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I am one of those people who does not like to shop. I go to the store, I get what I need, I get a little bit more than I need, I get out. I tend to forget to look at prices (except when they are exorbitant), and, I rarely comparison shop. Well, that was me anyway. Not so much, anymore. Our new awareness that everything you buy is less that you can pay off debt with has led us to be more aware of shopping and its place in my life. I go to the cheaper supermarket always now; I used to sometimes go to the more expensive one out of convenience. I look before I shop and I take advantage of programs and offers of discounts. In fact, although I tend not to clip grocery coupons (a habit I may start to pick up), I do get coupons for other items and put them in my filing system. I just found this excellent on-line site, keycode, that allows you to print out coupons for many of the major stores that I use on a regular basis. Before I shop, I check out that site to see if any place I am planning to go to has a coupon offer. On a day that I am off to shop, I either grab the whole folder or take the coupons I will be using.
I am following up on rebate offers as soon as I get the purchase home and make sure I am not returning it immediately. I am returning items that are not going to be used: as soon as I see there is a problem, I write it in the spiral notebook. I use promotional sign up programs: not credit cards from the store, but, many stores, such as home improvement, book stores, office supply stores, have cards that you can get for free that allow you to add together your purchases for money back on later purchases. Obviously, some of these programs are better than others. The reason they are offered should also be understood before you do it: they want your name and e-mail on their list so that they can target you for advertising. That is okay with me if it is a place I frequent. I do not sign up with these programs on the first shot except for airlines and hotels. We fly on one airline frequently, we signed up for their frequent flyer program. Recently, I was looking for a place to stay in two locations a couple of nights apart. I registered at the same hotel chain and signed up for their privileges.
We bought a new car recently. This is the first big item we had to purchase since we were on the new system of being thoughtful about our spending habits. In the past, we have gone to "look at" some model we had an interest in, and, come home, owning a new car. This time, we planned first -- we had a model in mind, and we researched that car as compared to other cars for maintenance, reliability, gas mileage, etc. We started looking about two to three weeks before we actually set foot into a car dealership, and, then, we even got price quotes on line (which really did not amount to "quotes"; but, just the names of a couple of dealers). We watched the paper for ads, and we debated a new versus used model; however, the car we chose was on the lower end of what we thought we could afford and had been redesigned in the 2006 model year. Why did we even buy a new car? Well, my husband's car had 120,000 miles on it and was about to cost us $5,000.00 to fix. It was not worth that: thus, we had a decision. Spend $5,000.00 on a car that will probably not last us the year, or trade that car in (ethically, we could not sell it on the open market because of its problems; the dealer knew the problems and gave us some value out of it), and put that money into a new car. We decided to buy the new car. When we finally went to the dealer, we had a good idea of what we should be spending on this car, and, we came with the attitude that it will hurt them more to lose us as customers than us not to buy the car from them.
We actually chose a dealer whose service department we had used previously and liked very much. We decided not to shop at a competing dealer whose service department was horrible. So, basically, when we went in to the dealer, we knew what we wanted, had a pretty exact number for what we would not go above, and were pretty certain of what we had to get for our trade-in. And, that's what we did: we got a little less for the trade in, but, we paid a little less for the new car, so, in the end, we got the car we wanted at the price we had decided to spend ahead of time. But, buying a car, or anything big for that matter, is often not just about dollars and cents. There is a human intangible that our salesperson knows very well: he made us feel good about doing business with him and his dealership. It feels good to tell your friends that you made a good deal, or, at least, that you didn't get ripped off (which I believe we did make a good deal and did not get ripped off), but, it also gave me pleasure to make the sale with Andre, the salesperson who worked with us. I know he is a good salesman because he made me feel personally great about putting money into his pocket. I do not think I have ever felt that way about a car salesman before, but, the whole place had a quality of trying to be "new" and doing business a bit differently. So, money is a major consideration, but so is doing business with whom you want to do business.
Remember: I did a lot of research to find things that the average person can do that can make them much better off financially. I did not ask for help from a financial planner: I learned by researching and listening to people I respect. And, while experts are useful for some things, when it comes to money, be careful of Wizards Bearing Promises of Wealth With No Work. I am implementing those ideas that have value and sharing it all with you. Who needs Wizards when you are taking control over money?