal life just for the sake of keeping to your budget and financial goals. Not only it is OK to treat yourself now and then, it’s the right thing to do. After all, you work for your money. While it’s good to learn to make it work for you, life is for the living, so every now and then it’s good to treat yourself in one way or another.

A final note

The Credit Union offers members a pretty nifty budgeting tool with Kasasa 360 . This is software that you set up to retrieve the current information on all credit union and bank accounts, as well as your credit cards, and you access them in one place. But it also has the added ability to break down your spending habits into categories and give you a birds-eye view of where money goes. From that, you can create budgets and goals, and it notifies you of your progress on them as you go along. And it’s free from the Credit Union.