Plan Ahead, Save Money
As humans, we practice many types of planning everyday of our lives.  From planning for a trip to the beach, to planning how much sleep you want to get tonight, to planning for retirement, we are ALWAYS practicing SOME form of planning. During this post, I will use a personal example to show how much easier you can make your day-to-day life by planning ahead for the little things in life.
Have you ever had to purchase something that you knew was way over priced, but did so anyway due to convenience? Of course you have, everybody’s done it at least one time or another. Isn’t it much more painful to go ahead and actually buy that item when you know you could have EASILY saved yourself that $20 just by planning a little better? The answer is yes indeed (at least for me).
Before I tell my story, here’s a bit of pertinent information: During the following example, I am in Florida by myself with a rented vehicle and am staying at a hotel for two weeks. I have the weekend off and decide to do a little exploring.
Recently I went to the beach for the day, and failed to prepare properly for the occasion. I brought a one gallon water jug and a few goldfish to hold me over until I returned home. I had eaten a rather large brunch before leaving and thought that I would be able to just wait until I returned home to eat again. Well, I was wrong to say the least. As it turns out, when I got close to the beach I thought I was going to chill at for the day, I decided to keep going south to the next beach down. “A bit further down” I told myself. Well it was at least another 30 minutes to the beach plus 10 minutes to find parking. Already almost an hour behind schedule on top of precious day light and my “non-hunger state” being burned up.
Ok I’m parked, now I just need to find a CHEAP beach chair because I will only be using it for two days. Something like $5-$10 bucks, nothing special. WELL I was in for a surprise.  There were only two “beachy” stores in the vicinity that sold beach chairs down there, and the cheapest one was $20! Maybe this is just my naiveté, but I REALLY thought you could get a cheap beach chair for a cool $5. I Swallow my pride and buy one for two or three times what I was hoping to spend. I figure how often am I in a position such as this? I’m here in the sunshine state and I am going to take full advantage of it!
By now I feel it. A rumble in my tumble (I started to get hungry)… CRAP! I was supposed to be good until I got back! Well I realized I had not even gotten on to the beach yet, and after I was on the beach for a good 3-4 hours, I still had to drive back to my hotel, about an hour away! I figure, my as well just get something QUICK and CHEAP to eat, dollar menu type stuff. Nope, literally no fast food within walking distance. I ask various people if there is anything around like that, no luck.  I end up eating at a sit down restaurant taking a good 40 minutes (burning more daylight), and spending $11.97 on lunch, $11.97 more than I wanted to spend on lunch.
All in all, I spent a total of $21.97 more than I wanted to today. Why? Because I did not plan properly. I probably could have picked up a beach chair at a Target or Wal-Mart a bit further away from the beach on my drive down for cheaper, and I definitely could have used the PB&J I have for lunch. Don’t get me wrong it was an AWESOME day at the beach; I just spent more than I wanted to, and decided to convey the important lesson of PLANNING AHEAD.
Proper planning makes up every part of our lives and can save people thousands of dollars, loads of time, and many times both. I’m guessing we unconsciously plan a LOT more than we all realize. A few examples:
- According to what I want to get accomplished either the current or following day, I will plan how much sleep I get that night. I assign a value to each of these activities and make my decision base on what I feel most important.
- Planning to go see a movie, stop by the MWR (discount tickets for military personnel) and pick up tickets before we officially decide to go see a show
- Buy concert tickets online as opposed to at the door, saving a total of $10 for my guest and I
- Save Bed Bath and Beyond coupons and use them for wedding gifts, thank you DeliverAwayDebt http://deliverawaydebt.com/ !
- Going to the beach for the day and need a chair? Don’t wait until you get to the beach, stop by a Wal-Mart and get one for cheaper. Also pack plenty of food, ESPECIALLY if you know you ALWAYS get HUNGRY (Wow, that’s great advice me!)
- Saving up at lest half of the initial down payment on a car to achieve a much lower interest rate, lower monthly payments, and a shorter pay period.
- And the list goes on literally until China and then back again.
We all know everybody plans all the time! I’ll bet that we don’t even realize how much we plan things out. I did not really realize I “planned” my sleeping pattern so much until I sat down to write this (Makes me sound really obsessive compulsive.) PROPER planning can save you time and money.  Just look around the PF blog community, everywhere you go you find people saving money due to great planning. Car insurance, interest rates, down payments, you name it, there is a PF blog talking about savings due to proper planning ahead!
“But MFO, what if it’s just a short little half day excursion”? Oh you mean like on small stuff like packing a PB&J sandwich for the beach even when you don’t think you need to pack anything because you just ate a huge brunch and you have plenty of water and some goldfish to hold you over and you won’t be there for that long anyway knowing full well that you ALWAYS get hungry, even when you eat a lot… YEAH, still pack ahead, don’t be foolish 
March 14, 2010
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myfinancialobjective · 
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Tags: planning ahead, saving money · Posted in: Goals
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9 Responses
“I brought a one gallon water jug and a few goldfish to hold me over until I returned home. ”
I hope you mean goldfish crackers!!
I see I’m not the only one who plans. I was in Phoenix for two weeks on business. I bought a bike for 10 bucks at a garage sale just to cruse around town.
Actually the local pet store had an awesome sale, I just had to take advantage!
Wow that’s an awesome idea D Paul. Did you have a rental car? Even if you did, the bike probably would have been good to, no big city parking fees!
The eating of goldfish is classic. My wife says she could eat those everyday and just stay filled on it. I had to have her read this post. Maybe I should give her some goldfish and drop her off at the beach for the day! LOL!
Flavor blasted, extra cheddar, soooo good!! Give me (MORE) goldfish and a jug of water, and I’ll take a day at the beach any day!
For me lack of planning hurts most with food. We try to plan out meals for the week so we can eat healthy and inexpensive meals, but sometimes we get so busy that we end up ordering pizza or chinese. That’s ok once in awhile as a treat but not as a last minute resort because of a lack of planning.
Yes, eating healthy is hard to do if you do not plan ahead. Fast food has almost no healthy options. I definitely share this same problem!
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