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Quality Over Price: Do You Prefer Quality Over Price When You Make A Purchase?

Written by The3dtechnologies · Leave a Comment

I often try to look for the lowest-priced deal I can get away with when it comes to make a purchase, but in general I’m not a cheapskate.

But with certain items, I prefer to pay a little more for getting quality. In particularly, when it comes to health and safety.

However, sometime no need to sacrifice quality over price.

The best quality products are not always the most expensive. Companies that invest in advertising can convince you that their products are better than others one but the truth is that a lower-priced item may be made better and cost less.

Just do your research, check the reviews, and buy accordingly within your budget.

1. Food - When it comes to choose food, I’d prefer to spend less on some things so that I’m able to spend more on good-quality food.

I’d rather forgo a new phone or the latest version of the notebook rather than eat junk. In particular, my choice falls on those foods that I can cook from scratch. I think it’s the best investment for our health.

2. Wine - If there is one thing where I like to spend a lot, this is the wine. Anyway, price does not always equate to quality and quality doesn’t always have to come at a higher price.

A $5 wine can taste like a $15 bottle if you choose wisely. We’ve bought cheap wine before and had to toss out the bottles because it was too bad even to cook.

3. Chocolate - I love choccolate, I prefer buying smaller amounts of good chocolate is better for your waistline too. Rarely I buy the small bars of dairy milk or bournville, but believe me, a tiny square of quality chocolate is worth a ton of these bars.

4. Shoes – I’m always looking for stylish, affordable shoes, just because these days I want to save a bit. Anyway, If you’re not careful, you could buy shoes doesn’t fit properly and could leave your feet blistered and sore. Also, looking for retailersc that even give you a lifetime warranty on your shoes.

5. Mattresses - On average people spend one third of their lives asleep, so make your dorm bed extremely comfortable. With a lot of brand out there become very hard make the right choices. The right mattress should involves the firmnes, shape, and size.

A good mattress can do wonders in helping you maintaing the correct posture and work well all day, making you healthier and more productive.

6. Knives – Cook’s knife is the kitchen’s most important tool. If you enjoy cooking like me, a quality knife is all you need and is better than 10 cheap knives. If you’re in trouble about choosing the best chef knives, I’ll suggest to take a look at this post.

7. Car - Every time you use your car, you’ll risk your life, in particular if your machine is very old. If you’re going to buy a new car that is safe and will last many years it’s obviously worthwhile to do your research on the best quality car that you can get on your budget.

For the second year running, quality continues to be the most influential factor for used-car buyers over price, according to CarMax. So, make sure the vehicle you’re using is good quality.

8. Luggage - A robust suitcase is your most indispensable accessory when it comes to make long trip. I did not reccomend cheap suitcase, e.g For example, a Chinese case has cost me around $30, but it lasted little more ‘than a year.

9. Electronics - If your’re looking for the new tech gadget that you hope will last a few years, it’s obviously worthwhile to do your research on the best quality product that you can get on your budget.

10. Appliances - When I purchased a new microwave, I did a TON of research on the best microwave within my budget. I bought it on Amazon. I ended up with a quality model that had good reviews from buyers.

Image: Cristian Senger, slightly everything

Categories: Frugality - Tags: Frugal living, Frugality

Five Easy Tips To Avoid Spending Temptations

Written by The3dtechnologies · Leave a Comment

We are more and more surrounded with things to buy, and the temptation to spend out money for useless things is always around the corner.

Of course, spending an extra two bucks for some candies wouldn’t make any difference on my wallet, but I realized that often I really didn’t need of a particular item.

Many of us haven’t been educated about saving money and often throw away money for useless things, in particular as the holiday season gears up, there will be plenty of shopping temptations every day.

Also, spending too much on stuff can lead to a messy home. I hate clutter, and you? I think many of us have need to control it. A cluttered home may lead to neurosis that will cause terrible worry entering your life.

I have become very good at avoiding spending temptations over the years. So, What I’m going to share you today are my favorite tips on how to avoid spending and to say no the next time:

1. Cash – People have the nasty habit to carry money everywhere. A great thing you can do is to avoid of carrying enough cash that make yourself be tempted by other. For instance, if you go to the park you can bring something to eat from home, instead of buying stuff out.

2. Have you enough Space? – Do you know where you’ll keep your items? This is the first question I did myself when I shop at bulk stores. E.g this is what I did with the paper magazine. Now I prefer read my favorite magazines via internet. So, unless you’d be willing to put all this stuff, don’t buy it.

3. Diversify – There are number of activities more worthwhile than shopping. E.g. you can walk to park, or go to running.

4. Deals – Avoid to buy something just because you pay half of price. If I buy everything just because on sale, I couldn’t image where I’d keep all this stuff in my home.

5. The list – No matter if you are grocery shopping or christmas gift shopping. You can’t buy without a list. A list is helpful to know about how much you’ll be paying for it.

As you can see there are many way to avoid shopping temptations.

So, let me know how you will avoid spending money on things you don’t need.

Image Credit: Sunfox

Categories: Frugality, Money Management, Savings

What’s Going With Bank Of America?

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Can anyone remember the latest news about Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Bear Sterns?

Surely, these ones are still alive in the minds of investitors as well as those who kept funds in these banks.

So, now the question is quite obvious: Can Bank Of America fail?

The company serving 57 milion customers and holds 12.2% of all U.S. deposits. It has a relationship with 99% of the 100largest companies in America, as well as the companies in 149 other countries outside of the United States.

First at all, you have to know that if you have your money deposited on bank of America’s you have no worries if it ceases to operate, it keep your money in safe anyway.

It probably BOA will never close their doors, or anyway the government wouldn’t let that happen due, they are too big.

A bankrupt of the BOA as result could also have significant destabilizing impacts on the banking system, and could take time before the situation come back as before.

How Banks Of America Make Profits?

Bank lend money to consumers that can fund items such as houses. They make profits by charging interest on money created out of nothing. But they also lend money to other banks and corporation at Wholesale rates.

Anyway, Bank of America’s have its problems.

Adding a series of lawsuits has made investors worried and when lawsuits start, they have a way of multiplying. To reduce risk of bankrupt, BOA continues to sell off its assets including real estate investments. Also, they’re making a restructuration of Bank system by laying off people.

Final Consideration

Frankly, I prefer avoid the large Banks due their customer service, anyway even though they isn’t going to make you much more than 1% per year, depositing your money into any of the major Banks comes with Free insurance from the FDIC.

Image Credit: epSos.de

Categories: Frugality - Tags: Bank, Bank Of America

Cheap Breakfast Ideas That Save You Money

Written by The3dtechnologies · 1 Comment

We all know about the lunches out. But what about breakfast? What is the first meal of the day for you? And what about the cost?

The first meal of the day can be challenging. Some people hit the first coffee store near their office, when they get up in the morning. Other ones aren’t hungry and thus need to take food with them for later.

We all can take a few steps in the right direction to try and save money, and create breakfasts that are fast and easy and better cheap.

Some people, only do breakfast with cereal. Oatmeal is super easy to make, inexpensive ingredients, quick to put together, and tasty.

To save a bit of money I used coupon/rebate combos to get old-fashioned oats for as little as 2 to 4 cents per bowl. sometimes I got it for free.

Once you take Oats, a pinch of salt, water, and put all in the microwave to some minuts, you’re ready to eating breakfast.

The price of old-fashioned oats can vary at grocery stores. At one supermarket near me, old-fashioned oats can be had for $1.09 per pound. Over in the cereal aisle a box of oats costs about three times as much.

Drinking Your Breakfast

A breakfast with shakes or smoothies, i.e., mixtures of milk and juice or milk and fruit or milk and yogurt. Add, peanut butter, wheat germ, protein powder, or whatever else will hold you until noon.

When I have no time, right before bedtime put some yogurt, fruit (fresh or frozen) and whatever else you want into the blender canister, then pop it into the fridge. Next morning, I blend a liquid, which usually is soy or nut milk.

Like your smoothies cold and thick? Fill an ice-cube tray with juice and store the healthful result in a plastic bag or container, to be added one or two at a time later.

Cookies For Breakfast!

I just found a recipe published by Myscha Theriault at Wise Bread that features bananas, applesauce, oats, skim milk and dried fruit — but no flour and no eggs, for those avoiding such things for reasons dietary or humane.

Here we go: 3 mashed bananas (ripe), 1/3 cup apple sauce, 2 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats, 1/4 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup raisins (or any other dried fruit you want to add), 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tbsp Splenda , sugar or other sweetener.

A Year of Slow Cooking offers a “baked oatmeal” recipe that you actually cut into squares, like brownies.

Even, if you’re a practical, I’ll suggest you to try one or more of the following techniques:

Frittatas or quiches – Look for the simplest recipes for omelets. You could find it easier to wash one casserole dish than to swab out a couple of dozen muffin-pan divots.

Yogurt parfait - Two good ways: The fast way – Buy layer yogurt, granola and fruit in a container. The slow way – Pour some yogurt into one of your fruit cups, and add some granola.

Miniature omelets – In a nutshell these are a mixture of beaten eggs in muffin cups. You can also use cheese and/or meats too.

Fruit cup – Use a little of your time to cutting up pineapple and washing grapes. Next, apportion it into little cups, and keep a spoon at work.

Breakfast batch cooking – Take pancakes or waffles or French toast. Next, freeze it. When you’re at workplace you can heating up French toast made with cinnamon bread. Bakery outlet stores can save you some money.

Image Credit: ALT123

Categories: Frugality - Tags: Cheap Breakfast Ideas

4 Simple Budget Travel Tips To Save Money And Make Your Trip Enjoyable

Written by The3dtechnologies · 6 Comments

I always throught that travel should be free — or however you should save money as much as possible. Budget travel tips usually has the purpose to find cheaper airfare or hotels, however today I want to give you a new creative ways you can use to travelling at low cost.

Rent Instead To Stay In A Hostel – If you are eager to stay in a hotel but you have to pay too much for it, you could consider to rent a house or Apartment. Vacation rentals let you avoid the $5 bottles of water or you’re able to cook for yourself. Vacation rentals give you a lot of freedom, especially if you have kids, is the best way to don’t disturb people in the next room.

Homeaway is a leading vacation rental marketplace, which provides a large number of privacy and amenities of vacation rental homes versus that of hotels.

However, in general, I recommend to check up local vacation rental sites that cover offers into the region you’re visiting. These sites are created by people want to promote their properties, whether it’s one house or 50 properties, and can offer local tips and personal attention.

Travel in Groups – If on one hand pay $1000/night for a fancy 6-bedroom home, can seem high, in this case, any room will cost you $166, on the other hand If you have six couples staying together you have no problem to pay for it. Consider that these larger homes have al types of confort, amenities like hot tubs, pool tables, docks, fireplaces, or large acreage.

Visit People – This tip works best if you’re not shy and want to go off the tourist track and get some activity recommendations. If you have a friend or parent that lives in a place you’d like to visit, that is time to keep contact them. I’ve never regretted reaching out to someone in another country, no matter how far is it. Making connections with others is the best part of travelling.

Monetize your Apartment – This tip isn’t simple but could let you generate enough money to fund all your major travel expensis. When I’ll out of home(e.g. travel) for a while, I tend to rent it. One time I earned enough money that I could cover all my major travel expenses. You can start post an ad for your home in the vacation rental section of Craigslist. Other great resources to post an ad are HomeExchange.com, AirBnB.com and SecondPorch(a Facebook application).

Image Credit: kokorowashinjin

Categories: Frugality, Saving Money While Travelling - Tags: rent, Simple Budget Travel Tips, Travel Tips, Vacation rentals

Five ways To Save Money When Travelling

Written by The3dtechnologies · 3 Comments

Making a lot of money online is a great thing. I know, many of us are trying do it too. However, at the same time, it is incredibly important to spend your money wisely. I think one of the goals for any travelers is to keep saving even while they’re traveling. For many of us, saving for traveling is fairly straight forward, just set up a targeted savings account and put a little money aside each week or each month, right?

save_money_while_traveling
Image Credit: Fernando Gregory

However, in my view there’s something to be said more about saving for traveling. In my view, saving while traveling isn’t so easy as could be. Even the most carefull person could be surprised with unexpected expenses. Ramit sethi suggest budgeting 20% to pay for sundry expenses along the way.

Here I’ll gives you a bunch of extra tips:

Taxes and fees – Taxes and fees on tourists are different on country. A little research let you know which are taxes and fees on tourists and plan ahead. For instance, in a few countries you have to pay an extra fee at aeroport to enter the country.If you don’t know much about some fee, you could not have the money necessary in such moment.
Unexpected needs – I can’t travel without my netbook and while traveling I always need of an adapters to plug in all my electronic gadgets.
Impulse spending – In my recently article I wrote about spending personalities. Many people like me fall into impulsive spending, in a nutshell they buy something because has need for instant gratification. In every of my travels I have new experiences and seeing new things such as visit a museum, souvenir shopping, scenic tours, take a river cruise, and so on. Some of these may cost more than you’d expected. Better to budget ahead to prevent cost you’d not expected before. If for small stuff just can’t avoid to be an impulsive try going to worry about something more expensive then.
Emergencies – On one of his latest travel, my friend John has an incident, accidental that required hospitalisation. His insurance ultimately paid for her care. Unfortunatly he had to pay out of pocket for everything there, and then chase down reimbursement for it through a maze of paperwork once we got home. Having a comfortable cushion of while traveling lets you handle real emergencies as they crop up.
Be Frugal – Be thrifty or economic in the spending of money. Often you could be influenced on spending more. For instance, my friend is more frugal than I am, I often fall in to spend excessively just because I’m on the road.

If you enjoy frugality, you can use this habits everywhere you go. Of course if you have that 20% cushion Ramit Sethi suggests, then you could enjoy your travel, be frugality and spend freely too.

Categories: Frugality, Money Hacks - Tags: Frugality, money hacks