A Good Rule For Borrowing Never borrow to buy depreciating items. Things such as new cars, furniture, clothes, appliances, boats and luxury items should not be purchased until money is available to pay for them. Don’t borrow to go on vacation, to invest in the stock market, to get married,
Keep a written spending record. Paying attention to your spending patterns will help you in the process of paying your bills with greater control and adherence to your goals. You may then discover some holes in your budget than can be plugged up.
Alternatives to Spending Your Money Find alternatives to spending money. For a friend’s birthday, take him or her on a picnic rather than to an expensive restaurant. When someone suggests that you meet for lunch, propose meeting at the museum on its free day or going for a walk in
Getting the Most for Your Money Get the most for your money. Shop for value whenever you can. Go to warehouse-type stores, buy items (ones you actually need) in bulk, wait to buy stuff on sale (especially furniture and clothing), get last year’s model (car, appliance) this year. It’s probably
Saving Money or Going Broke? A person could easily go broke saving money on good buys. Buying a $500 item on sale for $400 isn’t a $100 savings if you didn’t need the item to begin with. It’s spending $400 that you didn’t need to spend. The only way to
An Impulse List Maintain an impulse list. Write down what you want, then get at least two additional prices. Never have more than one item on your list. Do you know why? Because long before you will have found two prices on the first item, you will probably find two
Getting Your Money’s Worth Before making a purchase, pause for a minute to ask yourself a questions. Is it worth what I’m paying for it? This is where spending money becomes a real skill. Worth or value is often hard to determine. Value in this case means the quality of
Purchasing While Considering Quality Generally, when you are buying a product where length of service and performance are important, quality how well it is made, how well it functions, how long it will last is first consideration. Price is, within budget limits, a second consideration. Appearance may or may not
Impulse Buying is Predominant In our culture, impulse buying is predominant. In years predating the present easy credit, you would walk into a department store, see an item you would like to purchase, and put a small cash down payment toward it and then pay it off monthly until the