Paying everything up front maybe scary since you get to absorb the full cost right away. In such an occasion where there will be no price difference in the total cash out against the total of installment plans, getting things at 0% interest is a good deal indeed.

However, if the payment plan involves paying interest, then you have to check how much you’ll have to spend in total.
With larger purchases that would require you to take up a loans (including mortgage) like with car and home purchases, you might be losing quite a lot with interest alone.

For cars, for example, zero down payments and small monthly payments often translate in longer terms and thousands
in interest. Combine that with the money you lose in depreciation and you might notice that you’ll end up paying for two cars.

The best way still is to pay as much as you can up front (full purchase, if possible) and draw it out with prime consideration for your monthly budget so as to minimize the money lost in interest.

Always think of the whole and longer term impact.

The thing is, car dealerships charge quite a lot compared to your friendly neighborhood mechanic. Some would have a price difference of 10-20% on both parts and labor. So where are you going to have your car serviced? Many would often think that you need not throw good money after bad (in depreciation) and just have the car serviced elsewhere.

However, the complication here is that having the car serviced elsewhere can void the warranty. That is the warranty that you have paid for when buying new. So voiding your warranty for savings might just be the worse option.

Besides, dealership work is often guaranteed service. Something breaks, then they’re responsible for it. Besides, given the electronic systems fitted in today’s cars, dealership have the best equipment to diagnose what’s wrong with your car making having your car serviced elsewhere a gamble on your car and money.

1. Count calories. The key to weight loss is to make sure that, at the end of the day, you burn more calories than you consume. For a quick calculation, you can use this calorie calculator. I just logged the calorie count of all the food I consumed for the day, the number of calories I burned through exercise and made sure that I was on track for a loss of 1 lb per week. A good old pen and notebook works. For calorie references, I just checked food labels and the internet.

2. Sort out your grocery list. Many people think that you have to buy the fancy organic (and ridiculously expensive) produce to lose weight. I just switched to fish (protein) and veggies and checked the food labels for low-calorie and low-fat alternatives and my grocery bills remained pretty much the same.

3. Exercise. I never went to a gym. Never bought fancy exercise equipment. Like I said, the most I spent was the $60 I used to buy proper running shoes for stability. And that was it. Knowing that cardio exercises were the first thing I needed to burn fat, I spent 30 minutes a day brisk walking, then jogging. Helped me keep within my recommended calorie levels.

I usually buy my electronics from this one store chain just because among the stores in our locale, they have the best after sales service. Never mind if they are a 3-5% more expensive compared to other outlets.

Warranty claims can be a bitch at times and stores that provide headache-free processing is just a very attractive perk especially in today’s world of unreliability no matter how established a brand is.

But does one really have to pay for the convenience? Shouldn’t all stores be able provide such a service? They should but the reality is many just don’t. And we can all just wonder why.

Perhaps the extra markup goes to better employee incentives making people who assist you have genuine smiles on their faces when assisting you.

But I wonder. A few dollars extra for something that should come with the business seems to go against general principle. And a few dollars that could’ve been saved is worth a lot in this economy.

As the clerk was scanning the items, I noticed that a pack of instant coffee was around a dollar higher. I halted the clerk and checked the item before it got bagged and saw that what was registered in the scanner was really a buck higher than the tag.

I immediately had them correct the pricing insisting that they only charge me what’s on the price tag. Apparently, their system had some sort of glitch in the data and the coffee was accidentally priced a buck higher.

Lesson from the incident: Always watch the price scanner. There are some instances when clerks accidentally scan items twice which means you get charged twice as well.