Thursday, January 13, 2011

the new new thing

The next time you're on your way to the mall to buy this season's must have item, stop in at the Goodwill or Salvation Army to visit the graveyard of the new new thing. You can see plainly what happened to last year's hot purse or scarf or blouse. All the cute pillows that everybody seemed to have on the sofa, all the accessories, candles, mirrors, frames, etc. end up discarded. On rare occasions you can spot the genuine good thing. A good thing has stood the test of time. It may be old but it still looks good. It's easy to spot the good thing ten or twenty years after the fact. The real problem is differentiating the good thing from the merely new thing. Whatever you think you must have, truth is you can probably do without. Save your money to buy a roof over your head. Save every nickel you have. Once you have a cheap place to live, wealth, real wealth is yours. Now I like to be as stylish as the next gal. This year I bought the September Vogue and noticed that leopard prints were this year's new, new thing. I promptly went out tag sailing and picked up a pretty nice bag for one dollar. I kept my money for savings. I have a house, but I want to buy a place for retirement. I have to save as much as I can.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Stay Healthy GIGO

Maintain a healthy lifestyle and stay off medication. Nothing can eat away at a budget faster than paying for prescription drugs. Right now I'm on an aspirin regimen and I had other inexpensive prescriptions which I stopped because they had side effects. I've seen people take a pill for one thing and then have to take another pill to counteract the side effects of the first pill and so on and so on. Till all of a sudden they have to take a handful of pills every day. Keep your money. Change your health the old fashioned way through diet and exercise. Good high quality food is better than drugs. There's a saying in the computer world: garbage in garbage out or GIGO, for short. Don't try to save money buying fast food. It may be cheap, but it will also make you sick in the long run. Why end up with diabetes and high cholesterol when a nice can of sardines at home is just as cheap and better for you than a burger full of salt and bad fats on a bun made with sugar. Eat as fresh as possible. Fast Food is a myth. Often it takes less time to prepare fresh as it does to run out and pick up something supposedly convenient. Keep your money at home where it belongs.

Get Skills

Even if you do the right thing and stay debt free, the truth is that there are predators out there waiting to take away your money. This is particularly true when it comes to cars and houses. They come into your house or look at your car and give a laundry list of expensive fixes to be made. Be wary, they may be lying if they say something is unsafe. The best way to deal with this is to have knowledge. Learn about cars, learn about houses and systems. The more you know the less frightening these people will be. Always get a second opinion and kick the predators out. When someone tries to use scare tactics or a hard sell, ie. today only discounts, that's red flag. If something is true today, it will be true tomorrow. Kick the bums out.
And learn how to do stuff. Learn how to check the fluids on the car. Learn how to rewire a lamp or change a faucet. You don't need a licensed plumber or electrician for either of those things. Be prepared to stand you ground. The predators always get angry when you say no. They see all your lovely money disappearing off the table. It's your money they had plans for. Keep your money in your pocket.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Christmas shopping

After the holidays is the best time to go shopping, whether it's for cards, calendars or gifts. Everything is on sale and despite conventional fashion wisdom, not much changes from year to year. Last season's leather gloves will be stylish next year. So why not buy them now. Have them paid for and make a great show next holiday. The same holds true for other gift items such as sweaters ans scarves. I do most of my shopping now and have very little to do come December. I have either a special closet or a box to keep my goodies. I also buy for myself. I get those cashmere sweaters on sale and put them away for a year. They make a great surprise. Stemware is also a good deal this time of year. How much does a goblet change from year to year. Then when the garage sale season starts, I keep my eyes peeled for small boxed gifts like jewelry or compacts or perfume sets or other such things that people got for Christmas but didn't really want. I buy them for a dollar to use as stocking stuffers. Another great resource this time of year is the Goodwill or Salvation Army. In order to qualify for a tax deduction, individuals and some times business just dump stuff off before December 31th. It's amazing what's available this time of year and much of it is brand new. Another tactic that works for stretching the Christmas budget is to take all unwanted gifts and sell them on ebay. Make few bucks and use the money for tagging in the summer.