Economic downturns are not always very funny, but as Adam Smith observed centuries ago, these cycles of very scarce and many are a fact of life. Although nobody can say with certainty when this will reverse the recent downturn, there is at least secure ways to stretch your cash in the meantime. Here are some penny-preserving techniques tailored to our 21st century life:
1. Lots of people are in the habit of cutting out paper coupons, but even though many of us have some of our shopping online now, not many of us seem to have gotten into the habit of coupon-hunting online. Places such as CouponCabin.com, CouponMountain.com, and DealofDay.com list thousands of current offers at merchants all over the web.
2. Use price-comparison sites such as Pricegrabber.com, Shopping.com, Google Product Search, and mySimon.com to find the best online deals.
3. When you're in a shop, send a text message to 46645 (Google's text-number) and enter the letter "f" and then the name of the topic you are interested in. Google will respond with a message citing its online prices. To compare prices at local stores, go to ShopLocal.com.
4. If you do not already belong to one, you might consider participating in a warehouse club like Costco or Sam's and buy things in bulk. This can be especially useful if you have a big family.
5. Buy generic instead of branded products. Much of the difference is usually in the marketing propaganda and not the products themselves, anyway.
6. Withdraw your money from the surcharge-free ATMs, which can be found at AllpointNetwork.com and MoneyPass.com.
7. Buy locally sourced food at farmer's markets or shops selling local produce and meat. Prices are often lower when food does not need to be transported very far.
8. Shop on the dollar stores. You must have an easy time finding one close by, as they have been turning up everywhere in recent times.
9. Buy discount prescription drugs from online pharmacies. You will often end up paying less than half as much for the generic drugs being transported by these discount prescription drug stores than you would do the same trade name medications at brick-and-mortar pharmacies.
10. If your car is seven years or more and / or a value of $ 2500 or less, consider dropping comprehensive and collision on your insurance. Your deductible may be approaching the value of your vehicle anyway, in which case a larger collision would send your car to the junk dealer, and you are the dealer agreement.
11. Keep cell phone costs under control. Children today love to send text messages, so save yourself from unexpected high bills by paying a fixed monthly fee for unlimited text messages.
12. Using online classifieds to buy used items. Sites which CraigsList.org and Kijiji.com has excellent resources to find everything you need, from vintage furniture to baby gear. By purchasing from local vendors, you save on shipping costs also.
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