海角大神

You have your list of desired features ready to go for the item you want. Now what?

If you have a reasonable feature list (meaning one that doesn鈥檛 lock you into an expensive item), you鈥檒l find that quite a few items will match up with the features you鈥檙e looking for.

Don鈥檛 settle on one just yet. Find several models you鈥檇 be willing to buy, then shop around.

For starters, if you decide that you鈥檙e only going to buy this one specific model of what you鈥檙e looking for, you鈥檙e almost always going to overpay for it. Just by that decision alone, you鈥檝e closed yourself off to a lot of potential bargains that you might find on similar models.

In other words, it pays to have a nice list of models you鈥檇 be willing to buy, along with a feature list so that you can figure out if other models match your needs.

The best way to do this is research. For many items, one really effective way of doing this is simply browsing versions of the item at . While you shouldn鈥檛 necessarily buy there, it can be a very useful tool for identifying models that match your needs.

For unbiased comparisons of items with similar features, use . Whenever I鈥檓 about to make a significant purchase, I stop at the library for a look at some back issues of CR.

In the end, I usually wind up with a list of quite a few models that will suit my needs quite well. Usually, this list is somewhat ranked, with ones that have better numbers in Consumer Reports ranked above others, but I don鈥檛 necessarily rule any out. I do this for 鈥渢iebreaking.鈥�

Once I have that list of models, I start shopping. Online shopping is easy with a bunch of places at your fingertips, but it鈥檚 worth looking around brick and mortar stores as well. You鈥檒l often find sales you didn鈥檛 expect.

I usually give myself a timeframe for the purchase 鈥� say, a month or two. During that period, I do some comparison shopping for the item when I have a free moment or two. I鈥檒l look at the selection in brick and mortar stores if I happen to be there, or I鈥檒l look at websites during idle moments in the evening.

I usually get a pretty good idea of what a good price is for the item after just a bit of searching. I use that as my benchmark, and if I find an opportunity to beat that benchmark by 20% or so, I go ahead and make the purchase. Sometimes you鈥檒l stumble on better sales, but I鈥檝e also seen good discounts disappear while I鈥檝e looked for something better. When my timeframe is up, I go with the option that is the best bargain for me.

Shop around, but know what you鈥檙e shopping for. You鈥檒l end up with a good buy on something that actually suits your needs.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my 鈥減hotography intern鈥� for this project.