Posts Tagged ‘planned spending’

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Black Friday-Blowing Your Spending Plan in a Moment of Frenzy?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Black Friday Shopping

Black Friday-the day the retailers look forward to all year long.

The Friday after Thanksgiving gives all the retailers a chance to celebrate or suffer, as it frequently sets the tone for the holiday’s profits or losses.

Last year saw a drop in holiday spending as the recession took hold, the first drop in years.  What does this holiday season of spending look like?

Those of us on the other end of the  professional marketers spear, who have to do our best to avoid over-spending during this day are in the cross-hairs.  We will be bombarded by advertisements, and recommendations for who has the best prices.

Unfortunately this sort of hype works.  Who can forget the video shots of those riots a couple of years ago, where someone was killed by a horde of shoppers.

Enjoy Black Friday

So how do we prevent  over-spending, while still enjoying the traditions of shopping on Black Friday?

  1. Make sure you have a spending limit and stick to it.  Maybe carry your money in cash (safely of course), leave credit cards at home-similar to what some gamblers do to keep from over gambling.  You can only spend what you take.
  2. Make sure you have a list with prices of your planned purchases.  Part of the fun of this day, so I am told, is the excitement of finding something you were going to buy, at a better price than you had planned to spend!
  3. To find the best prices, and decide where to shop, do your due diligence.  Scan the shopping ads, and do your online research.  See this earlier post where I reviewed several coupon sites on the web.  See this question at Cash Commons, a great new site for personal finance questions on this subject.
  4. The best buys are early in the morning-you can’t be everywhere at once-so pick your battles-based on the amount of savings of items you have on your must-buy list.
  5. Enjoy the company of friends and family, make the day an adventure..

So let us hear from you folks out there, share with us your shopping stories.

Confess your sins if you spent too much-confession is good for the soul.

If you snag a great bargain, it’s ok to brag! Let us know.

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Posted in personal finance, Planned spending aka budget | 3 Comments »

Generic or Brand Name: Saving Money and Does it Matter?

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Generic drugs are the chemical equivalent of brand name drugs and have to meet bio-equivalancy standards-that means that have to reach the same blood levels in testing-for you non-medical readers.  Does that mean they are equal-well yes and no.  Equal when discussing generic drugs means that are within an expected range of equivalancy on testing-doesn’t have to be  exactly equal.

So why am I raising this old argument today, in my blog about personal finance.  My wife just mentioned to me a discussion at work among her nursing co-workers.  They were talking about cold/flu meds they were purchasing for themselves and their families. Yes H1N1 is here too.

My wife, who makes me look like Donald Trump when it comes to pinching pennies, was shocked at how most of her colleagues spent extra money on brand name over the counter medications.

They were buying brand name Tylenol, instead of acetaminophen, brand name Robitussin instead of the generic or store brand variation-frequently at a 50 % increase in cost.

So is buying name brand when it comes to your OTC medications worth the extra money? NOOOOOOO.

Maybe if you are on Digoxin(heart medication)  and your cardiologist warns you to get the brand name, maybe I can agree.  But with aspirin or cold meds, save your money.  You feel lousy enough if you are having to buy something for your cold - don’t go blowing your budget.

Now sometimes for non-medical people, it may be hard to tell what is what when reading labels.  The secret is reading the active ingredient list and the amount of medication (usually in mg’s).  As long as the active ingredient and the amount of the two products is equal, then compare the price.  Just like buying cereal.

So don’t let your stopped up head affect your brain and your bank account.  When you have to buy over the counter meds, go with the generic, and spend your savings on a movie or book to help you feel better.

Let me know what you think about the generic versus brand name argument.

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Posted in personal finance, Planned spending aka budget, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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