Thursday, July 21, 2011

How to save money by thinking ahead

Today I'm going to make another post dedicated to saving money, as I realise I've wandered off course a bit recently. So, my topic for today is how to save money by thinking ahead and planning. Now I don't mean budgetting, because we all know about that, I'm talking about the 6 P's (7 if you're an adult, but this is a child friendly zone!). Prior planning and preparation prevents poor performace. I'm not sure who coined that phrase, but it is one of the better phrases that was taught to me by my father. So let me give you a few examples.

When I was younger, getting my learner's license for driving, I was quite lazy. The policy where I am from is that you have to log 100 hours of driving time, before you can take your test and become a full license holder. I was extremely lazy, and after 3 years I still hadn't logged my 100 hours, so it came the time to renew my license. $120 down the drain, for a 3 year license renewal, which I barely needed 6 months of, because soon after that I took my test and got my full license. If I had been less lazy, and thoguht ahead, that's $120 extra I could have had in my pocket!

Let me give you another example. One of the guys I used to live with, one whim, went to the local music store, and came home with a brand new $1400 guitar. By itself there's nothing wrong with that, but 3 months later, he decided he didn't like it. Now, everyone knows that as soon as something is owned by someone, and takes on the "second hand" title, it's immediately worth less. If he had made a sensible decision, and thought ahead, he wouldn't be $400+ out of pocket.

Really, these are simple ideas. I can't think of the number of times myself, or someone I know, has been caught out by not thinking ahead, and it can be very costly. If you want to save money, this really is a great place to start! Budgetting is all well and good, but if you can plan ahead, understand what you are going to need, when you are going to need it, and make sensible decisions, you wont have any trouble saving money.

Live simply, plan ahead, save money!

Frugillionaire: 500 Fabulous Ways to Live Richly and Save a FortuneFrugillionaire: 500 Fabulous Ways to Live Richly and Save a Fortune

How to Save Money when Times are ToughHow to Save Money when Times are Tough

3 comments:

  1. I agree with your ideas. I also add one more point i.e. before we buy any product we should ask ourselves is it a need or want? So, that we can easily decide whether to buy or not. If it is need we will buy else buy on some other time

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, I wanted to share a tip for you or your readers about a new and legit website that allows you to earn a little bit of extra money. This website allows the hunters to find and get paid ($2.00 per error) for finding errors such as misspelled words on advertisers websites.It's free to join. I understand how important it is to have alittle extra cash. Check it out at www.TypoBounty.com It's been featured on URLWire.

    http://www.urlwire.com/news/051011.html
    http://www.prbuzz.com/education/51305-writers-and-proofreaders.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awesome work.Just wanted to drop a comment and say I am new to your blog and really like what I am reading.Thanks for the share

    ReplyDelete