Jul

2

Why You Don’t Need Overdraft Protection

Filed Under Budget, Credit Cards | Leave a Comment

Yesterday marked the first day that banks had to ask your permission before automatically opting you in to overdraft protection when you open a new account. They have until August 15th to beg existing customers to keep the coverage, at which point everyone who doesn’t actively choose it will be opted out. Some banks, like Bank of America, are abolishing their overdraft protection program altogether. As for the rest, don’t fall for the queries asking you to sign up, because most of their arguments just fall flat.

Overdrafts Don’t Affect Your Credit Score
Overdrafts don’t hurt your credit score. That’s because checking and savings accounts don’t appear on your credit report. They’re not loans or debts, they’re cash, and therefore not reported to credit agencies.

Overdraft Protection Doesn’t Save You Money
The new rules only apply to ATM and debit card transactions, not bounced checks, so overdraft protection won’t save you money on bounced check fees. In fact, NOT having overdraft protection WILL save you money because your purchase or withdrawal will be rejected. So, just make sure you always have $20 in cash in your wallet or access to a credit card in case you’re at a restaurant and didn’t realize your balance is low.

Checks and Automatic Bill Payments Are Exempt
If you write a bad check, you’ll still get hit with fees. The same holds true if an automatic debit hits and you don’t have the cash in your account. So if you opted into OP to protect your mortgage payments, you might as well opt-out. OP doesn’t protect you.

Overdraft Protection Alternatives
So what you can do to avoid overdrafts from any source? It’s actually quite simple.

1. Track your spending and upcoming debits. Don’t rely on your ATM balance to tell you how much money is in your account. You may have other payments that will hit that same day and put you over the limit even if your debit cleared earlier.

2. Sign up for low balance alerts. Many banks offer a program that will send you an email or text alert if your balance drops too low. Then you can either stop spending money or find some cash to deposit into your account before you overdraft.

3. Budget. Budget. Budget. It’s that simple, people.

4. Use a credit card. If you have a credit card, then charging the purchase may be cheaper than a $20-$35 overdraft fee, even if you have to pay interest for a month or two. Of course, this assumes you can actually afford the thing you’re buying. If you can’t afford it, then no amount of overdraft protection will make it affordable.

So, have I convinced you that you don’t need overdraft protection? If you still feel you need it, then you also need to ask yourself some hard questions about why you can’t balance your checkbook and spend within your means. Is spending hundreds of dollars a year on overdraft protection really helping your budget?

Jul

1

How Much Does a Baby Cost?

Filed Under Budget | 2 Comments

Yesterday, LearnVest (a cool financial blog for women) offered a post about the true cost of a child to age 18, and offered some tips for preparing for a baby. The post includes a cool info-graphic that outlines the USDA’s tally. Learnvest says:

“Take a deep breath: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a baby born today to a middle-class family will cost about $221,000 by the time she turns 18—not counting college! For more info, look at a detailed breakdown of child-rearing costs. Before you fall into a dead faint, remember that you won’t shell out that whole sum at once.”

Child Cost Breakdown
The biggest portion of the child expenses is housing, which you’d have to pay for anyway, however housing may cost more once you have a child. Many families opt for a bigger house. Most of us don’t want to be living in a one-bedroom with a two parents and a 15-year-old!

If you really think about, most of the costs the USDA details are manageable over 18 years. It’s just $12,777 a year. Obviously, children are most expensive in the early years when they need childcare unless one parent can work from home or become a stay-at-home parent. The expenses ease up a bit once children start school and are old enough to watch themselves. But that doesn’t last long, because then come the teen years, with cars, pricier clothes, and gadgets galore.

Preparing for Baby Costs
The next portion of the LearnVest post offered six tips for preparing for baby costs. The first one made people go nuts! It was: “Plan to have at least $20,000 in the bank at the outset.”

Most people were outraged at the very idea that they should have to save a lot of money for a baby. And it’s true, many families don’t. However, do you really want to start your new baby’s life by going into debt just to get her out of the hospital? Even if you have insurance, there will likely be some cost. Most insurance plans require a deductible. Some plans have an additional maternity deductible.

Then there are things like diapers, extra food for you if you breastfeed, formula if you don’t, baby clothes once the baby grows out of all that adorable stuff you received at your shower, medical insurance premiums, etc. Yes, you can save by choosing cloth diapers, breastfeeding, and making your own baby food, but there will still be expenses, even if you’re super-frugal.

That figure also includes childcare. If you already have childcare worked into your budget, then you may not need to have $20,000 in advance, but plan to spend around that much for first year expenses all together. Pay as you go is one option, and it works if you budget carefully, but it never hurts to have a little extra in ye olde savings account either!

My husband and I are heading in the general direction of parenthood and we’ve already started working on our budget and plans. So far we’ve: bought a house with room for a nursery/child’s room, made plans to replace my car with one that will fit a stroller/baby-seat, decided on cloth diapers, budgeted the cost of childcare, and decided to make our own baby food once it’s on solid food. And I’m not even pregnant yet! If you’re considering children, it’s never too soon to start planning for that event. Save now, while you can.

Jun

15

Setting Priorities for Everything You Want to Do or Buy

Filed Under Budget, Money Management, Time Management | 1 Comment

This is mostly about time management, but it also applies to personal finance. Every week, I create a To Do list in my notebook. It includes my usual weekly tasks (because I like crossing things off lists, not because I worry I’ll forget to buy groceries), the TV shows I plan to watch, events I plan to attend, as well as the things I need/want to do. I never mark off all the things on the list, though, because I make other things a priority.

Choosing Between Priorities
This weekend, for example, I wanted to do several things:

  • Go for a hike with my best friend
  • Paint my powder room
  • Make curtains
  • Paint a box for the bathroom
  • Work on a writing project.

Obviously, I had to narrow that list down, because there was simply no way to do it all and still have time with my husband.

So, I figured out which was most important to me.

I’d already agreed to the hike, and it was her birthday, so that was easy. Plus I got exercise, which I needed. Working out was also on the list!

The writing project was next on my list because I’ve given myself a personal deadline for it.

After taking care of some other household chairs, the other three things on the list didn’t happen. They’ll move to next week’s list.

Tips for Setting Priorities
If you’re deciding on priorities for your budget or your time, it’s all about calculating the relative importance.

My best friend is more important than my curtains. My writing project is also more important than my curtains, but less important than my best friend. If I had a paying deadline, the writing project might take the top spot.

If you’re budgeting, your rent/mortgage and other bills are priorities, whereas the vacation savings can wait.

If you’re choosing between purchases, or budgeting your spending money, decide which is more important to you. Do you need to buy the shoes more or can those wait so you can add to your vacation savings? Should you go out to eat or would it better to eat at home so you don’t have to put the movie tickets on the credit card?

Here are five questions to ask yourself before taking an action:

  1. Is this a want or a need?
  2. Is this related to an obligation?
  3. Is this related to a personal or financial goal?
  4. Can I do afford this without stretching my budget?
  5. Is the benefit greater than the cost?

For the hiking trip, the excursion was a want. The exercise was a need. It was an obligation, because I’d already agreed to go. It wasn’t related to a goal. It was free, so no cost. Definitely had a lot of benefits!

The Benefits of Setting Priorities
Obviously, we all want to do more than we have time for, and most of us want to do more with our money than we reasonably can. So, it comes to making choices. Priorities help make those choices easier. Most people, including me, have goals in the backs of their minds. By consciously prioritizing those goals and writing them down, you can more easily prioritize the other choices you have to make instead of taking an action and then realizing later that it was a mistake.

Jun

11

My New Top 5 Budget Busters

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Two years ago, I posted my top 5 budget busters. Now my life has changed a lot, so I’ve got a mostly new set of budget busters.

House
Want to blow your budget fast? Buy a house. On top of the tens of thousands we spent buying the house (in the form of the down payment), we’ve also bought paint, furniture, and home maintenance tools. So far we’ve managed to keep the costs manageable, but a $5500 sewer bill sure put a dent in our plans!

Husband
Sadly, my husband is still one of my budget busters. He’s getting better, I promise, but he still has his moments. I thought I’d broken him of his habit of buying weekend lunches while he was recovering from surgery, but once he was able to drive again he went a bit crazy. He went even more crazy once he started working part-time. I’m still struggling to rein him back in.

He also still has ideas about what we should buy to keep up with our lifestyle. He keeps telling me I can afford a more expensive car, but I don’t want a more expensive car! He’s insisting that he’s going to buy himself a very nice car in keeping with his profession. Clients don’t see his car, but he still thinks he deserves it.

Surgery
My husband’s surgery blew our budget in the sense that the drop in income required us to shift some budget items around. So far we haven’t had to pay much in the way of medical expenses, but there have been some, which have come out of our FSA. That means that other FSA expenses we have planned may have to come out of our pockets.

Food
Food is still one of our biggest budget items. We’ve cut it in some areas because I’ve been shopping at farmer’s markets and using more coupons, but it’s still high. Gluten-free food will do that to a budget. Throw in my husband’s lunches (even though I buy him food), and you can see the problem.

Insurance
With the house came higher insurance costs. On top of higher auto limits (we have more assets to protect now), we have homeowner’s, flood, earthquake, and life for me. We’re still shopping for my husband’s life policy. For some reason, they didn’t want to insure a guy going in for surgery! Our insurance bill currently tips the scales at $5100 a year, up from $1800 when we rented. It will only get higher once we add my husband’s life insurance and the rate increase for my new car.

Despite these new budget busters, we’re managing to keep our budget in check and have resumed saving money (or at least we’re not drawing down our savings too much despite the big sewer bill.) It’s more of a struggle, though. And we’re certainly not saving the 25% we once managed with ease.

Jun

9

How to Budget for an Expensive Hobby

Filed Under Budget, Frugal | 1 Comment

I’ve written a post in the past about inexpensive hobbies, but I happen to have a really expensive hobby. It’s also very time and labor-intensive, so I don’t get to do it often, but I haven’t given it up. In fact, I’m thinking of taking up a new project now that I have a house.

Expensive Hobbies
Several of my friends have very expensive hobbies. I have a friend who is an excellent quilter, but quilting is very, very expensive. Scrapbooking is another pricey one. Knitting, too. Basically, crafting in general has gotten expensive unless you only use the cheapest supplies.

Playing a sport can become expensive if you join a team, have to buy equipment, or have to pay team dues or rent game spaces.

Horseback riding, bike riding, etc. can also easily get expensive, especially if you do it competitively. Really, any hobby that you try to transition into a career or competition can quickly become expensive.

Collecting anything can be a very pricey hobby indeed.

I have two hobbies. One is novel writing, and yes, it can be expensive. However, because I pursue it professionally, I can deduct some business expenses for taxes. My second hobby, which I can’t deduct, is stained glass crafting.

I haven’t actually made a stained glass piece in at least ten years. I tried to make one in my old apartment, but glass-crafting is very messy. First I had to tape garbage bags all over my dining room to avoid getting glass slivers on the floor while I cut it. Then I had to tape garbage bags all over my kitchen and crouch over a stool to grind the edges of the cut glass. After that, I vowed not to make another piece until I had a house where I could do the work outside or in a garage.

Calculating the Cost of Expensive Hobbies
Well, now I have a house and a small window in need of decoration. I plan to make a small window hanging from stained glass. I already own most of the supplies, but I may need to replace some of them, and that could be expensive. For example:

New diamond grinder head: $26.95
Copper foil: $5.95 a roll
Cutter tip: $14.66
Particle board work surface: $20
Pattern paper: $8.95 for 100 sheets
Glass: $8-20 per sheet

Of course, I’m not truly considering the cost because I enjoy making stained glass windows and I want to make a window. I’ll try to keep costs down by using some of the glass I already have. I have several large sheets, as well as a big box of glass bits that are perfect for small cuts.

If a hobby is truly expensive, you’ll either have to decide how to afford it, or find a new hobby.

Budgeting for an Expensive Hobby
|When cash was tight, I didn’t make stained glass pieces. I simply couldn’t afford it. If you have debt, you can’t afford a hobby. If you don’t have debt, arrange your budget to accommodate your hobby without creating debt. Look at your expenses to find other areas you can cut.

Some simple examples:

  • Use coupons at the grocery store. Put your savings toward your hobby.
  • Cancel or reduce your cable. If a hobby is keeping you busy, do you need cable?
  • Brown bag your lunch.
  • Sell CDs, DVDs, or supplies from old hobbies you’re no longer active in.
  • Cancel monthly subscriptions.
  • Pool resources. If you know other people with the same hobby, schedule meetings where you can share your supplies and avoid having to buy all the tools that others might have.

Once you make the necessary cuts, budget the hobby into your monthly expenses so you’ll have the funds ready when you need to buy supplies or sign up for a class. You should also follow crafting blogs or newsletters to be alerted when supplies or equipment go on sale.

We all need hobbies. They’re creative outlets that help us reduce our stress and provide simple enjoyment. In fact, if you spend most of your time sitting on the couch watching TV, you probably need to get a hobby! Just make sure it’s one you can afford.

Jun

2

Savings Account Interest vs. Convenience

Filed Under Budget | 2 Comments

This weekend, my husband and I mapped out our cash flow for the rest of the year. I noticed that he wasn’t scheduling our usual monthly transfers to savings, but was instead letting the money pile up in the checking account. That started a debate about whether it was better to leave the money in the checking account for convenience, or better to transfer it to savings to earn a few bucks of interest. I’m sure you can guess which side of the argument I came down on!

Anticipated Expenses
He reasoned that we have quite a few big expenses coming up. For example, we’re buying a new coffee table, TV, and TV console later this year, we have our homeowners insurance, earthquake insurance, flood insurance, and auto insurance due between July and November, and then I’m buying a new car around the end of the year.

That brings our total planned spending to around $9000. However, we’re not spending it all in one month, it’s spread out into three large chunks.

Low Interest Rate
Our current interest rate is 1.29%, which is pretty darn low. Each $1000 earns $12.90 a year, or $1.07 a month. So, leaving $3000 in the account for three months earns us a whopping $9.56.

Convenience
It’s true that leaving the money in checking (which earns no interest) is more convenient. We don’t have to schedule transfers to make sure the money is back in our account in time. It also doesn’t make sense to transfer money from checking to savings and then transfer it back two weeks later.

Convenience vs. Interest
If the interest rate were higher, the convenience factor would be less compelling. However, it’s not exactly inconvenient to make a few clicks and transfer money around. While I won’t transfer funds out of the checking account during the months we have to make big payments (because I’ll be transferring money in), I will transfer the funds out in the interim months. Even if we only earn $3 in interest, that’s $3 more than we had before and it’s certainly worth 60 seconds of my time.

When interest is this low, it doesn’t always make sense to transfer funds out of checking, but if you can map out your expenses, I think it’s worthwhile to move the money into savings if it can stay there more than a month. Most online accounts allow six transactions a month, so there’s really no reason not to use at least one of them!

May

3

Adjusting Budget Priorities

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As I’ve mentioned several times, my husband and I built up a sizable emergency fund before he went on disability. While on disability, we’ve been down some from our usual income, so we’re not increasing the emergency fund, but we have been continuing our tax set asides. When this plumbing emergency developed, we had the cash, but also had to readjust our spending plans for three sofas and sliding doors.

Why We Want to Readjust the Budget
Although we could buy the sofas and sliding doors right now, we also need to replenish the emergency fund with the $5500 we just spent on plumbing. When it was just $1775, we weren’t concerned, but we were concerned when it ballooned to $5500.

Other Priorities This Year
We have several major priorities this year, two of which are now in flux.

  1. Replace the French doors with sliding doors. We want to do this in 2010 because there’s a 30% tax credit for energy-efficient windows. That would be a significant savings.
  2. Buy me a new car. One car I’m considering also has a tax credit, although others I’m considering do not. I don’t expect the tax credit to be used up this year, but I don’t want to miss out on it by waiting too long. The other reason I need a new car is simply because mine is almost 14 years old and has over 130,000 miles on it. It’s starting to show its age.
  3. Buy furniture. One room of our house is empty and another room has furniture that is too large for the room. We’d started to buy, but we’re not done yet.
  4. Increase retirement withholding. We really need to get on this.
  5. Build our emergency fund. We need to get up to six months expenses, but we have to balance that with other priorities.


How to Adjust the Budget
In order to adjust the budget, we did a few things.

First, we looked at our planned spending for the next few months. We worked out that we’ll need to transfer money from our emergency fund in June to cover the plumbing bill. That doesn’t yet include the sofas we want to buy. It does include upcoming insurance bills we already have the money saved for. We may not need to dip into savings to cover them, which will help replenish the emergency fund.

Second, we figured out how much we plan to spend and when we can realistically expect to do that this year. We also looked at what we expect to be earning once my husband returns to work.

Finally, we looked at the increased budget expenses we expect to have next year.

Then we did the math and worked out what we need to save to replenish the fund and what we have left over to work with.

It’s challenging to have such a huge crimp thrown into our plans. That’s why we have an emergency fund, but we also don’t like dipping into it, because then we have to replenish it! We haven’t quite figure out how we’re going to make this all work, but we’ll find a way. And if we can’t, some things will get delayed. That’s just life.

Apr

20

What Is a CD Ladder?

Filed Under Budget, Emergency Preparedness, Money Management, Personal Finance | 1 Comment

I’ve mentioned CD ladders as good options for tax refunds and emergency funds. They’re a safe way to earn a bit more in interest than the basic savings account. Currently, you won’t earn significantly more, but in the past I’ve seen CD rates go as high as 7% on a 5-year CD.

What is a CD Ladder?
Basically a CD ladder is five CDs, each with different maturity dates. Traditionally, the maturity dates are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years. You buy them all at the same time. Then, when the 1-year CD matures, you roll it over into a new 5-year CD. After 5 years, you’ll have 5 CDs with the highest possible rate at the time of purchase, and you’ll always have a CD maturing within the next 12 months in case you need the funds.

Where Can I Create a CD Ladder?
Most banks offer CDs, so choose any bank or credit union. It’s best to get them all from the same bank or credit union to avoid future confusion. Before choosing a bank, read the reviews to make sure they don’t have issues with properly informing you about CD maturity. If you don’t notify them of your intention within the designated time period after maturity, they’ll automatically renew it into a CD with the same term.

Potential CD Ladder Earnings
Here’s an example of the interest you could earn with a CD ladder vs. a traditional savings account. We’ll start with $1,000 CDs. You may need more than this to open a CD at some banks, but it’s a nice round number for calculations. If you have a significant amount of money to invest, you can buy jumbo CDs, which have higher interest rates. These are Everbank rates. Even though I no longer love the bank, they have all the rates on their website, and they’re pretty generous.

1-year CD – $1,000 – 1.39%
2-year CD – $1,000 – 1.85%
3-year CD – $1,000 – 2.27%
4-year CD – $1,000 – 2.78%
5-year CD – $1,000 – 3.30%

After 5 years, you’ll have earned $768.40 in interest vs. $360 from a standard savings account. Of course, this assumes that interest rates won’t rise in the next five years. They will, because they move with the Fed rate, but CD rates will also rise with the Fed rate, so you’re renewed 5-year CD will earn substantially more than a savings account.

Of course, the more you can start with, the more you’ll earn. If you’re just starting, shoot for $10,000 total. Then, as each CD matures, consider adding more funds to each CD until eventually you have $25,000 in a CD ladder. The money is safe, it can be used for emergencies, and it’s earning a decent return.

Apr

9

Will the Cost of Life’s New Necessities Lead Us to the Poorhouse?

Filed Under Budget, Expenses, Money Management, Personal Finance | Leave a Comment

Last Friday, NPR’s Marketplace had an interesting report on the true cost of all our modern necessities. Taken individually, we don’t really think about what all these things cost us, but taken together they add up to quite a bit of our budget. So, how did we get here and do we really need to be here?

Life in a Simpler Time
People like to hearken back to a simpler age, the 1960s, when talking about how a family could afford to live on one income, and yet they puzzle over the fact that a TV or refrigerator cost ten times more (when inflation is factored in). How could these families flourish on less income and still buy these things?

It’s simple – they didn’t buy as much stuff, and they didn’t have as many supporting expenses for that stuff. Back then a TV cost $300-$500 (more if you wanted color), which was a much larger chunk of the average $5500 income than a modern $300 TV. But, they only had one TV. And they didn’t have cable. So, they paid for the TV and the electricity to power it, and that was it. Since there were only a few channels, they didn’t watch as much of it, either.

Where the Money Goes Today
Household Incomes are ten times higher than the 1960s (although really, they’re only double when adjusted for inflation), yet TVs cost about the same as they did back then. The difference now, is that most families have two or three of them, plus cable, a DVR or two, and DVD player or two. Then you need stuff to watch on that, so add on a movie subscription, too.

Or, let’s look at telephones. Again, most families only had one. It had a cord and they probably rented it from the phone company. Long distance was expensive, so they didn’t make many of those calls. I can’t find an exact cost for the average phone bill, but let’s just go with “less than now.”

Flash forward to today. In addition to a home phone (if you have one), there are cell phones for every member of the family. Some of those have data or texting plans.

Of course, you also need to add in internet access and computers with which to access them.

Want music? Well, then, you’ll need an MP3 player and maybe a CD player.

What My Family Spends on New Necessities
Just as a real life example, here’s what my husband and I spend on our “necessities” for one month:

$88.40 for cable with DVR (one TV, one Premium channel, one upper tier package)
$66.33 for home phone and internet bundle (no long distance or other frills)
$95 for two cell phones (no data or texting plans)
$9.99 for Real Rhapsody (music)
$19.99 for Blockbuster Total Access (3 movies at a time)

Our total is $279.71 per month.

Of course, we get reimbursed $90 a month for our phones, although that’s taxed, so we’ll call it $75 a month. That brings us down to $204.71 a month.

Additional Costs of the New Necessities
Since we’re spending all this money to entertain ourselves and stay connected, we have to earn at least $2456 a year to pay for all of it, on top of our actual necessities like food and shelter. We probably need two incomes to pay for all our new necessities, so that also means daycare, extra commuting costs, as well as less time to enjoy all those modern benefits.

I’m not suggesting that we give up our cell phones and broadband access, I am suggesting however, that we all take a hard look at how necessary the things in our life are and what we can cut. If we had to, we could cut Real Rhasody and Blockbuster easily. We could also reduce our cable bill. The home phone I insist on keeping because we live in earthquake country and landlines/corded phones have never failed me in a major earthquake.

What could you cut?

Mar

30

When to Jump on a Good Deal and When to Pass

Filed Under Budget, Coupons, Saving Money | Leave a Comment

This weekend I snagged on a good deal on a roasting pan. It was on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond for $20 with a $10 mail-in rebate. In addition, I was able to use one of their $5 of $15 coupons on the purchase. That will bring my total cost down to $6.46 (including tax) for an 18” roasting pan with rack. If you want one, the rebate goes through 12/31/2010. It was a fantastic deal, but I only jumped on it because I knew it was the right time.

When Is a Good Deal Worth It?
I don’t jump on every good deal that comes my way. For example, this week I’m snapping up deals on Coke, vegetable oil, peanut butter, and Tums. Last week it was tomato sauce and a roasting pan. However, I don’t jump every time I see a deal. For example, a few weeks ago Cost Plus had ceramic rectangular baking pan for $10. Not a bad price, but not worth buying because I already have a ceramic baking pan.

Here are my guidelines for jumping on a good deal:

Immediate necessity. I don’t actually need the pan this week, but I know I will need it soon. So, it passes the first test.

Repeated use potential. This is a roasting pan, so I know I will use it repeatedly. I see lots of good deals in Target ads that would be fun to have, but they might not be things I’d get a lot of use out of, so I don’t rush out to buy them.

Not duplicative. If I’d jumped on the ceramic baking pan deal, I would have been duplicating something I already had, in fact something I’d bought just two weeks earlier. While I already have a roasting pan, it’s not a good one. This year, my family came to my house for Thanksgiving and my mom had to bring her roasting pan with her. She inherited her pan from my grandmother, but obviously that’s not likely to happen in my case for another 20-30 years, too long to wait for a roasting pan that actually fits a turkey.

Will be used quickly. This one applies to food. I only buy enough of a good deal that I’ll be able to use it all before it expires. I use a lot of peanut butter, so I always snag those deals.

When Is a Good Deal Not Worth It?
The primary time when a good deal isn’t worth it is when it’s not really that good a deal. It might seem like a deal, but if you follow prices, you know it’s really not. For example, at Christmas, I got 40 rolls of toilet paper for $10. That was a good deal at my local stores. I’ve also seen deals where the toilet paper would have been $15 – not quite as good a deal because I know it will go lower.

If it’s something you don’t need and don’t have a use for, then it’s also not a good deal. The ceramic baking pan is an example. I needed one, so I bought one I liked at a good price. I didn’t need two, so I didn’t buy a second one.

There is also the issue of storage. When I lived in an apartment, it wouldn’t have been as easy to stock up on the toilet paper deal. I probably still would have, because I could stuff it into various crannies, but I probably would have held off on the roasting pan due to storage problems. If you don’t have room for the stuff you buy, then it’s not a good deal.

Finding Deals that Are Good for You
I carry a little notebook with my everywhere. One of the items in that notebook is a list of things I need to buy for my house or for myself. Then, every Sunday I check out the weekly ads for the stores I know are likely to carry those items. I quickly scan for items on my lists. If I see a good deal, I add the store and the item to my weekly to do list. If there’s a coupon for the item, I put it in the pocket at the back of the notebook. By comparing my list to the ads, I’m less tempted to jump on deals that don’t really work for me.

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