nice to give birthday gifts to nieces and nephews when they were little children, but if they already have their own children you can stop giving gifts. Send cards and make phone calls, instead. Once neighbors’ kids are teenagers you can stop giving them gifts, too, except for graduations and weddings.
•Before you pay for a ticket for transportation or entertainment, find out if you qualify for a discount.
•If your schedule is flexible, take a commuter train, bus or plane during off-peak hours to save money.
•If you encounter a beggar, particularly an amputee or someone with a sign that says he’s a veteran who “will work for food,” give a buck or more. Sure, some beggars are scammers, but ask yourself if you’d like to trade places with him (there seem to be few female beggars).
•If you’re in a store that offers discounts or other benefits to cardholders and you don’t have your card with you, you can (a) ask the cashier if she can work with your phone number, (b) ask the cashier if she can fake it, (c) ask another customer if you can use her card, (d) apply for a new card.
•If a website or store offers special deals for birthdays, you don’t have to wait months to enjoy your freebie or discount. Put in a date about a month from now.
•The worst room in a good hotel is probably better than the best room in a bad hotel.
•Think very carefully before agreeing to a free trial membership in a service. If you don’t like it or don’t think it’s worthwhile you may forget to cancel it by the deadline and incur ongoing expenses.
•Read stores’ return policies carefully. They may not be as generous as they seem. There may be restrictions or exclusions, such as Staples’ 14-day limit on “Technology and Business Machines.” Returning merchandise is particularly easy at Costco and L. L. Bean. Sam’s Club can be tough if you do not have the receipt.
•If you’re going to move to a new community, particularly if the move is because of a new job, don’t rush to buy a house right away. Rent for a while. You may find that you hate the new city or your new job.
•Even if you like the city and the job is wonderful it’s nice to have a year to learn about your residential options rather than listen to real estate agents’ fevered pitches.
•If you find a home you really like, visit it several times at different parts of the day. Maybe there’s a really loud train whistle at four in the morning, or blinding sun glare in the kitchen window every afternoon, or a bad smell from a factory at night.
•Many factors affect whether it’s better to buy or rent a home, but buying usually becomes better the longer you stay because the initial costs can be spread out over the years and the value of the property may increase.
•Balloon mortgages and adjustable mortgages can be disastrous unless you are a perfect predictor of future events.
•When specifying loan or mortgage payments, make them a bit lower than what you think are comfortable. You may have trouble making payments in the future but if the scheduled payments are low, you are unlikely to default. If you find that you have more money than expected, you can pay more than planned and pay off the loan early.
•Before you bid in an auction, either online or in the real world, do some research. Determine a realistic value for your object of desire and bid cautiously. People often get so caught up in the fever of competitive bidding that they lose sight of the value of the item and just concentrate on winning.
•Some people are good at budgeting. Others are hopeless. If you are hopeless, at least analyze your expenses—maybe from credit card receipts. You’ll probably be amazed at how much money you are wasting.
•Check out the limited-time special deals at such websites as Woot.com, Overstock.com, 1sale.com and Thatdailydeal.com. Some products are new and others are refurbished. There’s no reason to reject an item simply because it’s been previously returned or refurbished, but know what you’re getting and pay an appropriate price.
•Cars are always on sale, and so are tires and oil changes.
•Prices for items that are not on sale when you’re ready to buy are often negotiable.
•Negotiate for a time-specific deal. You can probably get the “September Special” price in August or November.
•Mattresses and foundations (the things that used to be called “box springs”) are sold at regular price only between 3:00 and 3:05 a.m. on one Thursday per month, and only in leap years. All of the rest of the time they are on sale.
•Store brands (“house brands,” “private labels”) can save you money and may be surprisingly good. Walmart’s imitation Oreos are excellent and ShopRite’s Manhattan clam chowder is one of the best I’ve ever tasted. I’ve never regretted any Staples-brand office products I’ve bought. Some are low-priced commodity supplies but others are innovative items developed by or for Staples.
•You can probably save money on cable or satellite TV, Internet and cellphone expenses. Call customer service and explain that you’ve been offered an amazing deal from a competitor and ask what the current service provider will do to keep you as a customer. This strategy can also work with newspaper and magazine subscriptions even if there is no competitor to jump to.
•You may be able to save money on personal and business insurance by switching to a new company. There are often special deals to entice new customers. A year later if the price jumps up—and it probably will—you can change again.
•If you’ve been with the same insurance agent for many years, ask him or her to shop around for you.
•Sellers on eBay frequently offer brand-new products for personal and business use at ridiculously low prices. Make eBay one of your regular shopping spots.
•I know someone who saves 1% to 15% and sometimes gets even bigger discounts by placing orders for a huge variety of products through Ebates.com. He starts shopping at Ebates and then goes to another website or drives to Home Depot or Neiman-Marcus and picks up his order.
•You’ll probably be exposed to lots of “free” offers and low-price deals online and on TV and radio. Be sure you know the shipping and the mysterious “handling” and “processing” charges before placing the order. You can be sure the charges for shipping, handling and processing cover those items, plus the cost of the “free” item—and provide a profit.
•If you need money fast you may be tempted to go to a pawn shop. Whether you want to get a loan or sell something, don’t expect to get more than 10-25% of what you originally paid for the item. Gold and silver jewelry is often melted down. Unless the ring, necklace or other item is unusually beautiful or from a famous designer or store (such as Tiffany) you will get only what the metal is worth as scrap. What you think is a diamond may be a synthetic stone with little value.
•You
