Want to find good deals? Want to be the person who always finds deals and has extra money? Start by learning how to take advantage of things.
Do you know that you can buy twice as much fruit as your neighbour for half as much money? How? By buying fruit when it's in season and the price is low. As a bonus, it is also the best quality that can be found right now. This is taking advantage.
Take note that this means you might not always get what you want when you want it. This way, you get more variety for less money, but you have to go with the flow. If oranges are inexpensive, you'll eat them. You will eat apples when they are in season. No matter what, you'll always find good deals.
You never have to force yourself to like something or eat something you don't like. You just go shopping and buy the things you like that are now on sale. There will be more great deals next week or next month, but they will be different. Unless you're very picky about what you eat, you'll almost always be able to find tasty foods on sale that you like.
Opportunism is based on the idea that you can get more by going with the flow. A real deal hunter gets more for their money and more variety in the long run. This can be used in many different ways.
Bargain Finder Examples
When I went to Ecuador a few years ago, I wanted to go to a lot of interesting places. I chose Ecuador because going there was a thousand dollars cheaper than going anywhere else. For $1040, I had a great time for a month (including airfare). I also met the most wonderful woman I know there, and I eventually married her, so you never know what riches you'll find when you go with the flow.
On Tuesdays, we go to the movies in Tucson because each of us can get in for $2.00. A few miles away, people are paying $8.75. What do they get for four times as much money? They can see the movie six weeks before everyone else. In those six weeks, the movies don't change, and enough friends have seen them to tell us if they're good or not.
Opportunism means that you don't pay more unless you get more in return. It also means making choices that are truthful. Will seeing that movie now make you like it more? More than the FOUR movies you can see instead of it? Do you have to go fishing right away? If you want to go fishing and gambling on the same trip, why not do each when it costs the least?
When William Danko and Thomas Stanley wrote "The Millionaire Next Door," they discovered that MOST millionaires bought used cars. They didn't buy old Ford Pintos, but they did buy BMWs and Mercedes. The lesson was clear: They know how to take advantage of opportunities. In the first three years, cars often lose half of their value, but that doesn't mean they're half worn out, does it? Is it worth an extra $6,000 to say you have a new car? (You will have to tell people, because it's hard to tell a three-year-old car from a new one.)
Being an opportunist doesn't mean you just go for whatever is easy and cheap. We each have things that are more important to us than other things. Why not buy those $15 cigars if you really like them? On the other hand, if you can't tell the difference between the $5 wine and the $50 wine, why not buy the $5 wine? One of the keys to being a real bargain hunter is to be open to chances.
