Do you have a friend or relative who always seems to walk away with the deals, who’s never made a single less-than-impeccable purchase, who somehow manages to squeeze more perks out of the toniest of vacations? You, too, can transform yourself into a wheeling dealing wonder. Time to get more out of your money, whether you’re working the warehouse club aisles or bargaining down the price of a jacket.

Our consumer culture has turned many of us into professional shoppers. But how good are we? We shop with emotional fervor, but we scoop up the merchandise too fast and we’re too trusting of marketing claims and hype. While we’re obsessed with low prices we are also mesmerized by new “features” and “options” but are we calculating value: performance over time? A better picture would be if we found pleasure and pride in living with a small and finite collection of durable goods. Durable goods are those items that last longer than three years. How do you get there? We need to think before we buy and then care for what we have.

As I begin to sort through my kitchen and canning supplies I am taking hard look at what I have in my cupboards and how often I use these items. For example I have several gadgets that I can use to chop nuts, an old fashioned bowl and chopper blade (which I NEVER use), a Zyliss chopper, which I SELDOM use and a mini chopper which I use all the time and a mini Cuisinart which I also use all the time. Do I need all four, no! Keep two, the other two go.

Now is a good time to be conscience about my spending. In fact with my husband unemployed it is the perfect time to put selective spending into action.

The first thing I am going to do is calculate how much we’ve spent over the last month on any discretionary subscriptions we have. (For example Hulu, Netflix, etc.) We actually don’t have very many discretionary subscriptions as we have really cut back in the past. However I am canceling our Hulu subscription. We really don’t watch much TV in the summer. We have no cable subscription and usually rely on Netflix to watch any shows or movies.

The idea is not to deprive yourself but to realize if you are spending money for things you don’t really use or want you can consciously reallocate that money into something you need or love! Let’s work at making the most of our money and pay attention to what we’re spending it on. Make sure you really want or need that jacket before buying it!