Alpha Consumer Challenge: Best Saving Tip
Welcome to the second edition of the Alpha Consumer Challenge. Here's how it works: Share your favorite money-saving technique by posting a comment below. I'll pick the top three, with extra points going to the entries that sound enjoyable, realistic, and creative, and then open it up to a vote, which will select the winner. (Practicality and resourcefulness seemed to win the last challenge.) The winner will have his or her name featured on this blog and receive a copy of Rob Walker's Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, which is also the first selection for the Alpha Consumer Book Club—more on that later.
To get us started, I asked the blogger at Lazy Man and Money and Ramit Sethi, blogger at I Will Teach You to Be Rich, to share their own favorite frugal strategies. Here's Lazy Man's answer:
I curb impulse buying by stopping to think about each non-reoccurring, non-necessary purchase before I make it. The amount of time I think depends on how much the item is. If the purchase is less than $10, I will spend a couple of minutes. If it's $10 to 25, I will give it 24 hours. For $26 to $100, three days is the standard. Any more, and I give it 10 days or a month.
For those bigger purchases, I find I have more time to research better deals on eBay or Craigslist. This has enabled us to save hundreds of dollars on iPods, iRobots, and even my wife's wedding dress and veil.
And Ramit's:
We all know we should be saving money, but if you look at your budget and decide to save $400 each month, it can be a little overwhelming—where do you start? I use the "85 percent solution": It's better to do 85 percent than to try to be 100 percent perfect and actually end up doing nothing.
Here's how to apply it: I target only one or two problem areas—for me, it's overspending on eating out--and focus on reducing spending in only this category. I aim to cut $50 the first month, then $75 the next month, and so on. Don't try to cut it all at once—you want your spending to be sustainable. But in a few months, you'll have cut a significant portion of your budget, which you can use for paying off debt or, even better, investing for the long term.
Now, it's your turn. To participate in the challenge, please submit your idea by next Wednesday at 9 a.m.
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Reader Comments
Money Saving Tip
With school fast approaching depending on the nubmer of children you need to dress it will ultimately cost and arm and a leg. I sho thrifty wehn possible. I visit the local goodwill and thrift stores once a week throughtout the summer looking for great brands, in great shape, at awesome prices. I buy Lucky jeans, regularly $50-80 for arounf $10. I buy Levi's for less than that. If you take one day a week and pend the time really looking you will find a lot of items that look brand new and even some that have the vintage look that is back for so much less.
Another thing to do is call around to your local thrift shops and ask about special days. Some even have calendars available that list the daily specials. The best one yet...my local thrift shop does an $8 bag day every other Saturday. For $8 I can stuff a bag full of jeans and other clothes. Last week I bought 9 pairs of jeans, 6 pair of shorts, and a shirt for $16 bucks.
I get compliments every day on the things I wear and when I tell them I bought it from the goodwill store or thrift store they are in shock and say they want to go shopping with me some time. Every penny helps me out with a fimily of four to dress and feed.
double Coupons
Where my family and I live we can not use double coupons so what we do is once a year when we go to California to see family for thanksgiving we get all of our double coupons that we have been collecting over the year for things like Diapers and wipes (we have 2 boys 2 and under)we also have our coupons for canned goods, pasta's,condiments etc. that we go through so quickly and coupon's for juices art supply's ect. Then we look at the the deals that are going on on different days and they will be on sale leaving us to use our double coupon's on top of their lowered prices or the extra coupons that they have hanging next to the store's items. So say I saw an in store coupon for buy 1 get 1 half off any Dols products so I can take several of those coupons and add them to 8 of save .50 cents on any Dole item and say I have 7 or 8 of those when I could combine all of the and just might walk out of there getting all my Dols products free or almost free and that that is how our family saves money on groceries. It is a huge help especially with diapers. Through out the years I get diaper and wipe coupons in the mail, in the newspaper or online and it works great to be able to combined them all and get a lot of diapers for either free or for less than what I could get them for here. But if you don't live where you can use double coupons then try to save the coupons until the store has a really good sale. Sometimes you can get things for free if you plan when to use your coupon just right. I hope this helps anyone who is trying to find a way to use double coups.
Park in the first available space !!
In a big parking lot , while others drive around to look for a space closest to the entrance , I save time and money by parking in the first space I see, as close to the EXIT but not necessarily. I can walk the extra 100 feet to the store entrance and burn 10 calories . I save time because ..c'mon whose car drives faster than my walk in a parking lot ? It saves me gas and car wear-tear because it in the mall parking lots that the car gives the worst mpg , and we use the brakes the most . And is good for the environment.
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