A lot of people who shop are browsers and impulse buyers. They go out to look around and to see if anything captures their attention and demands to be bought. Smart shoppers don’t do this. Smart shoppers make lists of what they actually need and buy only those items to make sure that they aren’t wasting money on frivolous purchases.

One way to enhance your ability to be this type of smart shopper is to consider the use of mobile classifieds for finding what you want to buy. Classifieds are a great way to find used products at a discount so that you save money on any purchase. Mobile classifieds are even better because they allow you to access the power of classified ads for just those purchases that you actually want to make.

The cool thing about mobile classified sites is that they allow you as a consumer to set up alerts that will notify you via your mobile phone whenever an item that you want has become available. So let’s say that you want a new bed; you enter that information into your account and then you’ll be notified by phone if someone posts a new bed to the site.

This allows you to identify what you actually need to buy. It lets the site do the work of searching for that item so that you don’t get distracted by ads for things that you don’t actually need to purchase. When you receive the alert, you can check the ad and see if it is what you’re looking for. If it is, you can immediately proceed with the purchase. What a great way to get discounted items without caving in to impulse shopping!

Tags: cell phones, classifed ads, kathryn vercillo, mobile classifieds, shopping, spending, Wireless

People who are trying to save money will find that there are certain areas of spending that are smarter to cut back in than others. The most obvious thing that you should do is to track your spending and see where you spend the most; then cut back in those areas to significantly reduce your expenditures.

Most people will find that the two biggest areas of expense for them are the cost of their housing and the cost of their daily transportation. You can save a whole lot of money by moving into a smaller home and cutting back on your use of a car.

Of course, not all people will be able to cut back in these areas. There are some other things that you can look at to reduce spending by a lot. Reducing your vices, limiting what you spend on luxuries and spending time instead of money wherever possible are three more ways that you can probably save money in your life.

These seem to be the quickest places to start saving money if you work on them in my opinion. What do you think? Are there better places to start saving money in your life than these key areas? Where would you start with trying to spend less?

Tags: kathryn vercillo, money, Personal Finance, save money, spend less, spending

This isn’t the only blog that I write. I also write a few other blogs including Real Words which is my blog all about freelance writing and what it’s like being a web writer for a living. I recently added a post over there that’s all about the things that I do as a web writer that ultimately probably end up being a waste of money. For example, I often over-pay postage on things that I’m mailing out so that I don’t have to go to the post office and weigh out my packages.

You may be thinking that it’s not possible that I waste all that much money on extra stamps. You’re right. I don’t mail things out for work all that often and I probably waste less than a dollar each time. But isn’t it these little things that ultimately end up leading to a whole lot of wasted money in our lives?

A great example of small bits of wasted money that add up quickly is the grocery store trip. I often purchase a pack of gum or a bottle of water that I don’t need or a snack for the walk home when I could just wait and actually eat what I went to the store to buy. Again, I’m only spending one or two dollars on these things but I go to the grocery store four or five times a week which means I’m wasting $20 or more on these little things each month which would add up to a nice chunk of change if I saved it all over the course of a year.

And that’s just one area of a bit of wasted money here and there. There are a lot of other little ways in which I waste amounts of money that seem trivial at the time but then they add up. These are the things we need to be aware of if we want to have a savings at the end of the year!

Tags: Frugal Living, kathryn vercillo, money tips, Personal Finance, real words, save money, spend money, spending, waste money

Last week I asked the question: how long should you keep your cell phone? As part of a life of frugal living, people should probably try to make their phones last as long as possible so that they aren’t spending more than necessary on new phones and increased phone bills.

Another important question to ask is how much should you pay for your cell phone? What do you think is a reasonable price to pay for a device? And is your decision impacted by the monthly cost of services on that phone?

I did a Nokia N97 review recently which highlighted all of the reasons that a lot of people are really interested in this new phone which is set to come out in the summer. But there are rumors going around that the phone is going to have an outrageous price of $1000. Even if those rumors are incorrect, the price is likely to be at least half that. Is $500 too much to pay for a cell phone?

I come from the school of frugal living as far as phones go. I try to keep both the cost of the phone itself down and also try to limit my monthly spending. However, I do think that it’s sometimes wortwhile to pay for added convenience which is probably why so many people are footing the bill for the advanced smartphones that can do so much more than a basic cell phone can. So it’s a balancing act, I guess.

What is the most that you would pay for a cell phone?

Tags: cell phones, cost of phones, Frugal Living, mobile phones, phones, price of phones, shopping, spending, what to pay for phone, Wireless

One of the topics that I write about regularly is personal finance. Specifically, I write often about frugal living and the tips that I have for saving money even though you have to spend on a regular basis. As a freelancer writer who lives in one of the most expensive cities in the country, I regularly have to work at balancing my saving and spending to make sure that I end up without debt at the end of each month.

There are many different things that I do to make sure that this happens including sticking to a personal budget, tracking my own spending and generally just being aware of what’s going on with me and money. I also try to be really careful about shopping. This isn’t to say that I don’t shop but rather that I try to be smart about my purchases and to not spend impulsively.

Among many different things that I do to reduce my spending when I do shop is that I use promotional codes for all online shopping. I do a decent amount of shopping online because it’s convenient. And before I hit that purchase button on anything, I always check if there’s an online promo code. I especially use these when renting cars, ordering photos from Walgreens and buying things on Amazon since these are places I regularly make purchases and there are almost always promo codes for them.

I believe that the current economy is a great time to use promotional codes for a whole slew of different reasons. You can learn about my reasons in this week’s article titled Why Promotional Codes are Great in Today’s Economy.

Tags: Frugal Living, online shopping, Personal Finance, promotional codes, save money, shopping, spending, tips