Save Money & Buy Items that Outweigh the Costs of Purchase

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Does usefulness of an item you buy match its cost? An item bought should help one to save money.

We save money when we buy stuff that outweighs its cost of purchase

There are things that we purchase that really don't translate to giving value to our lives. In other words, we don't get value for money that we deserved, except for collectible items which appreciate in value.

On the other hand, there are the day to day objects we are so thankful we had bought because of the immediate and significant improvements they bring and the high level of efficiencies that they have. Thus, helping us in our endeavors to save money.

These are small or large articles which cost only a fraction but loaded of a sheaf of advantages, which become either immediate solutions to problems or tools that organize different aspects of our daily living in amazing ways.

This subject is very important because some of us spend money on unnecessary things that only occupy spaces in our home.

Things we buy that help us save money because they outweigh their money cost

1. Smartphone with pen

Have you ever thought and wondered at that, how many of the following objects would you carry without a smartphone?

• small notepad
• pen
• scratch papers
• calculator
• watch
• map
• business cards holder
• organizer book
• receipts keeper
• expense book
• grocery list
• dictionary
• budgeting book
• travel book
• digital camera
• and more

Can you imagine how it feels to bring them all in your handbag?

Or find yourself on an occasion where you frantically grope for a pen in your handbag because you need to write down an important note in a hurry?

You might not aware of stuff a smartphone does, right? Or maybe you do. Still, it feels good to count what a smartphone with a pen does for us. In terms of time, mobility, being organized, and stress-free everyday life, they really save us a lot of money.

You want to track your daily expenses

• You just open an expense manager app.
• As you spend throughout the day, you enter each particular and amount to the app's applicable column.
• At a glance, you get to know your running expenses and your total expenses.
• You can control the day and time period, i.e., yesterday, last week, last month, last year, etc.
• You don't need to compute as the app does all the works for you — including having a CSV copy — ready for print, export or email.

You want to record information in a seminar

• You want to write traditionally as its hard to type while listening to the speaker.
• You take the stylus pen out of its console in your smartphone.
• A note paper appears on the screen as if someone has laid it for you.
• You scribble as you listen.
• In just a tap, a new blank page will appear.
• As you insert the pen back into its slot, the notes will disappear but saved automatically on the app.
• It works like a charm, really.

You don't want to write in a seminar

• Alternatively, you can turn on audio record app if you don't want to be distracted while listening to the speaker.
• The app records the full program of the seminar ready for playback anytime.

Faster to pull out the pen from the smartphone and write down information on the fly

• Like when you bump someone, and he/she has important information for you, and you're both beating the clock.
• It's faster than typing because as I've said, the paper would automatically pop out on your screen as you pull out the pen.
• And after you wrote and put back the pen to the phone, your note would disappear. It is saved on your note.

Grocery shopping made fast and comfortable

• At a supermarket, instead of striking with a pen an item from your handwritten grocery list, you just tap a box opposite a listed item, and it goes down to a second section which listed all items already inside your cart.
• It makes it easier and fun to shop because all your listed items not yet on your cart dwindle as you take from shelves and put onto your cart.
• Until your list of — to buy — has all gone to the second list and you're headed to the cashier at no time.
• No item is forgotten, no item is doubled, and you shop fast, with a lot of time saved.

Official receipts PDF copies keeper

Now this one is a winner. Receipts. Heap of receipts. All of us have them. We need them. But before you knew it, you have a mound of small papers ready to be burned. And it's so stressful to look at them, much less manage them.

• With the smartphone capability to keep and organize receipts through a free app, you set yourself free from piles of receipts' headaches.
• Each receipt is scanned and saved in PDF after you select your preferred finished copy.
• The wonder of this is that your saved receipt copy is much clearer than your original copy. It's so amazing.

Personal assistants that don't get paid

Smartphone with the pen really costs cheaper, when you realize all the things it can do for you. They are personal assistants that don't get paid.

• You can have them read out an important article for you while you're doing other tasks.
• You can also have them read out loud your appointments, schedules, and text messages so that you don't get distracted on whatever you're doing.
• They guide you in driving by giving directions verbally.
• They organize and keep business cards so that you don't need to have a bulky cardholder.
• They gather contact information, even if you don't ask or set that task, of each person that communicates to you in text, call, emails, social media, etc., and save the complete contact details of that person to your contacts.
• You can see a street view screenshot of unfamiliar intersection and get there fast.
• You can convert them into a calculator.

Other worthy usages of smartphone

• book reader
• compass
• confidential files keeper
• diary with password
• dictionary
• digital camera
• flashlight
• journal
• mobile tv
• movie player
• movie streamer
• music streamer
• online newspaper
• QR reader
• stopwatch
• texting device
• timer
• translator
• video camera

See all these things which are just a few of the endless list make us accomplish a lot of things fast.

Definitely, we save a lot of time. And make a lot of money out of the time we save.

That is why a smartphone with the pen is the first thing which costs less when we compare its price with the helpful things it does to us.

Its myriad usages and advantages outweigh its price tag in the store. But you will only realize that if you're using your smartphone to the fullest.

Note: Presence of built-in apps vary from model to model. Not all downloadable apps are safe. Make sure that you don't download a shady app.

2. TV Stick & Dongle

In today's age, where media have evolved into a collective form of various entertainment and information streamed across all kinds and sizes of ubiquitous devices, subscription fees to cable TV suddenly become expenses losing their value.

Well, not really. Until — TV sticks and dongles were introduced to our lives.

A TV dongle or stick costs Php 2,500 to 3,000. But its main function, which is to stream media to your TV, shrinks that amount and you would feel that buying a unit of these TV accessories is definitely a steal.

Why dongles outweigh their cost?

Things to consider in shifting to dongles or TV sticks for your family entertainment

• For one, the right unit of tv stick like mine lets you watch new movies in HD, even those just shown in theaters. Imagine what watching HD new movies FOR FREE can do to your finance.
• You get to avoid watching movies in theaters. In my personal experience, watching HD movies in a 25" to 32" TV screen is more awesome compare to a cinema screen.
• Pictures of HD movies on TV screens are sharper in details that main elements really separate from the background as if you're watching in 3D without 3D glasses.
• In cinemas, details are broader because cinema screens are so large so the effect to you is like “It's okay” unless you're watching a 3D movie.

A great way for a frugal family to save money on their cable TV subscription

• Downgrade your subscription to basic by removing HBO, FOX, Cinemax, etc.
• That way, you only pay the minimum amount.
• Better yet, cancel your cable subscription altogether

Yes, you have now a solid reason to unsubscribe to cable TV. And that is dongle and TV stick.

Excellent way to maximize dongles & TV sticks

An excellent way to maximize or get the most out of a TV stick or dongle while saving a lot of money on entertainment is by not going to malls to watch movies.

If you are four in the family and used to watch movies in the theaters monthly, you will save over a thousand pesos a month.

Add that to the money you save in DIY home Fixes, proper usages of things you owned, grocery shopping, flea Market shopping, being physically fit, etc. And you'll surely realize your financial goal faster than you think.

Other practical & beneficial purposes of dongles & TV sticks

Another best usage of dongle and TV sticks is screen mirroring that allows you to:

• watch YouTube on your TV
• view your photos and videos on your TV
• use your TV for presentations
• view websites on the bigger screen
• watch replays of TV shows, news and weather reports

With different compatible apps, dongles and TV sticks truly symbolize items that outweigh their purchase price when used to the max.

3. Pressure Cooker

The pressure cooker is an item taken for granted because it is an ordinary home object that doesn't get used all the time.

But it is actually an object with usage advantages that outweigh its purchase price far greater than you think.

Reasons that outweigh pressure cooker cost

• In saving money, we need to manage our budget in such a way that spending is limited to the minimum.
• Now if we are confident our health is taken care very well, we are assured that we don't have to spend on medication and health maintenance.
• Using pressure cooker daily in cooking dishes will ensure that all nutrients are retained in the food.
• Saving is ensuring that no fragment of resources is wasted. True frugal persons think in long terms.
• They are aware that certain unexpected things happen. They have counter-measures.
• They think that if they get sicked, not only their productivity will suffer but their savings as well.
• So they make sure that their bodies are properly nourished to combat the occurrence of expensive diseases such as obesity, cancer, heart disease, etc.
• And so aside from adhering to a healthy lifestyle such as avoiding vices and doing regular exercise, they cook food the proper way.
• Ultimately, the pressure cooker saves time and energy. You cook fast and use gas sparingly.
• On top of resources saved is the huge health benefits you get in eating food cooked the way it should.

4. Induction Stove

As a person used to cook using a gas stove, one will be surprised at how induction stove works.

It is so fast to cook in an induction stove. So convenient and so tidy.

But one thing that strikes me is it doesn't emit heat while being used.

Induction stove convenience thwarts its price

• Unlike cooking in a gas stove where you need to put up with the radiated heat, induction stove doesn't actually heat up. Its surface will only get a little bit hot because of the food being cooked in the vessel.
• Nevertheless, the heat is not that so intense that food spilled onto the cooktop doesn't get burned. It's like when you put a hot pot on the table — the tabletop gets hotter.
• The entire surface of the cooktop is made of smooth, and glossy ceramic which is not only aesthetically attractive. It is so uncluttered that makes cleaning so quick. Just wipe it up, and it'll look so neat and tidy again.

Because of these unique characteristics of the induction stove, kitchen chores are reduced, and productivity is increased.

Household chores must be minimized to give priority to important tasks which will translate to earnings. And if you have saved a lot of time by eliminating or minimizing some household chores, you will save a decent and considerable amount of money.

Now with 80% energy efficiency of induction stove compere to 40% of natural gas, induction stove elevates to the level of home items that cost less when you take its advantages to the equation.

But if you scratch beneath the surface, so to speak, you realize that buying an induction stove is definitely a steal. As you read the following more facts about induction stove:

• No heat is wasted in induction cooking because it uses the high percentage of heat produced. Remember I said it doesn't radiate heat.
• Safer for families with kids compared to the gas stove.
• Quick select for types of cooking needed, i.e., boil, stir fry, rice, steaming, etc., makes induction cooking faster and responsive.
• No tedious adjustment as digital settings is designed for tap-and-go cooking. With timers, you are assured that your dish will not be overcooked.
• There are also models that warn you if a particular induction pot is about to burn the food. The unit automatically turns off before the food in the vessel gets burned.
• Finally, because of the high level of efficiency, induction stove is an environment-friendly kitchen companion.

Another noteworthy advantage of an induction stove is you accomplish your cooking chore without experiencing stress related to too-much activity, which brings a condition called — sweating of palm.

Now I'm just a blogger and not authority in medical conditions. All I can say is based on my personal experience.

Before I decided to buy an induction stove, I used to multi-task. To accomplish more, I washed and cleaned up kitchen wares while and right after cooking dishes.

As an OCD person, I cleaned the stove cooktop as soon as I turned off the fire of the gas stove. You know the heat temperature in front of open two burners gas stove, right?

The result — I had excessive sweating of hands and palms ailment. I attributed that to the stressful activities while I cooked.

Convenience & relief induction stove gives me

• It's a whole lot of difference today that I have a new induction stove.
• Aside from the fact that I finish cooking dishes quickly, I do it stress-free.
• That's because I am so calm. I even hold my tablet from time to time while cooking.
• I still wash after cooking. But I don't experience sweating of hands and palms anymore.

How's that? Two words — simplified cooking. That's what you experience in using an induction stove. As simple as putting your induction stove side by side with your desk and cook while you're doing something in your laptop.

Conclusion

Reaping a heap of added advantages from a product or an item we bought translates to additional ways to save money. If we count the unseen helps that a particular item brings to us, we appreciate ourselves that we bought it.

We become a more fastidious buyer, more careful, and more frugal. Eventually, that would translate to more money saved in the long-run.

Do you have an item which outweighs its purchase price in terms of usefulness and efficiency? What item have you bought that increases value for money? Based on how I present each item above, which one is your pick? Share your thoughts below.

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Vernie Mallorca

Vernie Mallorca is an entrepreneur and blogger with years of experience in selling to institutional accounts. He gradually shifted to blogging when he found out that it is his calling to write timely and helpful articles online that can help others to save money, make money, and secure their future by handling their income smartly. In this blog, he shares both managing your finances, however small it is and valuable information on running a small business.