Buy off-season: You’ll get the best deals if you buy winter clothing in July and vice versa, because retailers are trying to get rid of their excess inventory to make room for the next season.
Use cash: People tend to maintain a better sense of the value of money when they’re physically making the exchange for purchases. Using legal tender also helps keep an accurate account of expenditures.
Stay emotionally detached: Often items that consumers feel are must-haves, aren’t necessities at all. Yes, it would be fly to have that floor-to-ceiling TV or procure that coveted Benz that’s on sale, but do you want to put yourself in debt over it right now?
Buy used: Don’t be afraid to purchase used big-ticket items. Appliances and home furnishings can often be purchased for less than half the cost of new at consignment shops or by trading for them at swap meets.
Shop alone: Don’t shop with people who don’t understand budgets or constraints when they enter the mall — they’ll encourage you to spend frivolously.
African American empowerment is dependent on controlling discretionary spending and not living above our means in order to meet unrealistic expectations and live up to imaginary images. –terry shropshire
