What, according to you, is the most essential element of frugal shopping? Slashing purchases? Haggling? Researching the market and finding the shop offering the best deals. Most often it is an outcome of one or more of these reasons, but these are not really all that effective if your purchases are not timed well. If you were to buy an air conditioner when would you actually buy it? Last year, my brother did not realize that he needed an air conditioner till the hottest day of the summer arrived. We went to a showroom with branded air conditioners and bought one at the highest price of the year! Had we foreseen the necessity and bought it in winter we could have saved up a lot of money! Another mistake that we keep making is missing out on sales and discounts offered by the retailers. These  [...] 

In the previous article we learned the importance of ‘Timing’ of shopping. Every product can be bought at a cheaper price if you wait for the appropriate time. We learned about the best time to get the best prices on real estate, house products, and recreational stuffs. Let us now try to get the best deals on automobiles, travel tickets, food and clothing. Auto New Vehicle: Every year during fall, you will notice the launch of new cars in the automobile market. Hence, the month of September is ideal to grab the best deal on last year’s cars. Visit any automobile showroom during the end of September especially on a weekday to get the undistracted attention of the salesperson, who is striving hard to reach the monthly target. Used Vehicle: Most of the used car dealers rise their inventory  [...] 

Consider this case. You go to the nearby mall to purchase a new pair of shoes. You stroll around the place and select the best looking pair. Just after you pay the bill, you learn that you would have earned 30% discount on the same pair if you would have bought it a couple of days later. You curse the shoes, the sales girl, the mall, and particularly, your TIMING. Saving each dollar by earning cash back on your card, preparing a new budget, not eating out, disconnecting your cable, etc. is a good way to accumulate. However, finding the best bargain is crucial. You cannot just buy anything at anytime, especially when you are being frugal. There is a right to purchase everything. There is, however, a big problem. How do you when is the right time to buy the right thing? Here is the list: House  [...] 

Partying, though usually considered synonymous with extravagance, need not necessarily be an event that burns a hole in your pocket. Another myth that many of us have to remove from our minds is that economical partying is devoid of all fun. It is not so. Partying can be great fun even at modest expenditure. A party is more about innovative ideas rather than spending. So exercise your grey cells and get set for a great party at low cost. Here are some ideas that might help you to have a wonderful New Year bash on a budget: Want to go out for a movie? Just wait! I have a better idea! Why don’t you bring in the movie DVD and call in your gang? Your home is a better venue in comparison to the movie theatre when with friends. You don’t have to sit glued to a chair for two hours! Just make  [...] 

Come holidays and almost every store, big or small, has some sale or the other to attract shoppers. The words such as “Sale”, “Discount”, “50 % Off” on a shop window invariably pull you into the shop and make you buy things. Now you should put a stop to this. Holiday sales are always not worth your time and effort. Just check out why: The quoted sale prices are most often ridiculous! Be careful of the wording used to bait customers. What is the difference between selling 1 pack of potato fries for $2.50 and 2 packets for a bargain sale price of $5.00? If you are alert to these subtle tactics, you’ll save yourself a lot of money. If you want to know about more sales tactics visit a good website like This Is Money. The shopping crowd is maddening and sometimes fatal! Most often  [...] 

Still got some shopping left for Thanksgiving? Why don’t you buy electronic goods at really great bargain prices this Black Friday? This is the day on which stores sell electronic items at the cheapest. There’s almost a stampede of people visiting stores selling electronic goods on that day. According to National Retail Federation, about 6 % customers plan to visit stores by midnight while 40 % intend to visit stores by 6 A.M. on early Friday. Even the stores are hyping the demand for the Black Friday goodies by keeping supplies limited and also their time of availability. So where do you stand in the crowd? Do you want to be the one heading towards an electronic store at random and be a part of the stampede or do you want to do some clever shopping and come up with the best of what your  [...] 

The shrinking economy and global markets have put everybody in a catch 22 situation. Should you buy a home because the rates are quite low nor? Or should you buy it later after the real estate market is even low so you don’t have to regret like other buyers are doing? Listen to the older generation that suggests buying a home is always preferable over living as a renter. But looking at recent statistics, renters are far more contented than any of the recent home buyers. However, it’s not what others are declaring that has put you in puzzlement. The idea of buying a new house is a combined effect of lower prices of houses, lower mortgage rates, government backing, and tax benefits. Are we leading to any conclusion? Is it an ideal period to purchase a new house? You cannot derive a conclusion  [...] 

If you desperately need a new car, you don’t really need my justifications. But if you are not sure and looking for some reasons, here are the best ones. The economic conditions of our nation have propelled automobile manufacturers to provide some of the best deals you can ever dream of. Yes I know it’s quite difficult for you as a customer to afford a new car in such depression period. There are many other ways to travel like public transportation, Enterprise, or ZipCar, which can be quite within your means. However, buying new car is your only choice; this is the best time to buy a car. No Sales Tax Generally you are charged a modest amount as sales tax on purchase of most of the goods. However, you can write this off when you file your tax return for 2009. Not on any article, the deduction  [...] 

If you intend to visit your favorite holiday destinations this Thanksgiving, consider flying because these days airlines have come up with some of the cheapest deals for air travel, The best part of these deals is that, even though you might have missed out on the early bird options for availing discounts, you still can get good discounts even if you are a last minute customer. There’s nothing to be surprised about this. According to the Air Transport Association of America (ATA) the number of travelers this year has gone down by 4 % in comparison to last year. This might leave some seats free during the last moment of departure which the airlines would like to sell at very low rates. Also tickets to a new holiday destination turn out to be cheaper than the ones to old destinations. Along  [...] 

There are few mortals in this world who don’t fall for the addictive aroma of coffee. You might be restricting yourself from this absolutely irresistible beverage for health reasons, but otherwise you might be amongst those hundreds of people who spend quite a bit on coffee everyday. If you ask Darren Ruffel, sales manager, Whole Latte Love, mocha from a vending machine costs $4.27. That would come to about $ 3000 a year! So instead of spending $3000 a year on buying coffee drinks from outside, people are resorting to investing in a $3000 coffee machine with which you can have more number of cups of coffee. Though investing $3000 on a coffee machine might look an expensive proposition, here are some good reasons why that is not a bad investment at all. In fact these days, many Americans are  [...]