Today I was talking to a person who mentioned that he wanted to buy some kind of weed puller for this one day that he was holding an event in his backyard. He mentioned that it cost about $30 or so which wasn’t too bad.

This got me thinking on how many times we tend to buy items where we only use it once and then throw it in say the closet to never be used again. For myself when it comes to these types of items, if I don’t intend to use it at least say once every two months I tend to explore other options such as borrowing a similar item from a friend or family member if available.

It’s just like when we were younger I suppose. What’s the point of say everyone buying the same toy/game when you could easily just lend your copy to the other if they plan to play it through once only? As long as you don’t abuse the trust/generosity, I’m sure most people are more than happy to help you save money in these ways. More than likely you would do the same too.

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I was talking to some people today that were talking about the thought of how much they would pay for a subscription service of some sort where someone else will do things such as cooking dinner and washing the dishes for them as sometimes you just don’t want to have to deal with things like that.

One person said $30/month plus the cost of food and I thought that was kind of a little too low. That sounded more like a fee for a diet program of some sort. I actually know one guy that just absolutely hates cooking and pays a lady to come in and cook dinner for about $20 each time to do it for him. Kind of high expense when you think about it too.

What I always think about when it comes to convenience is that while I’ll probably definitely save a lot of time in situations like these, I always debate whether or not it would benefit me skill wise in the long run. For example, would it enable me to do things faster afterwards? Is it a skill I could use to make money afterwards? There are always things like that which make me consider how much I would be really losing in the overall picture.

Of course, you can’t know everything so many times it makes sense to just pay for convenience.

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A person yesterday was telling me how he knows this guy who is in his 30’s and when it comes to money the only thing he wants to do is save it. He would refuse to spend it on anything that is not a necessity such as traveling for a vacation.

The gentleman was basically ridiculing him and how he doesn’t understand why a person like that would even bother making money if they don’t intend to use it. I can definitely understand not wanting to waste money on just anything, but just saving for the sake of saving money seems kind of counter productive both from a time and investment point of view.

To a certain extent being able to save a lot of money is a way to prove to yourself that you can manage money and follow through with goals. At the same time, I guess like most things you can’t keep conquering the same goals that you know you are good at or be afraid to lose a little. It’s like saying, you can’t grow much taller by standing on the same block. Stepping off that block might make you shorter for awhile, but once you find a taller block to stand on you’ll wonder why you did not do it sooner.

Another way to think about it is why should you do all the work while that lazy money sits in the bank account? You earned it, so find a way to make it work for you now.

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I was at a supermarket today and in the store they were advertising these coupons where if you spent over $250 you could save $30. Those little things sure do have an influence on people as it seemed like so many people were trying to stuff their carts to reach the appropriate amount.

I’m always a little more cautious about these types of promotions as it is easy to just buy anything without thinking if what you are purchasing is truly a great deal. Since I was with some family members we actually did end up using it as we simply combined our purchases. For myself, I have a general knowledge on what is a very low margin item in these types of businesses and so I knew that using the savings on these items would definitely make it a good deal.

For example, in supermarkets milk is usually a low margin item or if they have an electronics department then video games don’t often make a company a lot of money as well. With that, you know using coupon savings on those types of items would be a good deal. Although, I wouldn’t recommend buying like say $100 worth of milk just to reach the qualification mark unless anyone truly drinks that much.

So if you really need to spend more, I’d say try to educate yourself a little more about the products you buy. While some people may be too old for it now if they already have their careers set, even getting a simple job at various stores can really enlighten you to be more aware of the things that you purchase. There’s always good old fashion networking with people in the know too.

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A person was telling me the other day that he has a pretty structured financial management plan as he always divides his funds appropriately. On top of that, he mentioned that for certain funds such as ones set aside for entertainment purposes he would force himself to spend it one way or another even if he didn’t feel like it.

He mentioned that this way he is making sure that he is constantly being active in life as oppose to always being tied down to work and money issues. I’ve seen quite a few people adopt this type of approach as well. I personally prefer to spend based in a non structured yet disciplined fashion. Would feel too much like a chore the other way for me I think.

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