Economic downturns aren’t ever much fun, but as Adam Smith noted over two centuries ago, these cycles of paucity and plenty are a fact of life. Although none of us can say for sure when this most recent slump will reverse, there are at least sure ways of saving your money in the meantime. Here are some penny-preserving ideas tailored to our 21st-century lives:
1. Plenty of people are in the habit of cutting out paper coupons, but even though many of us do part of our shopping on the Web now, not as many of us seem to have gotten into the habit of coupon-hunting online. Sites such as CouponCabin.com, CouponMountain.com, and DealofDay.com offer thousands of current offers at merchants across the Net.
2. Use price-comparison sites such as Shopping.com, Pricegrabber.com, mySimon.com, and Google Product Search to find the best online deals.
3. When you’re at a store, send a text message to 46645 (Google’s text number) and enter the letter “f” followed by the name of the product you’re considering. Google will reply with a text quoting its online prices. To compare prices at stores near you, go to ShopLocal.com.
4. If you don’t already belong to one, consider joining a warehouse club like Costco or Sam’s and buying things in bulk. This can be especially helpful if you have a large family.
5. Buy generic instead of brand-name products. A lot of the difference is usually in the marketing hype and not the product itself, anyway.
6. Withdraw your money from surcharge-free ATMs, which can be found on AllpointNetwork.com and MoneyPass.com.
7. Buy locally-grown food at farmer’s markets or stores that sell local produce. Prices are often lower there since the food doesn’t have to be transported far.
8. Shop at dollar stores. You shouldn’t have a difficult time finding one since they’ve been popping up all over the place recently.
9. Purchase discount prescription drugs from online pharmacies. You’ll often end up paying under half as much for the generic pills carried by these discount prescription drug stores than you would for the same brand-name medications at brick-and-mortar pharmacies.
10. If your car is seven years old or older and/or worth $2,500 or less, consider dropping comprehensive and collision from your insurance. Your deductible may be closing in on the value of your vehicle anyway, in which case a major collision would send your car to the junk dealer and you to the dealership.
11. Keep cell-phone expenses under control. Today’s kids love to send text messages, so save yourself from unexpected high bills by paying the flat monthly fee for unlimited text messaging.
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