Buy items online at least two weeks in advance to avoid rush-shipping charges. Sites like Amazon.com and Buy.com often have lower prices than mall stores and may offer free ground shipping with a minimum purchase (usually $25 to $75).
Don’t break the bank when you’re shopping for children under six years old. For most preschoolers, the box a gift comes in is as exciting to play with as the gift itself, says Jerome Singer, a professor of psychology at Yale University.
Freeze a credit card — literally. Susan Jones, author of
The Money Rules: 50 Ways Savvy Women Can Make More, Save More, and Have More! (McGraw-Hill, $13), suggests that people keep one credit card with a low limit for day-to-day purchases and one card with a high limit for big buys. Put that second one in a block of ice in your freezer. Then, whenever you’re tempted to be a big spender, you’ll have plenty of time to consider your purchase while your card thaws.
You’ve heard it before, but remember to change your car’s oil regularly. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, cohosts of the National Public Radio show
Car Talk, say that doing so is the cheapest insurance you can buy for your vehicle. While oil and quick-lube companies have promoted the every-three-months-or-3,000-miles rule, some experts now say that changing every 5,000 miles is usually enough. No matter which mileage you pick, remember to do it: A $20 or $30 trip to a service station or Jiffy Lube can save you thousands of dollars in engine repairs later on.
If you want to check out a nice restaurant but don’t want to pay inflated prices or wait weeks for a reservation, go at lunchtime. Deana Ricks of the Frugal Family Network says that while the menu may be limited and the portions slightly smaller, the prices can be 40 percent less — $20 entrées for $12 — and it might be easier to book a reservation. Bonus: By being there in person, you can sometimes talk the lunch maître d’ into giving you a prime dinner reservation.
If you live in or near a city, you can often go to a professional beauty school and get an inexpensive haircut — or facial or massage — from a student or, sometimes, an experienced haircutter returning to school to learn a new style. School prices can be half or more off those in a salon. Check the Yellow Pages or websites like
BeautySchool.com and Beauty Schools Directory
www.beautyschoolsdirectory.com) for schools near you, and request a senior-level student to make sure you don’t end looking like Tina Turner on a bad hair day.
Americans buy over $1 billion worth of contact lenses each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, so shop around for lenses. In November 2003, Congress passed an act that requires eye doctors to give patients copies of their prescriptions, meaning that you no longer have to buy contacts from your doctor. Instead, get your prescription and check prices at sites like 1-800 Contacts (
www.1800contacts.com) and Just Lenses (
www.justlenses.com) or at superstores like Wal-Mart, where, a national survey from SRI Consulting found, lenses cost about 15 percent less than at eye doctors’ offices.
Certain categories go on sale at specific times of the year. Furniture stores, for example, have regular sales but traditionally try to sell off their showroom stock in February and August, before the new lines come in. And it’s easier to get discounts on jewelry in January, after the holidays. To find out when items go on sale register at a site like Cairo (
www.cairo.com), which sends sales alerts.
