Economic downturns are never especially fun, but as Adam Smith noted over two centuries ago, these cycles of paucity and plenty are a fact of life. Though no one can say for sure when this most recent slump will reverse, there are at least sure ways of saving your money in the meantime. Here are some penny-preserving techniques tailored to our 21st-century lives:
1. Plenty of people are in the habit of cutting out paper coupons, but even though many of us do some of our shopping on the Internet now, not as many of us seem to have gotten into the habit of coupon-hunting online. Sites such as CouponCabin.com, CouponMountain.com, and DealofDay.com list thousands of current offers at merchants all across the Net.
2. Use price-comparison sites like Pricegrabber.com, Shopping.com, Google Product Search, and mySimon.com to find the best deals online.
3. When you’re at a store, send a text message to 46645 (Google’s number) and enter the letter “f” and then the name of the item you’re considering. Google will reply with a message quoting its online prices. To compare prices at stores near you, check out ShopLocal.com.
4. If you don’t already belong to one, consider joining a warehouse club such as Costco or Sam’s Club and buying things in bulk. This can be especially helpful if you have a sizeable family.
5. Buy generic instead of brand-name products. A lot of the difference is often in the marketing ballyhoo and not the products themselves, anyway.
6. Withdraw your money from surcharge-free ATMs, which can be found on AllpointNetwork.com and MoneyPass.com.
7. Buy locally-sourced food at farmer’s markets or stores that sell local produce. Prices are usually lower there since the food doesn’t have to be transported very far.
8. Shop at dollar stores. You shouldn’t have a hard time finding one since they’ve been turning up all over the place in the recent past.
9. Buy discount prescription drugs at online pharmacies. You’ll often end up paying less than half as much for the generic medicines stocked by these discount prescription drug stores than you would for the same brand-name pills at brick-and-mortar pharmacies.
10. If your vehicle is seven or more years old and/or worth less than $2,500, consider dropping comprehensive and collision from your insurance. Your deductible may be nearing the worth of your vehicle anyway, in which case a major collision would send your car to the junk dealer and you to the dealership.
11. Keep cell-phone expenses under control. Kids today love to text message, so save yourself from unexpectedly high bills by paying the flat monthly fee for unlimited text messages.
All rights reserved. Article may be reprinted as long as content remains unchanged and links remain active.