Patience: The Virtue That Saves

Patience is a virtue.  It takes some character to exhibit such levels of moral excellence, but did you know that by doing so, you could save money at the same time?  Read on to find out how you can economize by emanating the virtue of patience.  Have the patience to walk instead of drive.  It saves you gas, parking and the stresses of driving.  Walking improves your health and well being while saving gas money.

Patience And Saving Money – Money Saving Tips

1.Be patient: compare before you buy.  From personal clothing to health club memberships, from plumbing services to insurance plans, from car accessories to a new home; compare the offers of 3 to 5 suppliers or service providers before finally settling with one.  Let them know that you are taking the time to search the market and they may just be able to offer you the best savings.  Truly, the patient consumer is a winner!

2.Use coupons as much as possible.  Be patient in cutting them out and going through them before making any purchase.  Pack them together with your grocery bag or in the car so you can use the discount voucher at every opportunity.  One can save $20 – $50, just by using the coupons. 

3.Track your expenses.  Have the patience to keep your receipts and record all your expenses, no matter how small or frequently they occur.  By doing so, you are made aware of where every single penny goes.  Furthermore, you will know when you have spent too much on clothing, when in fact you still need to settle your credit card balance, or pay the mortgage.  You will have a better hold of your financial health, by patiently tracking your finances.

4.Hold-off and sleep on it!  If you are about to purchase a $100 item, hold off the purchase until you’ve given it much thought, say sleeping on it for 1-2 nights.  If after such time, you decide that you absolutely need and can afford the purchase, then go ahead.  Nevertheless, you’ll be surprised at how much you can save by just sleeping and thinking things over. 

5.Devote money in long-term investment.  Understand that when you take up long-term investment, you do not need the money for now, and it is not considered as part of your daily finances.  However, such money when set-aside will reap great rewards in the future. 

Exude moral excellence by patiently saving for years to come, starting today!

HOW TO SAVE MONEY BY DEFINING LIST OF EXPENSES

With the institution of malls, affordability of technology, and rising cost of health care, loans, and rising inflation, it has become very difficult for one to spend less and save money for future use. Current statistics show that banks are showing a considerable decline on each bank account holder’s savings and have shown an increased in the number of withdrawals per month leaving people little money to spend before the next salary strikes their account.

Save Money By Defining List Of Expenses – Money Saving Tips

Along this fact shows a relative increase in the amount of spending made in private institutions marketing different products. While these facts and a host of temptations are a commonplace scenario in the real world, there are many ways by which you can keep yourself from getting into the hype and aid you in creating and developing your personal and unique habit of saving a few dollars from your basic salary.

1.Compulsive Buying – Given enough money, 7 out of 10 people lure into the idea of buying a personal item they like in a store at a first glance. In a simulated sociological study, people who originally planned on window-shopping ended up buying personal stuff if they are taking their personal bankcards with them. If you are doing window-shopping, limit your spending to a few bucks and try making your list the next time you plan on buying such items. Buy only the store items you need and abandon those that do not satisfy an immediate need.

2.Budgeting – Along with your pursuit to saving money, it is also important to keep an organized and effective, yet reasonable budgeting technique. Budgeting eliminates buying temptations that would tend to build up during malling and help you save money along the process due to preformed lists of items you need to buy.

3.Performing Price Comparison – The World Wide Web provides a great avenue on providing a checklist of prices on specific items that you plan on buying. This is great for you if you are into bulk buying and plan on conducting your malling activity in one place. This will give you a good idea if the usual store from where you usually get all your everyday household needs provides you a reasonable price for specific products.

4.Take All the Convenience At Home – Lunch, snacks, and major meals are something which you can prepare at home. If you are serious on saving money, you can prepare all this from home and get away with some amenities of the gut by replacing soda with water. This is not only beneficial to your pocket but does a great deal for your health as well.

Ways to Make Cents at Home

In the midst of all these skyrocketing prices, come the how’s, ways and means to save money and earn extra. There are creative but practical ways you can engage in to help the family save and at the same time earn extra. The things that have been sitting in your attic for sometime and those that become all too familiar and useless might mean extra bucks. This way, it saves you space, cleaning materials and containers. This reduces maintenance expenses. 

Flea Market Bargain Sale and Saving Money – Money Saving Tips

Garage sale at home is a save-and-earn endeavor for starters. Look at the success of flea markets where people can buy almost anything at a lower price but large amount of income for vendors.

How to maximize the potential of flea markets and bargain sales to help you save? Primarily, a flea market is a place where almost all who have something to sell can sell for tremendously lower costs but good quality items. If you have the right tools and enough preparation for a day’s trip to a flea market, then you are ready to go with some handy tips:

1. Ready your tools, maps, measurements and cash:
• easy-to-carry tool kit with screwdrivers, pliers, tape measure, pencil, ropes, set of swatches, paper and plastic bags and boxes;
• floorplan measurements;
• maps, directions and phone numbers;
• bring enough cash and checks for high-priced items.
• dress yourself appropriately for bargain hunting.
2. Early birds usually get the best selections.
3. Keep a critical eye during shopping.
• Be ready to negotiate and haggle on the prices of items.
• Items sold here have greater possibilities, either you can redecorate or repaint them to make it look unique and attractive.

How to make this activity an earning endeavor? After your hands-on training in an established flea market, hope you took note of your observations and ideas; it is time to try out on your own.

Bear in mind five things crucial to garage sale success: location, date and time, variety of goods, organization/presentation, advertisements and prices.

• Spot a strategic location where people can access and drop by easily. Your house is the perfect venue for this. Weekends are the best to schedule your sale.
• During your cleaning session, take note of candidate items for the sale, label them (keep, for repair, must go) and give them a brand new look.
• Organize them well according to prices, use arrangement styles, decide on the tables, baskets and boxes for the items and decorate your venue with fabrics and other helpful materials.
• Lower your prices. The idea here is to dispose of the things but earn from them reasonably.

Recently my niece’s 21 year old friend died in a car accident and my niece mentioned that he had already lived life to the fullest. He had inherited $120,000.00 and imediately started living like a king. He had no regrets, and as fate had it, he got to enjoy his money just in time. People remember what he did with his money and now smile. He enjoyed himself.

Now I am thinking, what if I died tomorrow? Would I have any regrets about being strict with my money and not living the full life I could. Of course it’s not that serious but I cannot help but ask the question. Am I living life to the fullest or I am caught up in the day to day need for money? Should I be spending my money more freely if I need to, or should I still save it for a rainy day.

Why should you save money?

• We should save money for the just incase as the economy is unstable.
• We should save money because it is hard to earn.
• We should save money because money breeds money.

Why should you spend money?

• You might die tommorrow and you cannot take it with you.
• You might miss out on some great experiences.
• Money is the be all and end all of life.

Will spending or saving money make you happy?

This is a questions I often ask myself. Should we be spending money and having a bit of fun, as we work hard for it, or should we be saving it? Everything costs so much money now days. Even to give your family a simple camping holiday is not cheap any more. Really what can you do? Just simple living costs probably take all of your money anyway. Are we in a catch 22?

It’s all too complicated I hope I haven’t confused you.

There is no denying that buying new things for yourself or others feels great…kind of like a therapy…

However, the true meaning of therapy is ongoing benefit and while impulse purchases make you feel good at the time, they can make you feel worse later. This is often because when you make a purchase on impulse you are thinking about fulfilling an immediate need, rather than thinking about how practical the item is, or whether you can really afford it. As a result you can end up spending money on an impulse which could have been put to better use elsewhere, or you charge the impulse buy to your credit card when you can’t afford to repay it and as a result you pay for the purchase many times over in interest charges.

How to Spot an Impulse Buy

The first step to curbing a behaviour is recognising it, and impulse buying is much more than just those people who sit on the couch ordering from infomercials. Impulse buys can also catch you out:

At the supermarket. Supermarkets are designed to encourage you to buy on impulse, that is why the milk is always at the back of the store. You can also save hundreds of dollars every year on groceries simply by making a list before you leave home, and sticking to that list once at the supermarket. You avoid filling your trolley with ‘I think we need this’ and you can exercise discipline by buying only from your list, not from something which is on special but which will go off in the cupboard waiting for you to use it.

At a sale. Clothing, shoes and other nonessential items are easy to pick up on impulse because there always seems to be a sale. However, even if you really do need a new pair of jeans or a suit for work, if you buy in impulse without considering if you can afford it, you can pay for it in the long run.

For the kids. Wanting to spoil your kids is another easy way to get into impulse buys because you pick up clothes or toys or lollies when you’re on a shopping mission for something else without considering if the purchase is in the budget.

As a romantic impulse. Finding the opportunity to spend time with your partner can be hard so if you decide on an impulse to go on a weekend away you may think you’re doing everything right. Unfortunately one of the biggest sources of tension in relationships is money, and if your romantic impulse buy costs more in interest charges or late bill payments down the track, you could be causing more problems.

How to Avoid Impulse Purchases

Sometimes it is nice to be impulsive but there is a difference between being impulsive and making impulse purchases. Impulse purchases are not in the budget, and are often charged to the credit card. Being impulsive shouldn’t have negative ramifications, so you need to know how to avoid making costly impulse purchases.

Luckily avoiding the negative side of impulse purchases can be avoided with a few simple rules:

Don’t keep your credit card in your wallet. You’ll be less likely to deem a sale as an emergency if you don’t have any way to pay for the purchase. If you choose a credit card as your emergency fund then it will only work if you keep it for emergencies only, otherwise you are just accumulating unnecessary credit card debt.

Have a non-linked savings account. Keep your savings in an account you can’t access with your ATM, EFTPOS card or debit card. Ideally an online savings account held by a different institution to the one which holds your transaction accounts will require several days to transfer funds out, restricting your access to fund an impulse.

Make a budget. If you have a detailed budget you know how much money is coming in and going out, you have allocated funds to your savings plan and you know how much is left over for incidental spending. This turns an impulse buy into a one off expense you can afford, because there is room in the budget.

Cost vs use. Use this method at the point of sale to determine how much you really need the item. Divide the cost by the number of times you expect to use the item, and then consider whether the cost per use of the item is reasonable. This forces you to stop and think about your purchase and whether you really need it.

Plan an impulse. You don’t have to give up on impulsive indulgences, just plan for them. Plan a shopping trip once a month with a budget in mind, plan to buy the kids one new toy a month or plan a movie night at home where you can indulge in some snacks and chocolates which were once expensive impulse buys at the supermarket. And of course don’t forget to plan for your romantic impulsive indulgences.

Alban is personal finance writer at Home Loan Finder, he helps people to choose the best investment home loan

Have you got a 106cm High Definition Flat Screen TV, or a car that costs half as much as a house. How many Televisions have you got and do you even know? Does your mobile phone take pictures, play music, and browse the internet? Well if your last name isn’t Jones, then why are you trying to keep up with them???

Have you ever stopped and thought about all of these needless possessions and conjured up a genuine reason why you have them? My theory is if you associate the word need with an item, it justifies the copious amount of money you just spent on it. I am constantly reminded about my spending’s and possessions as my mother was born in 1934 when these items were not available. She always says “We never had that when I was young. And we survived.” It would be great to be able to go in the back yard and gather your vegies, kill Betsy the chook, and cook dinner. Not me though. The very thought of killing something to eat makes me cringe with horror. I couldn’t eat that, but will happily buy one from the local butcher. And I do not want to know the details of how he got it to look that way. 

Mums generation learnt to be careful with money, whereas my generation throws it away. Some of my nephews and nieces are travelling down the fast lane quicker than I ever did. They are in the under 30 bracket, but have the Flat screen LCD TV, the flash car, and the fancy mobile phone. Sometimes I wonder if they are keeping up with the Joneses or is it just in their blood. They have been bought up with having everything and now its turned into a necessity. Can they even live without a gadget in their pocket or at least in close range. What happened to working your way up to all of this. 

Keeping up with the Joneses isn’t always as easy as it used to be. Everyone already has everything. Now its just a matter of how big or fast yours goes. My simple word of advice, and I am sure my mother would agree, is to hold onto your pennies because you may need them for that rainy day. Forget about the Joneses, and trying to keep up with them, because they are probably in debt up to their ears…

Think about things before you buy them. Ask yourself a few questions first. Why am I buying this product? Do I need it and why? Can I make do without it? Learn to distinguish between your needs and wants and do not buy something because your neighbour, Mr Jones has it. Even though you may be jealous about the new 30ft swimming pool or the mini home cinema, remember that these posessions will not bring you happiness. 

Comic By Gary Varvel
From the Cartoonist Group.

 ”Who said money doesn’t buy happiness?” Whoever said this sounds like they had just come into some money. I have to disagree with this statement, however not totally. Mind you, this is a hard subject to evaluate when there are so many situations to consider.

Having no money at all:

Money could buy you happiness if you won lotto just before you were about to declare bankruptcy. If you have bills to pay then money to pay them is going to put a smile on your face. That is true in anyone’s language. But what about the people that have nothing as in possessions and worldly goods but have all they need. If you do not need money to survive, then you do not need it to make you happy in life. If you need food to survive then food will make you happy. That is enough.

Having loads of money:

People with loads of money usually end up not appreciating what they have in life…the flowers, their family and friends. The small things are not important and they miss the essence of life. This is not always true of course. We look at rich people and wonder why they are not happy? What is wrong with them? The ones that have money and are happy, we are seriously jealous of.

Enough money does buy happiness:

This is my theory. If you need $20 a week for your expenses and you can easily earn that, being happy that you are getting through life can be enough for you. Even people that need $900 a week to pay bills and household expenses can be happy if they can handle that. Its when you can’t get enough of what you need. That’s when your life becomes stressful. If you need money to buy food then you will be happy to get money to buy food.

The money you HAD doesn’t buy happiness, its the money you HAVE right now that can make you happy. It is depressing when you have wasted your money and it is a great ahcievement when you have saved it.

How do we get to the stage where we are content with the money we have?