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As a personal finance columnist, I am supposed to advise you to clip coupons to save money. The truth is, it may not be worth your time. Whether clipping grocery coupons will save you enough to compensate you for the time it takes to organize them depends upon your shopping habits and, even more, on what [...] I’m writing this column on a refurbished laptop I bought last year for about $250, a great price at that time. I got it from Dell Financial Services, a department of Dell Computers that leases computers and then sells returned units at a discount. When I bought the laptop, it was already a couple of years [...] We’re all familiar with the discounts we can sometimes get at attractions for being Florida residents. For instance, Disney World is currently offering a four parks in four days pass for $99, among several deals for Florida residents only. Occasionally some local attractions offer deals to South Florida residents, such as the current Jungle Island deal that [...] There’s a lot of strategic shopping going on these days. But perhaps no shoppers are as strategic as those who play the Drugstore Game. You may, like me, belong to CVS’ ExtraCare program or Walgreens’ Register Rewards, through which you sometimes receive coupons on your receipts. Occasionally, you may even use one. But Drugstore Game players are [...] I love the convenience of online shopping, but I hate paying a hefty fee for shipping, especially when buying an inexpensive item. Happily, a lot of companies are offering free shipping to win your holiday business. There’s even a new holiday: Free Shipping Day. Free Shipping Day this year is Thursday, the last day to order [...] One of the easiest ways to get a discount on products or services is to ask for one. Yet few people do. I’m not by nature a haggler, so asking for a discount doesn’t come easily. But I have found that just saying, “Can do you any better?” often nets a lower price. Here are four types [...] Conventional wisdom has it that you always save money if you buy in bulk, choosing the largest sizes and stocking up on items when they’re on sale. The truth is, we might end up spending less if we bought only the amount we’re going to use, even if it costs more per unit. A gallon of [...] As much as I hate to start thinking about holiday shopping before Halloween, it probably is time to talk about what might be the greatest gift you can give your friends and relatives this year: Freedom from the obligation to exchange gifts. You will not only save them (and yourself) money, you will save them time [...] When I moved from southeast Hollywood, so convenient to Aventura shopping, to Miami’s Upper East Side, so inconvenient to shopping anywhere, I stumbled onto a wonderful way to save money: I gave up retail therapy. I used to think it was fun to roam the malls, looking at this and that, occasionally buying something and otherwise [...] The pale green cotton comforter on my bed cost $100. It seemed an incredible amount to pay for bedding, but I really, really liked it. It matched my brand-new Anne Klein sheets. And I had a new job, and a new higher salary, so I could afford it. It went against my whole sense of thrift, [...] |
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