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(Financial mentoring) Five Tips for Shopping on a Budget

By Ki Gray

 Sticking to a budget is hard enough, but malls, outlets and grocery stores don’t make it any easier; with countless promotions, sales, and strategically-placed impulse-buy items, it’s easy to get sidetracked and overspend. Willpower and discipline are great tools to combat overspending, but many people find it hard to maintain them when faced with a great sale. Never fear, there are a few simple tricks and tips you can use to help keep you on track and overcome the temptation to overspend.

1.Always take a list.

While seemingly simple, and even obvious, this is a great way to help keep spending on track. If you have a specific list of items you need, you can shop with more purpose, and avoid unnecessary browsing (which all too often leads to unnecessary buying).

2.Consolidate shopping trips.

Whenever possible, it’s best to combine all your shopping into one day. This is a great way to make sure you don’t spend extra time in a given store, browsing unnecessarily, or getting sidetracked from your pre-set shopping agenda. Plus, consolidating your shopping into one big outing will save gas in the long run, which is always a good thing, both for your budget, and for the environment.

3.Clip coupons.

Check your weekly paper for circulars and coupons. Be sure to have your list ready when you do this, to avoid adding unnecessary items (remember, just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean you need it). While you may not find coupons for everything you need, you’ll likely find savings somewhere. Over time, even a few dollars a week will add up big time. Look at it this way: if you save just $4 per week, you’ll end up with an extra $208 each year.

4.Plan ahead; shop accordingly.

Food is arguably one of the largest costs in any family’s budget. It’s one that can’t be skipped or compromised, and with costs of everyday items like milk rising considerably, it can be a huge drain on any spending plan. While there’s no realistic way around this need, there are ways to help maximize your spending. Planning meals a week in advance can help you make the most of your purchases; simply plan consecutive meals that use the same primary ingredients. Buy those ingredients in bulk to save even more. And always, always save (and use) leftovers.

5.Reward yourself.

Regardless of the best intentions, it’s easy to get sucked in to unnecessary spending; it’s practically human nature. An unexpected sale at your favorite store, a discount on an item you don’t need, but have wanted for some time. You can curb overspending by operating on a rewards system. Set goals for yourself, like limiting spending to a certain amount, and make room in your budget for a special treat or reward when you reach your goal. If you don’t achieve the goal, leave the reward money in place and try again for next month. Having something special to look forward to will make it easier to exercise self-control and avoid splurging on items you don’t really need, or even particularly want.

Ki is a real estate broker in Austin Texas. He site offers a graphical search for Austin homes. He also provides general information on Austin real estate and updated graphics on mortgage interest rates.

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What Video Game System Is Best For Adults?
By Justin DeMerchant

 Which gaming console is best out there? Well, there are three consoles that are definitely popular among others. These are PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. In terms of portable gaming consoles, the top two are PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS. So which of these is best for adult gaming?

Below are the features of all 5 so you can decide for yourself.

1. PlayStation 3

Also known as PS 3, this is the newer sibling of PlayStation and PlayStation 2. It has an online gaming service that is unified, it can be connected with PlayStation Portable, it has a “Blu-Ray Disc”, which is an optical disc format that is very high definition, as a storage device, and to top it all off, as a cherry on top, it has great multimedia capabilities. There were two stock keeping units that were available on its launch back in 2007. The basic one that has a 20 gigabytes of hard disk drive and the special version that has 60 gigabytes of hard disk drive with added features.

2. Wii

This is a gaming console that was released by Nintendo, in response to the Xbox 360 of Microsoft and PS 3 of Sony, topping the performance of its predecessor, Nintendo Gamecube. A very competitive feature of this console is its controller that is wireless. This is the Wii remote that can detect movement. Its features are its very user friendly menu, its compatibility to Gamecube, it can be connected to its famous handheld version, Nintendo DS, it can be connected to the Net and if you are a parent, you will love this, it allows parental restrictions.

3. Xbox 360

Since NVIDIA stopped the GPU production of the original Xbox, Xbox 360 was thus produced and released in 2005. Its features are that it has a removable hard drive additive; it can support a game library via emulation. This emulation can be updated via Xbox Live.

4. PlayStation Portable

This is a portable device that is part of the PlayStation family. This device uses an optical disc format as its main storage (Universal Media Disc). It also has a wide screen that is good to watch movies in and play its games. It also has an extendable memory, you can buy 2GB, 4GB or even 8 GB memory. It has an option to play against other gamers with PSP through its wireless connection and you can also connect to the internet as it also has Wi-Fi.

5. Nintendo DS (or DS Lite)

A very unique feature of this handheld game is its two screens, with the horizontal one being touch screen. It has a clam shell architecture that has its own microphone and is also Wi-Fi ready. This game was actually released in America before Japan. 2 years after the release, Nintendo DS Lite was introduced, which is a lighter and sleeker version of the original one. It also has brighter LCD screens and it is also thinner.

Given these features, it is up to you to decide which system is best for adult gaming.

Justin DeMerchant is the founder of ablesys, business books, and stock market success where information on stocks and investing can be found.

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Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 5:55 am and is filed under finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.