Every day, advertisements bombard us from all angles to entice us to buy the things that companies want to sell to us. In some cases, the purchases made actually add value to our lives, but many more of our purchases do little more than suck money out of our pockets. It is important to be able to distinguish between the purchases that add value to your life and the purchases that don’t. Here are some purchases that fall into the former category.
A Crockpot
Everyone has had one of those days when they get home from being out all day and do not feel like taking the time to cook dinner. For many people, this means stopping for takeout on the way home or having food delivered to the house later in the evening. A crockpot or slow cooker is insurance against this type of wasteful spending, as takeout meals generally cost more than three times as much as cooking the items yourself. A crockpot meal can be put together early in the day and will cook your meal for you while you are occupied doing other things. Over the course of a year, a crockpot can save you hundreds of dollars in food costs.
A Programmable Thermostat
A programmable thermostat can save you a significant amount of money in energy costs by raising and lowering the temperature for you automatically. You can set the thermostat to keep the heat or air conditioning off while you are gone at work and to turn them back on shortly before you are scheduled to return home. The amount of your savings will depend on the size of your home, the climate of the area that you live in, and the temperature that the thermostat is set for.
Personal Financial Management Tools
Managing your finances effectively can be made much easier with the acquisition of personal financial management tools. These tools take some of the more tedious financial management tasks, like tracking your spending, creating a multi-category budget, or calculating your current net worth, and streamlines the process so you can see your financial positions at a glance. Some of these financial management tools are free online, like Mint, while others require the purchase of specific software programs. Because these programs can save you a considerable amount of time and money, they are a good tool to have available for everyday use.