Be an Organized Consumer
In this chapter, you complete several projects geared toward improving your shopping efficiency. We begin with a systematic approach to grocery shopping and then attack the problem of catalog pile-up. We also create portable lists of categories of items like DVDs that leave you wondering, "Do I have this one?" Once-a-year shopping needs are also tough to remember, so we create another portable system for making the most of those "Christmas in July" sales. Finally, a method for capturing gift ideas so they're accessible when you're ready to buy and a tracking system for orders you've placed round out this chapter.To do list
- Create a template to speed up grocery shopping.
- Replace paper catalogs with Web addresses.
- Create media lists for no-duplicate CD and DVD buying.
- Capture once-a-year shopping needs.
- Write wish lists for gift-giving and receiving.
- Set up a tracking system for orders placed.
In this section, you create maps of your frequently visited stores to use as shopping-list templates.
How many times have you gone to the grocery store for three specific things and left with a cartful? Do you ever get to use the 10 Items or Less lane?
Want to evolve from the accumulation that browsing produces into laser-guided, budget-friendly, super-efficient shopping? Great! Let's make a list!
Just kidding. We can do better than a plain old list. Instead, let's make a map.
The next time you go grocery shopping, plan to spend some extra time there to begin this project. Take a large pad and pencil with you, and start at the service desk. Ask if they have a list of the items in each aisle or a map of the store. Use these items to inform the map you'll make, but don't rely on them completely: They're often out of date or not customized to the particular store you're in.
Sketch a rough diagram of where each section of the store is in relation to the other sections. This visual representation is better than a simple list because it reminds me that if I need ice cream and batteries, I'd better start with the batteries because the ice cream will melt by the time I trek all the way over to the batteries!
Now fill in the details Walk the grocery aisles and write down the locations of your most commonly purchased items. When you go home, you'll type or write these common items into your map so you can circle them as you run out.
When you've completed your sketch and item locations, go ahead and do your shopping. Then head home to your desk. Use the Tables function in Microsoft Word to create a one-page map of the store and type in your commonly purchased items in their aisles or sections. If you prefer, you can use a ruler to redraw your draft sketch. When you're satisfied with your map, make copies and post one where it will be convenient to add to, such as your kitchen bulletin board or inside the pantry door.
You'll need list
- Your computer and spreadsheet software
- Your planner
- Paper and pencil
Some people use more than one grocery store, and some have an additional produce market or warehouse club they frequent. If this is true of you, create maps for each so you can enjoy the same organized efficiency everywhere you shop.
Reducing Bulky Catalog Clutter
In this section, you replace your paper catalog collection with a weightless, clutter-free, online shopping system.
If you sometimes shop by mail order rather than in an actual store, you probably have lots of catalogs lying around. You might even have a system for organizing those catalogs. Kind of cumbersome, huh? Let's make this process easier.
A client of mine named Allison had a large file drawer of alphabetized catalogs, and she struggled to keep up with the task of replacing old ones with the new editions that flooded her mailbox every day. She was committed to making the system work for a number of reasons: She appreciates the time savings of shopping from home; she knows she is more likely to make impulse purchases when handling merchandise in an actual store; and, in building her catalog collection, she had learned which companies offer the best prices, best service, and highest-quality merchandise. So, for Allison, catalog shopping makes excellent financial sense. However, as her life became ever more busy, she found herself falling further behind in maintaining her system and the catalogs started to pile up.
We used the Internet to upgrade Allison's system. She had been keeping her catalogs for many years, before the companies also had an online shopping option, as most do now. What a relief it was when Allison realized she could keep a list of her catalog Web sites and toss the paper copies!
I knew Allison would resist the idea of simply pitching all her catalogs, even though more would eventually come in the mail, because she was keeping the paper copies for two reasons: to be able to see the products the companies offer and to remember that those particular companies exist. For her, the key to making an educated buying decision is to have an entire virtual mall at her fingertips, not to be limited to settling for whatever she can find in whatever catalog happens to be on the coffee table. I also knew she would not be satisfied with simply adding each Web site to the Favorites list in her browser because she wanted a way to include notes and to categorize what each company offers.
We created a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel and Allison used her accumulated catalogs to list the name and Web site of each. Next to these columns she added some categories for things she shops for frequently, such as clothing and gifts, and checked off the appropriate categories for each catalog. Finally, and with great satisfaction, she tossed the paper catalogs.
Occasionally, Allison found a catalog from a company that did not have an online store; she kept the paper catalogs for some of these and decided the others weren't that important anyway and could be tossed. Now, instead of an entire drawer of catalogs and the daily task of replacing old copies with new ones, Allison has a comprehensive Excel list that tells her at a glance which companies are best for any category, meaning comparison shopping has never been easier.
Allison has also gotten into the habit of telling companies that she no longer wants paper catalogs by checking order form boxes that let her opt out of mailings or telling the phone operator to take her off the mailing list. The number of new catalogs arriving each day is gradually dwindling, but the opt-out procedure is different with each company, so it's tedious. Until the law changes and consumers have to take special steps to opt in to receiving catalogs, Allison and the rest of us will probably never be able to escape them completely.
Want to lose the catalog collection and switch to an electronic list? Go for it! Scour your home for paper catalogs, enter their Web addresses into your list, and toss them!
You can create your list easily on paper, but if you do it in Excel you'll gain two additional functions: You'll be able to sort by category (so, for example, when you want to buy clothes, you can group together all of the sites where you shop for clothing), and you'll be able to set the Web addresses as hyperlinks that will open the site in your browser with a click from within the Excel sheet. This is better than simply adding them to your browser's Favorites list because you can add your own notes, such as item numbers and ideas for future purchases.
Becoming a Master Listmaker for More Organized Shopping
In this section, you set up lists to carry in your paper planner or PDA that will maximize gift-giving, collection-building, and holiday/seasonal supply purchases. Keeping lists of these items contributes to your financial organization in several ways: It helps you to budget for future purchases, allows you to plan purchases calmly rather than making them as a knee-jerk reaction in the store, and prevents duplication or overbuying because you've forgotten what you already have.
How many times have you been in a store, discovered something you need or want – on sale! – and wished you had the specifics so you'd know what size, color, or model to buy? Now you'll never have to wonder: You can carry that information with you wherever you go.
This is the biggest advantage of a PDA over a paper planner: the sheer volume of data you can conveniently carry with you. I utilize the Notes section of my PDA to the absolute max, with dozens of lists including the ones in this chapter. When a sale sneaks up on me, I'm always ready.
Don't have a PDA? You can still take advantage of this improvement. Just make your lists on paper to keep in your planner, or, if you don't carry your paper planner with you when you go shopping (and many people don't), just type up your lists in your computer's word processing program, make the font and type size as small as you can read, print them, and cut them into wallet-size pieces. Save the file on the computer and update it as needed.
Listing Things You Need and Things You Already Have
DVDs seem to be the only type of media that I need to keep in list form. I've found that it's not so hard to remember whether I have a particular CD, but because we can either rent or buy movies and video games, if it's one I've already seen, it's hard to recall whether it was borrowed or purchased when it last graced my TV screen.
So, one of the lists in my PDA is of DVDs I own. I also keep a list of DVDs I want to buy and another list of movies I want to rent. (Yep, I rely on my memory for very little!)
Why not make your own list right now? Even if you can't find all of your movies in one search, at least start your list: A partial record is better than none. If you think you own a movie but can't find it, list it with a question mark.
If you decorate your home for various holidays, you might have already thought of another application for this idea.
I decorate inside for Christmas and I make a spooky yard display for Halloween, so I keep lists in my PDA for each of these holidays. Updating the list is part of the preparation and disassembly chores each year: As I wrap gifts for Christmas, I note whether I'm running out of tissue paper or boxes; as I disassemble the cardboard coffin and tombstones on November 1, I update my Halloween list so I'll remember to get more fog machine solution next year.
The system paid off last summer when I found an entire aisle of pre-pre-PRE-Christmas loot on sale at our local warehouse club. I checked my PDA, found that I needed tissue paper but still had tons of gift bags, and was able to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity, getting exactly what I needed and nothing that I didn't.
Who Wants What: Maintaining Gift Lists
Which is better: Wandering the mall for gift-giving inspiration or dashing in and grabbing exactly what people want? You can be the perpetual giver of the perfect gift (and always know what to request for yourself as well) with the lists you create in this section. These are lists that are never complete and never go away; you just keep adding to them and deleting from them.
What They Want
Let's start by making one list called Gift Ideas – Others. As you did for your DVDs a minute ago, make a simple Word document, PDA note, or handwritten list and include everything you can think of that would appeal to the lucky recipients in your life. Also include sizes, brands, prices, and stores where specific items are sold.
After you collect all of this information, you might not need to look at it until months later, and it's at that point that you'll realize what a good idea this list is because you will have forgotten some of the ideas captured here!
Your Gift Ideas – Others list is a great alternative to shopping year-round and packing your closets with gifts to be given later. That habit solves one organizational problem – do it while you're thinking of it – but creates another: compromised storage space. Adding to your list as inspiration strikes takes advantage of your do-it-now habit without filling up valuable space (and you won't have to dust those gifts before you wrap them).
What I Want
Okay, you have Gift Ideas – Others. Now make Gift Ideas – Me! People say I'm silly to suggest you would need to make a list to remember everything you want, but think about it: If someone wanted to know, right now, five things you would like for your birthday, you'd have to give it some thought, wouldn't you?
I'm not talking about the convertible Saleen Mustang – the fantasy stuff is always easy to remember (and, sigh, not likely to materialize). I'm talking about the smaller things you encounter day by day and you think, "Hmm, that would be nice to have," but then as Mother's Day approaches, you can't think of a thing you need, so in desperation they get you another lace-collared sweatshirt.
Start writing down those kinda-neat things you admire as you're shopping for someone else, flipping through a catalog, or watching TV. Include titles of movies you'd like to own on video or DVD, CDs of that band with the nice harmonies that you saw on The Tonight Show, clever gadgets and pretty candles from your friends' home-sale parties...anything you see that strikes your fancy but for whatever reason doesn't get purchased on the spot.
By the way, if any of my gift givers are interested, I'd love a Detroit Red Wings jersey with my own last name on it. (Stanley, get it? Hockey? Stanley Cup? Cute, huh?) And the only reason I can remember that right this moment is because it's on my Gift Ideas – Me! list.
What the House Needs
Depending on how needy your home is, you can make a simple, uncategorized list, or you can group items by room, by store, or by price. Thankfully, my list has gotten fairly short, but two years ago when I'd just purchased my house, there were at least five items for every room!
My list now includes items to replace occasionally, such as the furnace filter and odd-sized light bulbs. I note the brand I prefer, the model number, the size, the store that had the item for the best price the last time I bought it, and what that price was.
Some household purchases are so infrequent that they're easy to forget to include in a budget; a list like this not only helps you make a more comprehensive budget, but also gives you an idea of how much the budget amount should be – something you're not likely to remember if it's not recorded.
Get into the habit of adding items to your list whenever you acquire something with a part that will eventually need to be replaced. For example, if you buy a new halogen desk lamp, add the bulb size and model number to your list. Then, when the bulb burns out, you'll be ready to purchase the right replacement bulb on the first try.
For optimum efficiency and savings, your list should include measurements, colors, brands, model numbers, prices, and any other data that will allow you to buy without first running home to get more information. I'd much rather walk up to the plumbing guy at Lowe's and ask him to order me "the American Standard Cadet pedestal sink in white, model #0236.811 with three faucet holes, not just one," rather than ask him to help me find "a sink to match a toilet that kind of looks like that one over there...."
With this approach, a woman can talk to almost any hardware store clerk without having to hear that infuriating line, "Why don't you just send your husband in?" Considering what I would say in response, avoiding that conversation actually spares the clerk's pride more than my own.
Never Again Wonder, "Did I Get That?"
Okay, you have lists, you have a database – you're a super-efficient shopper! You've placed orders all over the Internet and now you can kick back and wait for your stuff to come to your door! And a week from now, you'll forget you ordered it and they can just keep your money!
Hey, wait a minute....
There's one more step to add to each mail-order transaction: the follow-through. You can make another list, but this chapter's almost finished and even I am sick of listmaking by now, so I bet you are, too. Let's do something even simpler:
- Print or write some record of the transaction.
- Post it with other transaction records.
I like to use a clipboard hung inside my coat closet by the front door. I just print the order confirmation or scribble a note on a scrap of paper and stick it in the clipboard. If an item seems to be lingering on the clipboard too long, I'm prompted to open QuickBooks and see whether the payment has cleared or call the company and check the item's status.
Use whatever works for you to track online and mail-order purchases. Use sticky notes on the fridge, a message board by the mailbox, a reminder in your planner – anything, as long as you'll use it completely and consistently. Such a method ensures that you always get what you paid for.
Ah, one more contribution to your peace of mind!
Reproduced from Organize Your Personal Finances in No Time, by Debbie Stanley, by permission of Pearson Education. Copyright © 2005 by Que Publishing. Please visit http://quepublishing.com/title/0789731797 to order your own copy.
