Frugal Zeitgeist (love her blog!) mentioned an interesting article by Kiplinger on what some major 20 money waters are. Here are her picks from that article.

$1 — Buying new instead of used, wastes money

This is particularly true for cars. They lose most of their value in the first 3 years. If you buy a car 3-5 years old, you’re saving a ton of money.

I bought a 10 year old car (now 11.. haha), but it still runs great. I took it to the mechanic recently, and he told me the car would last another 3-5 years or more if I took care of it.

I only paid $2000 for it, flat, in cash and will get another year extra of use out of it.

$10 — Wasting electricity, wastes money

I should show you what our apartment looks like for electricity. BF went hardcore this time…

EVERYTHING we have plugged in, including our microwave, are all on power strips. The oven is the only exception. When we go to sleep, we shut off the power strips, therefore, cutting all energy vampire suckage while we are conked out.

My tips are as follows:

$21 — Avoid Upgrade-Itis

When you just need a 25″ TV for example (I don’t own one), don’t spend the extra $500 on a 50″ TV. Save the $500, even if it’s what you feel is a small amount (*choke*) when you are spending $1500 anyway.

This applies to planning a wedding day, going on vacation, spending on a frivolous electronic item (dum dee dum..), using that phrase as your supposed “once in a lifetime” excuse is just asking for trouble.

Instead of being satisfied with your 3 star hotel room for your honeymoon, you now want to upgrade to the 5 star suite and pay an additional $1200.

It’s one day!

It’s my big day!

Just splurge.

We only live once.

$22 — Not to even try to look for deals, or to compare prices

If I didn’t compare prices between online websites that sell contact lenses all the time, I’d be out $50 at least!

Check out sites like: RetailMeNot, Fat Wallet, and other coupon sites for online shopping.

And as for IRL (in real life) shopping, take the time to check out all of the big stores that sell similar items within walking distance.

I’ve saved $15 – $20 just by taking out 2 minutes of my day to check another store.

Also, don’t assume Wal-Mart is the cheapest. Check occasionally with your grocery store, local pharmacy, or other places you go to buy items that you’d normally purchase there.

$23 — To write off the membership fee from Cost-Co or Sam’s Club as “not worth it”

We bought a Cost-Co membership for $50, and we’ve already saved more than that amount by buying food & household stuff in bulk & finding items that would normally sell for $300, on for $50 as a “no-name” Cost-co brand.

$24 — To avoid looking for alternate uses or substitutes

You may not even need an external hard drive. Have you ever thought about using your iPod to carry your data instead?

I didn’t have my entire 80GB iPod filled up, and had about 30GB left over. Had I wanted to, I could have used it to carry files around, instead of buying another external hard drive.

(Alas, I have too many files to do that, and 8 external hard drives standing by but it was a thought that crossed my mind).

$25 — To care too much about your image

You refuse to buy a card from the dollar store, because you’re afraid that if it doesn’t say “Hallmark select” on it, people are going to devalue your gift.

Maybe it’s true for some, but not for me. It’s just a card. It’s the thought that counts, and then it gets tossed.

I just keep the gift or the cash inside, and scan the card in.. then poof, bye bye.

How about wearing an item or outfit once, and then tossing it into a donation pile, in fear that someone will see you wear the same item again!?

Or how about my post on that guy that is spending $4 on a business card?

To me, that’s a waste of money, but then again, I don’t keep business cards. I read them, take down the info, scan them if I wish, and then toss them.

I get that the card is cool (Ginger from Ginger Won’t Snap says she’d keep it!), but for most people not in advertising or marketing.. we probably wouldn’t keep it because we aren’t “creaming our pants” for it. (Ginger’s words, not mine)

Or how about this last example?

Refusing to shop at a dollar store or a low-cost grocery store, because you don’t want the plastic bags you use when you shop there to be in your kitchen cupboard to put trash in, lest your friends see it!!!!

True story.

Someone I know, has friends who REFUSE to shop anywhere but at high end grocery stores like Loblaw’s, Whole Foods or other fancy food places, because looking like you can’t afford to buy food at a full price premium, and trying to save money is “dirty”.

*SNORT*!

We always assume that the price in certain stores are lower, but are they really?

This is something to think about, in the way that we shop for goods and make choices.

Just because a store SAYS it’s “No Frills” or is called “Valu-Mart”, you can be sure that their product positioning is that they are of lower costs, but it’s not necessarily always the case on certain items. While you might buy 90% of your items at a lower, or comparably lower price, they have to make money somewhere, and it might be $2 on other items.

Another way we screw ourselves over is the way we shop for groceries for example.

Groceries have found the secret, and are using it to their advantage: people only look for certain items to gauge how cheap a store is using milk, bread, eggs for an example.

When we see that milk is $0.20 cheaper in that store for 1L, then we assume the entire store is just as cheap.

That is SO not the case, but retailers know that most people are too damn lazy to keep a price book, or to really remember the prices so that they’ll know if they’re getting ripped off or not.

Kudos to those of you keeping price books by the way. I leave that up to BF because I get confused with their stupid KG > LB pricing here where they show you the price in LB but then charge you the KG price at the cash.

But without BF, I kept a price book. I had to, or else I wouldn’t know if it was a real deal, or just an inflated price that had been discounted to push a sale.

So they price staples that you check for regularly, real low, then screw you on the higher end stuff because you’re already assuming it’s cheaper because you used the milk as a benchmark for prices.

So next time you visit a new store, do a quick once-over and check everything you’d normally buy elsewhere before declaring it fabulous.

You may end up wanting to shop for half the items at one store, and for the other half at the second store, depending on how far apart they are from each other and what they each offer in terms of variety.

1. Go through your mail and deal with it as it comes.

Do the following tasks every time you get a piece of mail
- Deal with it right away (e.g. paying a bill online)
- File it immediately (either in “To Do”/”Waiting for more Info”, etc)
- Toss it 

2. Continually rid yourself of your sticky notes and scraps of paper.

I actually don’t mind sticky notes or scraps of paper, as long as at the end of the day, the information on them are transferred into my Palm or into a notebook. Sometimes you just don’t have it handy. 

A good tip would be to get a notebook and use it to record EVERYTHING you want to remember.

 

3. Create a list/binder of quick access information

Such as phone numbers of clients you call all the time, a list of the payment terms for each customer that you always keep looking up. I usually don’t advocate paper AT ALL to be used, but sometimes a quick and handy guide of things you are ALWAYS looking up will be useful on a piece of paper and kept in a desk. 

4. Schedule filing time at least once per week.

I do this every Friday. I file away all the loose things, pack up the area, and make a note of what needs to be done for Monday. 

5. Add dated or calendar items to your system as soon as they arrive.

The minute I get a calendar item, I put it in my PDA, or I write it on a sticky note, throw it in my pocket and put it in my PDA when I get a chance to. 

6. Don’t leave half-completed projects sitting on your desktop.

Or if you do, stack them up on a pile in a corner and make sure it doesn’t spill over to another section. 

I’d also make sure to finish that project or if you aren’t done, put it away properly with a short note of where you left off before starting another project.

7. Keep your desk clean.

The less knickknacks, paper and accessories, the better. Clear desk, clear mind. 

8. Keep folder of material you need to read or review.

Don’t forget to schedule time to clear out that reading material so that it doesn’t pile up into a huge mess. 

9. Keep a folder of material that you’re waiting for feedback/info on

And review them at the end of the day to see if you can clean them up even more. 

10. Do a quick clean of your desk at the end of the week.

Toss that half-filled juice box, dust off your desk, do a quick wipe down of the writing area, stack up your papers nicely, and clear your desk for a fresh start on Monday. 

I hear from a lot of people that they don’t have time. They’re always running out with friends, going over to family homes for dinner, or doing work things.

They’re totally excited to do everything, but underlying all of that, I always hear the inevitable:

• “It is so stressful to juggle all of this…”
• “Wow, I had SUCH A WEEK!”
• “I need a break.”

To me, all of those activities above, are fun.

In moderation.

And that’s the key. MODERATION.

And here’s how to quickly take back your life with three simple steps:

1. Schedule your time

If you put in your schedule that you are going to see Tracey on Friday night, and then over promise for a big breakfast gathering with old school friends… you have to make a choice. 

Either you reschedule Tracey, or you head out for the breakfast gathering. Doing both, is not such a hot idea because any of the following things could happen:

- You blow off the big breakfast because you stayed out too late with Tracey last night 

- You blow off Tracey and end the dinner early because you know you have to get up early and get to the big breakfast

- You do both, and end up feeling tired, cranky and less than your fabulous self at the big breakfast

This is where a schedule comes in. You get to see at a glance what you have coming up as commitments. You can prioritize what you need to get done, what is more important that weekend, and make sure that you don’t overbook yourself.

If you see that your February is PACKED with an event every weekend, and you can’t possibly squeeze in another without compromising on your previous commitments, then you have to:

• Reschedule
• Cancel
• or…… #2 on my tip list:

2. Sometimes you have to just say NO.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I get that way a lot when I go back to Ontario and I have a whole packed list of friends and family to meet, and I feel rushed, stressed at times, and feeling like I wanted more time with certain people and less with others.

So sometimes, I have to say NO.

No to going out late until midnight with friends to a fancy restaurant when I have to leave early tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. to get to another city to make the rounds.

No to packing two lunches back to back and the second friend feeling like I left her on the backburner because now I’m picking at my food and not enjoying being in a restaurant.

You have to stop over planning your weekends and evenings, and when domestic tasks or other things at home start to pile up, then you have got to take time for yourself to set aside half a Saturday to either just get things done like catch up on laundry, wash the dishes.. etc.

3. Set deadlines for your priorities.

Going back to the schedule idea, if you have to DEFINITELY get something done in two weeks – a major project for example, then it HAS to be your priority. 

You have to set aside real time for it, and start planning out what you have to get done for the projects and GET ‘ER DONE.

If you’re a Blogger (using Blogspot) then here are a couple more tips that might help.

I mentioned before that you can use Blogger Backup Utility to save your blog and your posts, but Blogger has now built in their own backup utility.

So now, to save your blog you have to do two things:

1. If you have a custom template, you have to save your Template

Although if you have a custom template, you know that, and you aren’t going to miss this one, but I’m going to go over how to do it.

2. If you want to save your posts you can under Blogger now!

The only difference is that you save it all into one ATOM file (it’s what they call the backup), instead of having the option for each post having its individual ATOM file.

No biggie.