Phantasmix Stock Market Blog

We have a saying “the greedy pay twice”. The cheapest most definitely isn’t always the smartest or the most frugal thing to do. Yes! sometimes it’s more frugal to pay more.

The economic benefit of paying as little as possible to save money is lost if you have to pay the second time to fix the result.

A couple of anecdotes:

• Last year I dyed my hair at home, and had to pay the hair dresser to have the color fixed. Color corrections cost more than a simple dye job. Have I learned the lesson? You bet.
• We bought a fairly expensive item ($1,300) last year from a small store. The owner gave us a discount, but his return policy is “no returns”. The item turned out to be not what we wanted and we ended up having to re-sell it on Ebay, taking a monetary hit, of course. In the end we lost more than we saved, not to mention all the time and worry of selling on Ebay.

Next time you feel like having a candy bar, consider buying an organic apple. At an average price of $1.49-$1.99 a pound, one medium-size organic apple costs about 50 cents. How’s this related to money? Why you’ll save money by improving your health, of course!

This post was prompted by a late run to the grocery store.

P.S. How about that snow! Lovin’ it.

I enjoy Thicken My Wallet’s reports on how to save money at the supermarket. Not so much for the savings tips, but for the amusement factor: I don’t buy a single brand/item he lists! I’ve come across several other blogs that talk about saving money at the store and this is pretty much the common theme – I just can’t relate. I’m an admitted semi-elitist food addict (occasional Doritos or Reese’s happen, that’s why “semi”).

Overall I’m pretty bored with money right now:

- stocks are not moving. Suppose I should be grateful they’re not down more than they are. I keep dreaming about numbers and charts and crazy breakouts, *must*take*a*break. It’s like computer games all over again (overplayed them at one time, started dreaming in Tetris and Super Mario. Yeah a long time ago.)

- it’s warm outside and makes me want to spend money, not save it. But in winter it’s so miserable I want to spend it, too. It’s a year-long affliction.

- I’ve only sent 4 invoices this month (typically it’s 8-12). One client keeps begging for an invoice – time to get worried about my lazy invoicing habits?!

- Again – warm out, too lazy to make graphs. Those are usually amusing when the weather is ugly.

Hope y’all are enjoying the summer!