I do comparison shop especially with big ticket items because I have more lead time. With groceries, there is not often a huge difference once I factor in transportation costs.
We all should know that the number one purpose for Kitty Litter can be for stopping an out of control formula one racecar. Does anyone remember; Michael Schumacher into the "Kitty Littea"??
I try to comparison shop with groceries and textbooks. With groceries, saving money is as easy as comparing grocery store ads; with textbooks, just search Amazon.com or Half.com. By comparison shopping, I can save a lot of money.
We always comparison shop because we want to get the item we want to purchase for the price that is best for our budget. It only takes a little time and patience, but it is so worth it!
My family and I have been line drying our laundry for about two decades. And where we live, the only time it's not such a good idea to line dry is during the winter (seriously, frozen sheets of t-shirts is not so fab, especially when you're running late for school). In the summer, we'd only need to hang laundry outside for about 30 to 45 minutes and it would be almost completely dry. Then, we'd pop the line-dried laundry in the dryer to fluff with a dryer sheet to eliminate the crunchy feeling. As for more delicate clothes, such as blouses or dress shirts, we would actually hang them on a 2nd set of clothes line that were in the shade so prevent sun damage. And in regards to exposing freshly washed laundry to the dirty outdoors, I've only encountered a couple of incidents where I had to rewash and that was because I accidentally dropped the items on the ground, not because my laundry was hanging outside.
Unfortunately, my parents moved and I live in San Francisco now. There are no clothes lines at my parents' new house and it's pretty much impossible to hang laundry to dry outside (plus, the city is so dirty and grimy.)
It depends on the item or type of item. For groceries, some toiletries and household supplies, I do not mind paying a few cents more for my usual grocery items because I don't have a car, therefore, getting most of my groceries from one store or stores within the same shopping center is most convenient for me. I do keep in mind which items are on sale or specials in the local ads. Although, when I do go out, I tend to check out prices of various items just to note current prices of items. For big items, like electronics or school supplies (especially those gosh-darn expensive textbooks for college courses), I tend to do my research way before I actually purchase and I compare prices from various sellers or stores. I like to get the most bang for my buck. I especially love comparison shopping before big shopping holidays like Black Friday. :)
The certificate of deposit sounds like an excellent way to 'hide' money. The money is there if you need it, but the risk of forfeiting the interest keeps you from raiding it for non-emergencies.
As for a philosophy of savings, savings is what happens to my money by default. I spend on a few simple entertainments and the maintenance that delays my purchase of a new car (which will, I hope, be in a lump sum). Payments like insurance are deducted automatically. Other expenses tend to serve as their own reminders, like an empty cupboard.
Regarding saving money in the form of cash, I'm sure you're about to get an earful from others about its steady loss of value from inflation. Don't bother hiding bills in a secret stash and risking a family member or friend accidentally throwing it out. If someone breaks into your house to steal things, a couple of missing twenties will be the least of your worries.
But if you're going to keep cash around the house, follow Alysa's advice there and keep it in the form of coins. Dollar coins are heavy enough to remind you when your pocket is getting empty ($56 per pound), yet convenient enough to use every day. Coins also don't rot or get used by mice as bedding material. (The recent NPR story should have inspired you to think of dollar coins!)
I do most of my comparison "shopping" before leaving the house. I check for sales and match with coupons and can usually tell when the items we love to buy are at a good price.
I've been line-drying for 20 years. I'm such an afficianado that I have an indoor line for winter, and an outdoor line for warm weather.
Shaking the towel out will help reduce the crunchy feel of line-dried towels.
I've only fallen prey (pun intended) to bird droppings once. I have had to re-launder a few times when clothes had to be on the line for days because of unanticipated non-stop rain.
We have had one very odd line-drying horror story. My husband got out of the shower, pulled a towel out of the linen closet, and had a bat fly into his face. The poor thing got his claws stuck in the towel, and as I took down the towel & folded it ina single motion I never noticed it.
The key word there is "expendable" income. It's difficult to have expendable income when someone is down to NO income, which is increasingly the case. Personally, I'd be interested in an article on how to live w/o money.
If you have some extra time and a friendly personality (and your favorite store's employees seem to be fairly happy at their jobs), see if you can get a part time job at the place you love to shop! You'll get a little extra spending money, plus first dibs on clearance merchandise and often a hefty store discount (it depends on the company, some give up to 50% off or more). Then once you're there only buy pieces you absolutely love; there will always be more styles coming in the next shipment.
Asking about the times of the year when they tend to clear a lot helps too. Chat up an associate and you'll learn all kinds of things. Speaking as an associate myself though, don't make it obvious that you only want to know when to get stuff cheap. Spend some time talking fashion or asking our opinions, we'll be a lot more likely to volunteer what you want to know. We'll also do a surprising amount for customers who come by often and treat us well. I've been known to call regulars when something they love has been put on sale, and even hold it for them far longer than I'm supposed to.
I compairson shop for almost everything! It's silly not to. I understand completely convinence but convinence is (usually) expensive. It's amazing how MUCH you can actually save by compairson shopping.
People tend to underestimate the value of all those coins - they can really add up. I keep a jar full of change and when it gets a bit heavy, I take a couple hours and roll them myself. You have to be careful with services like Coinstar because they usually charge a fee for doing the counting. If you do it yourself, you can save that money too! Before you know it, you've got an extra $80 in hand!
I don't comparison shop for groceries. I know that I love Kroger and that they offer awesome prices in general, and I'm not about to check their prices on that soy milk then waste my time driving to another store to see if maybe, just maybe, they're offering it for $0.20 less. I use coupons for groceries when I can, though.
I also don't do comparison shopping for clothes. There are SOME clothes I buy online, but most are those you have to be in the store to see and try on. And at that point... you don't even know if you could find that same item in another store, and if it would be cheaper, and if it's even worth the trouble to look. I have a general idea about how much clothes "should" cost and how much I'm willing to spend on them (I'm not one of those women who go overboard).
For just about everything else, I do comparison shop online before purchasing. I consider Amazon to be a great resource for an idea of how much something should cost and user reviews to let me know if I should even buy or if there's a better product out there. Google Shopping is great for when you already have the exact product you want in mind and are just looking for the best price.
I'm a casual comparison shopper. For many items I buy I will think "Where can I get this for the best price?" I usually go to the store where it's cheapest. For bigger ticket items I will do a little research online before buying. But if something is only a bit cheaper and it's inconvenient to go/order from that place then I won't bother.
I definitely comparison shop. I use a variety of methods, ranging from checking all the Sunday sale ads, browsing the internet, and now I use the free apps on my Android phone to be able to scan barcodes while I'm in the store to see if there's somewhere close by that has a cheaper price.
I do comparison shop especially with big ticket items because I have more lead time. With groceries, there is not often a huge difference once I factor in transportation costs.
HP in this morning just cast in China, but have no time to watch
We all should know that the number one purpose for Kitty Litter can be for stopping an out of control formula one racecar. Does anyone remember; Michael Schumacher into the "Kitty Littea"??
I try to comparison shop with groceries and textbooks. With groceries, saving money is as easy as comparing grocery store ads; with textbooks, just search Amazon.com or Half.com. By comparison shopping, I can save a lot of money.
Heck yeah, I almost want a smart phone just so that I can see what things are priced elsewhere before I buy them.
We always comparison shop because we want to get the item we want to purchase for the price that is best for our budget. It only takes a little time and patience, but it is so worth it!
My family and I have been line drying our laundry for about two decades. And where we live, the only time it's not such a good idea to line dry is during the winter (seriously, frozen sheets of t-shirts is not so fab, especially when you're running late for school). In the summer, we'd only need to hang laundry outside for about 30 to 45 minutes and it would be almost completely dry. Then, we'd pop the line-dried laundry in the dryer to fluff with a dryer sheet to eliminate the crunchy feeling. As for more delicate clothes, such as blouses or dress shirts, we would actually hang them on a 2nd set of clothes line that were in the shade so prevent sun damage. And in regards to exposing freshly washed laundry to the dirty outdoors, I've only encountered a couple of incidents where I had to rewash and that was because I accidentally dropped the items on the ground, not because my laundry was hanging outside.
Unfortunately, my parents moved and I live in San Francisco now. There are no clothes lines at my parents' new house and it's pretty much impossible to hang laundry to dry outside (plus, the city is so dirty and grimy.)
It depends on the item or type of item. For groceries, some toiletries and household supplies, I do not mind paying a few cents more for my usual grocery items because I don't have a car, therefore, getting most of my groceries from one store or stores within the same shopping center is most convenient for me. I do keep in mind which items are on sale or specials in the local ads. Although, when I do go out, I tend to check out prices of various items just to note current prices of items. For big items, like electronics or school supplies (especially those gosh-darn expensive textbooks for college courses), I tend to do my research way before I actually purchase and I compare prices from various sellers or stores. I like to get the most bang for my buck. I especially love comparison shopping before big shopping holidays like Black Friday. :)
The certificate of deposit sounds like an excellent way to 'hide' money. The money is there if you need it, but the risk of forfeiting the interest keeps you from raiding it for non-emergencies.
As for a philosophy of savings, savings is what happens to my money by default. I spend on a few simple entertainments and the maintenance that delays my purchase of a new car (which will, I hope, be in a lump sum). Payments like insurance are deducted automatically. Other expenses tend to serve as their own reminders, like an empty cupboard.
Regarding saving money in the form of cash, I'm sure you're about to get an earful from others about its steady loss of value from inflation. Don't bother hiding bills in a secret stash and risking a family member or friend accidentally throwing it out. If someone breaks into your house to steal things, a couple of missing twenties will be the least of your worries.
But if you're going to keep cash around the house, follow Alysa's advice there and keep it in the form of coins. Dollar coins are heavy enough to remind you when your pocket is getting empty ($56 per pound), yet convenient enough to use every day. Coins also don't rot or get used by mice as bedding material. (The recent NPR story should have inspired you to think of dollar coins!)
I do most of my comparison "shopping" before leaving the house. I check for sales and match with coupons and can usually tell when the items we love to buy are at a good price.
It is hard for me to hide money because I invest most of my money back into my business
I've been line-drying for 20 years. I'm such an afficianado that I have an indoor line for winter, and an outdoor line for warm weather.
Shaking the towel out will help reduce the crunchy feel of line-dried towels.
I've only fallen prey (pun intended) to bird droppings once. I have had to re-launder a few times when clothes had to be on the line for days because of unanticipated non-stop rain.
We have had one very odd line-drying horror story. My husband got out of the shower, pulled a towel out of the linen closet, and had a bat fly into his face. The poor thing got his claws stuck in the towel, and as I took down the towel & folded it ina single motion I never noticed it.
The key word there is "expendable" income. It's difficult to have expendable income when someone is down to NO income, which is increasingly the case. Personally, I'd be interested in an article on how to live w/o money.
This is giving me ideas...thanks! :)
If you have some extra time and a friendly personality (and your favorite store's employees seem to be fairly happy at their jobs), see if you can get a part time job at the place you love to shop! You'll get a little extra spending money, plus first dibs on clearance merchandise and often a hefty store discount (it depends on the company, some give up to 50% off or more). Then once you're there only buy pieces you absolutely love; there will always be more styles coming in the next shipment.
Asking about the times of the year when they tend to clear a lot helps too. Chat up an associate and you'll learn all kinds of things. Speaking as an associate myself though, don't make it obvious that you only want to know when to get stuff cheap. Spend some time talking fashion or asking our opinions, we'll be a lot more likely to volunteer what you want to know. We'll also do a surprising amount for customers who come by often and treat us well. I've been known to call regulars when something they love has been put on sale, and even hold it for them far longer than I'm supposed to.
I compairson shop for almost everything! It's silly not to. I understand completely convinence but convinence is (usually) expensive. It's amazing how MUCH you can actually save by compairson shopping.
I love the scavenger hunt ideas, especially the one where all you have to do is take photos. And I was already planning to bake a pie this weekend!
I comparison shop a lot when I things online, and also at the grocery store.
People tend to underestimate the value of all those coins - they can really add up. I keep a jar full of change and when it gets a bit heavy, I take a couple hours and roll them myself. You have to be careful with services like Coinstar because they usually charge a fee for doing the counting. If you do it yourself, you can save that money too! Before you know it, you've got an extra $80 in hand!
I don't comparison shop for groceries. I know that I love Kroger and that they offer awesome prices in general, and I'm not about to check their prices on that soy milk then waste my time driving to another store to see if maybe, just maybe, they're offering it for $0.20 less. I use coupons for groceries when I can, though.
I also don't do comparison shopping for clothes. There are SOME clothes I buy online, but most are those you have to be in the store to see and try on. And at that point... you don't even know if you could find that same item in another store, and if it would be cheaper, and if it's even worth the trouble to look. I have a general idea about how much clothes "should" cost and how much I'm willing to spend on them (I'm not one of those women who go overboard).
For just about everything else, I do comparison shop online before purchasing. I consider Amazon to be a great resource for an idea of how much something should cost and user reviews to let me know if I should even buy or if there's a better product out there. Google Shopping is great for when you already have the exact product you want in mind and are just looking for the best price.
I'm a casual comparison shopper. For many items I buy I will think "Where can I get this for the best price?" I usually go to the store where it's cheapest. For bigger ticket items I will do a little research online before buying. But if something is only a bit cheaper and it's inconvenient to go/order from that place then I won't bother.
I definitely comparison shop. I use a variety of methods, ranging from checking all the Sunday sale ads, browsing the internet, and now I use the free apps on my Android phone to be able to scan barcodes while I'm in the store to see if there's somewhere close by that has a cheaper price.
If I have time!
I usually only comparison shop on big ticket items.