I'm a bit of a tight wad myself.
I'm always looking for the sales, and even generally ask for an additional 10% discount, and often get it too. But I do have my weaknesses, and spend my money foolishly on certain things.
Guitars...I suffer G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome) :P
I have several theories I've tried lived by. One is to not buy anything on credit. If I wanted something, I got the money together first to buy it, or I just did not have it. I know the importance of having good credit though, for those times you may need it. So, I use a credit card regularly, but it gets automatically paid in full with each billing by direct Banking. That keeps my credit score above 850.
I did just recently buy a new '08 Honda Civic and financed half of the 24k at 1.9%...couldn't resist that...and crunched the numbers enough to figure that was a good idea, with the high price of gas. The car gets 40mpg.
Try not to pay full price. Like I mentioned...I always haggle the cost down. Money talks the loudest. I learned that, and it works. I won't beat a person that is desperate to sell something down though. I kinda have my limits, to how much I'll seek to drive a price down. I walk away from more purchases, than I accept. Many times, I simply walk away to "think about it" and the next day, I have a much clearer view of it all.
Lastly, the methods of savings I do is kinda Biblical. I got the notions anyway from the Bibles teachings on tithe. As a kid, I use to save my money up for something, and learned my money would burn a hole in my pocket. I'd come up with something I felt I really needed, just because I had the money. Later to find out, I didn't need something as bad as I thought I did. It always killed me to sell something, I rarely made use of, for less money.
So...what I ended up doing is realizing I needed to have a savings I never touched. I came up with that 10% theory, that I could get by without ever missing 10% of my income or savings. So, I began putting 10% of anything I made into an account, which later began to diversify, and grow in other nest egg baskets.
I wasn't always religious about it though. Lots of times, I did not stick the 10% away. Some times I even cashed in some of my precious...
my precious. :lol:
I'm so screwed up...but at least I'm not broke too. :lol:
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