It's certainly possible to save money using all of those dreary commonsense tactics that fill the Sunday-paper advice columns — choosing a brown-bag lunch over Au Bon Pain, buying clothes only on sale, clipping coupons and rolling loose change. But for most people in a consumer-centric culture, pinching pennies doesn't come naturally. Faced with schoolmarmish lectures about giving up our creature comforts, our ids rebel: We don't have the time to be frugal; we deserve a reward for our hard work; we want our HBO.I love to complain about how people in our culture are addicted to spending money. And yet, consuming seems to keep the economy bubbling along, and I believe devotion to the consumerist cause actually keeps people from actively making others miserable. Of course, that's partly because I wouldn't know a Jimmy Choos if he stepped on me; I suppose many people get incredibly miserable when they see someone else with a... (Words fail me, because I'm not big on branding.)
Fortunately, there's a saner way to save, and it boils down to one tip: Hunt for bigger game. In any given year, you'll spend tens or hundreds of times more on the big-ticket items in your budget — your house, your car, your medical bills — than on cappuccino and compact discs. It stands to reason that you'll find the biggest savings in those same places. "The small stuff matters, but I'm telling people more and more often, see if you can do one huge thing to cut your costs," says Mary Hunt, founder of the Cheapskate Monthly newsletter, which covers the small tips as well as the big ones.I agree with her absolutely; the small stuff matters, too. In fact, I'm still not going to pay for her newsletter.
They also advocate buying used cars. I can't argue with that, altho I bought our 1985 econobox Mazda GLC new. They quote someone who claims that
"These days, you've got to figure any decent car will give you 200,000 miles."Man, we're not even halfway there, yet.
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