Debt-Free Forever by Gail Vaz-Oxlade (the beginning after the end read novel .TXT) 📕

deal. Throw your weight around to have your interest rate lowered. Failing that, get a cheaper card and transfer your balance. A $5,000 balance at 18.9% costs $945 a year in interest. Get the rate down to 9.9% and cut costs by almost half. Better yet, get a teaser rate of 2.5% and save $820 a year. That’s got to be worth a call.

When was the last time you looked at your cell phone plan to see whether it’s still working for you? If you’re on the road and don’t have the right long-distance package, those long-distance charges can add up fast. Ditto if you go over your limit on minutes. With the cell phone industry in upheaval, and everyone fighting for their piece of the pie, you can negotiate hard to get lots of costs—texting, voicemail, caller ID—waived completely. Do the kids have phones too? Save $16 a phone on four phones and you just stuck $768 back in your pocket.

I could go on and on and on about all the ways to save. But you know what, that’s your job. If you want to find the money to achieve a goal, go back over your budget and cut back. Be creative. Think outside the box. Do some research online for ideas to get you started. All you have to do is Google “ways to save money” and you’ll be buried in ideas. Read through them and see which ones will work for you.

Pick one category of your budget and do some research on how you could save money. When you come up with the amount you think you can save, plug the amount you would save monthly into an online savings calculator and figure out how much you would save in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years by changing just one thing. If that’s not motivation enough to swap a bad habit for a good one, then maybe it’s simply that you’re not yet ready to change.

Strategy 8: Beware the False Bargain

Who doesn’t love a good sale? But when bargain hunting, coupon clipping, or mastering the deal becomes the objective, you and your budget are likely headed for big trouble. I can’t tell you the number of people who have said, “But it was such a deal!” Really? A deal? Hmm.

If you’re spending money you don’t have—if you’re putting it on credit and paying interest on it—it’s not a deal. If you’re buying something you don’t need, it’s not a deal. If it takes you three weeks, three months, or until the end of time to put what you bought to use, it’s not a deal.

A deal is buying the snowsuit your child is going to wear next winter on sale this winter at 70% off. A deal is picking up a new book you’re dying to read for half-price. A deal is getting something you really need or want at a significant savings and being able to pay for it in cash.

There are some places that are known for having “deals,” and people take the value they’re getting for granted without actually checking the prices. Dumb! And there are people who will go to extremes to get a deal, lining up for hours to browse—and ultimately buy—in stores where they wouldn’t normally shop. What’s up with that?

In a culture that worships shopping, it’s only natural that the “bargain” be the Holy Grail. But if you find yourself being suckered into buying stuff just because “it’s a great deal,” you’re definitely not as smart as you think you are. If you’ve saved so much money with all your bargain shopping, show it to me.

If you can’t show it to me sitting in your retirement plan, in an educational savings plan for your kids, or in your emergency fund, you’re deluding yourself. You need to find something constructive to do with your time. Bargain hunting isn’t doing it for you.

GAIL’S TIPS

People who can’t pass up a good sale even if it’s on something they don’t want, need, or even particularly like aren’t smart bargain buyers, they’re compulsive shoppers. Scoring deals helps them to ease their insecurities and feel more competent and in control. And they rationalize their purchases as something good they are doing for themselves or their families.

Do you know that people actually get a buzz from bargain shopping? Are you a bargain junkie? Do you

• hit sales and clearance racks when you’re feeling sad or mad?

• spend more than you can afford?

• see sales as opportunities you just can’t pass up?

• feel guilty about your shopping?

• walk out of stores with things you hadn’t expected to buy?

• hide your purchases?

• routinely forget what you bought and find things in your closets with the tags still on?

Write the five questions below on an index card and stick it in your wallet so that the next time you find yourself sidling up to the cash register with a bargain in hand, you can ask yourself the following:

• Do I need it?

• Where will the money come from to pay for it?

• What will I do with it?

• What would happen if I waited?

• What else am I willing to give up so I can take this home?

Strategy 9: Don’t Make Shopping Emotional

I grew up listening to adages like “Money doesn’t make you happy.” When I was married to my first husband and trying to figure out where I was going to get the money to go to work the following week, I figured all that stuff I heard was a load of B.S. Over time, I’ve worked hard, traded in husbands, and discovered that money—more and more money—doesn’t make you happier. Yes, too little money can make you miserable, but once you have enough to meet your needs, more money doesn’t increase your sense of well being.

So let’s turn the equation around for a minute. If we’re willing to accept that money doesn’t make you happy, is it possible that sadness makes you spend more?

One study