Comments on: Expanding on FMF’s Telling Friends You’re Buying Something Tip

By: jim

jim — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:30:59 +0000

haha

By: empty spaces

empty spaces — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 08:26:23 +0000

I totally agree. sometime ago i mentioned to a coworker that i was looking to buy an ipod for my wife and if she knew where i could get one cheaply.
She just gave me her spare one!!

By: Mighty Bargain Hunter

Mighty Bargain Hunter — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 05:06:19 +0000

Festival of Frugality number twelve!

Welcome to this week’s Festival of Frugality!
No messing around — here we go:

Crayon on your linoleum? Hard-to-clean cheese grater? Some frugal and resourceful kitchen tips from Frugal For Life.
There have been lots of posts over the past …

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:58:24 +0000

Yes – this has always worked for me… its how I got my current dining room table and chairs! A family friend had it sitting in storage and no use for it, so voila, it became mine.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:30:37 +0000

Not to mention the other reason to tell people you’re planning to buy…in order to be warned off of particular products or vendors by the bad experiences of others.

My mother’s most recent vacation went terribly…and almost all of the problems could have been avoided if she’d even casually mentioned to me that she was planning on taking an international cruise (her passport expired in the ’70s) and booking it on Priceline.com (if you’ve ever used Priceline, you know why she now regrets it). Going to Orbitz or Travelocity would have saved her hassles (and allowed her to avoid the customer service nightmare that is Spirit Airlines), and delaying the trip for a few weeks in order to give herself time to order a new passport would have let her get off the ship when it was in port. I could have told her these things _before_ she made several thousand dollars worth of nonrefundable, nonchangeable travel purchases, instead of after.

By: CK

CK — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 21:36:04 +0000

Um… I was thinking about buying a Porsche anybody happen to have a free one?

By: FMF

FMF — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 21:03:42 +0000

Wow — you do actually read my blog once in a while, huh?

BTW, I could get you a dishwashing job on that ship, but you’ll need a couple extra jobs to pay for that “dog” you’re considering.

By: jim

jim — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:55:16 +0000

Great point LAMoneyGuy, I think leveraging the expertise of your friends is crucial nowadays especially in areas you know little about.

By: LAMoneyGuy

LAMoneyGuy — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:35:49 +0000

It’s funny to me how guarded we are about anything that could relate to money. More often that not we have friends or family who are in a position to either help us, or benefit from our help. We would probably all save some money and time if we just communicated with those closest to us.

I’m sure we all know stories of someone overpaying for a car, while his brother in law, who is a car nut, didn’t even know he was in the market for a car. Or a new home buyer doesn’t want to bother their good friend, who happens to be a realtor.

I’m not suggesting we should all go around soliciting business from our friends, just remember that they can be a fantastic resource!