Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Four Week Financial Turnaround

I recently read The Four Week Financial Turnaround.  It is currently $2.99 for the Kindle version and $8.98 for the paperback on Amazon.  As the name suggests, it is broken into information and tasks to go thru your finances in four weeks.  It contains several worksheets to help you manage your spending and savings.  The kindle version shows the worksheets and includes links to PDF versions of the worksheets on his website.

I have written several posts about watching your spending and how small expenses can add up considerably.  One of the paragraphs that struck a chord with me follows.

"If you received a bill at the end of the month from 7-Eleven for $120, Quickie Mart for $87, and Starbucks for $118, what would you do?  Would you get angry and call them up right away to dispute the "false vill?"  I would.  But they would turn right around and respond by providing a record of the facts, proving beyond a doubt that you do in fact owe them.
Things would be different if convenience stores sent their customers a bill at the end of the month instead of charging at the time of purchase.  Those smaller amounts are easier to absorb.  All the spending adds up unnoticed."

It doesn't mean you shouldn't spend money on these things, it's just to pay attention to how much you are spending and can afford to spend each month.

On one blog I saw a post from a lady that she had spend $500 or so at Target in one month, $50 each trip and making several trips throughout the month.  Fifty dollars may not seem like a lot, but if you end up making several trips it can add up over the month.

The book seems like a good resource to get your finances in order and is also a good refresher for those that do not currently have debt

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Getting Ready for Summer

With our weather now, it may seem like summer is a long way off.  I stopped at a second hand store near my house on the way home this afternoon and ended up finding 5 pairs of Studio Works capris.  They still had the original price tags ($28) and were marked $2.99 each.  On the way into the store I saw a sign that the white tags were half off.  So each pair of capris were $1.50.  So I ended up getting $150 of pants for $8.01.  I got 2 khaki, 2 black and 1 blue pair of capris.

This is one example of not knowing what you will find when shopping at thrift stores.  It is not as much of a guarantee of finding specific items as shopping at other stores, but in many cases you can find a deal on brand new or almost brand new items.