Comments: Money Saving Tip: Tell Friends when You're Thinking of Buying Something

Last week I suggested that you could save lots of money by telling friends when you're thinking of buying something. Why? Because they may have what you're looking for and may either give it to you or sell it to you at a good price.

A couple people added some comments that took this idea even farther. Here's the first:

On a similar note, involve as many people as possible if you are having a garage sale. I recently did one with my girlfriend, and my sister and her husband. I found that the best value was exchanging a few items of clothing with them, and a couple of highly usable kitchen and other household items.

Many of the things we were getting rid of were highly usable, but for whatever reason, we often decided that certain items (especially clothing) are no longer among the usable inventory.

We made about $140, not bad, but probably exchanged over $100 worth of goods between us.

Nice idea. Why sell it to someone when you can trade it with a friend for something you can use?

Here's the second comment:

I would say another reason is that your friends can share their experiences on comparison shopping and where to find the best deal.

I am looking for a new dishwasher and I mentioned it to my sister and her husband. They told me to go to Sears and look at the Kenmore line. When they shopped for a new dishwasher for themselves, they liked this line the most. I looked Kenmore up on Consumer Reports and liked what I saw. And for Xmas they gave me a gift card towards a new one!

Since a lot of my friends are also redoing their homes and kitchens, we share tools, labor and research. It's very worthwhile.

I had someone else email this suggestion to me and it seems like a really good one. I rely on friends and family a lot for information on items we're thinking of buying. (We also rely on Consumer Reports which is a terrific resource -- it's never pointed us in the wrong direction.)

Comments

[Steve Mertz]

Thanks for checking in Free Money.Doing well and hope you are too! I saw a clip the other day of a money manager for some rap stars. When they are considering a ridiculous purchase he sends them out a contract to sign which he states his disapproval of purchase but it has a sentence in it which says "This Is A Stupid Purchase"!! :)

[Wandering Indian Monk]

I remember reading on one of Suze Orman's posts, on Yahoo, that it makes more sense to donate your goods to charity than spend a better part of the day on a garage sale, where we might end up not disposing everything. It made sense to me then and I have been following that advice ever since. Whats your take on garage sales?

[LAMoneyGuy]

Hey, that first one is my comment! Haha, just trying to claim my credit.

To Wandering Indian Mond, as may be obvious now that you know that the first comment is mine, I enjoy the garage sales. It's kind of a fun time for my family. We gather our stuff together, spend the day hanging out in front of the house, sell some crap, and sometimes meet some cool people. I find that it's also very neighborly. Many of our neighbors will stop by and say hi, ask how it's going.

At then end, we end up bagging up the leftovers, and taking it to goodwill anyway. So, yes we could have removed all the trouble of spending a day on this, but my brother-in-law's shirts that are now in my closet, and my laptop case that my sister now uses would have have gone straight into the goodwill bag.

[Roz]

Cash in hand today
(to save, invest or bring down debt)
is always better than a tax deduction months away.

[FMF]

Monk --

You have a good memory! I actually posted on Suze's thoughts here:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2005/12/give_smart.html

And had a good comment to them here:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2005/12/comments_give_s.html

Check them out and see what you think about garage sales then.

[mapgirl]

Happy Birthday! :-D