My shopping support system is shot!

September 22nd, 2009

My money tree is bare and the there are no new buds

There is dramatic change in my life. I’ve started thinking about not spending money. I built my personal financial system over years and years of spending money, sometimes cautiously, sometimes rashly and sometimes wildly. At all times I planned, saved and budgeted, always keeping spending directly linked to earning. Today I’m in a “no-spend” period. I’ve saved hundreds of dollars this year by finding good deals on financial products. You can do it too.

Our shopping expeditions

This small section belongs under the advantages/disadvantages of working at home. Years ago I fell into the habit of accompanying my wife on her trips to the supermarket. These outings ranged from ‘totally boring’ to ‘mildly interesting’ until I discovered that there’s a man’s world in the supermarket. I found 10 varieties of olives, 20 varieties of pickles and a carousel of fiery hot spices. I found the exotic cheese counter and the cheap tee-shirt rack. Within reason, I bought what I fancied. Then the owners closed down the company I was managing – not enough work to justify, blah, blah, blah… the faltering hi-tech industry, yak, yak, yak… So our shopping trips have changed. I still accompany my wife. We go to the supermarket with a list. We buy the items on the list and come home. Money saved: Considerable.

I’ve seen some changes

One always learns as one goes through life. Long ago when I had a problem with money, my first port of call would be the bank and my friendly bank manager who would always lean over backwards to help me. That’s gone. These days when I have a problem with money I put as much distance as I can between me and the bank. I’m just another customer and I’ve never met the manager. I changed banks recently, mainly because the bank on Pine Street offered better deals than the bank on Elm Street. The bank treats me as a casual customer, so I treat the bank casually too.

Check your insurances

I can’t remember exactly why I got into this. I think I had sudden urge to make sure everything was in order in case I got hit by a bus. The results were surprising. Other than stuff like life insurance, pension and savings which I regard as a ‘do not touch’ subject unless the agent is present, I looked at such fascinating items as household and auto insurance. It’s been years since I reviewed these policies. I took them out and called a couple of new acquaintances in the insurance business. Surprise! The trusty old agents I had used all these years were no longer looking after my interest. They were simply renewing annually. I found a new agent and saved huge amounts of money for the same insurance coverage. I also told the new agent that I would be shopping around for new quotations at every renewal date.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website