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FeedCutting Back (and Then Some)
You may think you’ve done all you can to streamline your personal finances. You can do more.
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$kip Massengill is not a small man. In fact, the former Villanova University defensive tackle—who played next to Howie Long in the late 1970s and early ’80s—is rather substantial. He favors power suits and striking suspenders, and when he talks, his deep baritone can quiet a bustling room.
Yet, when he returned home from a trip to the Acme in January, he experienced a little, ahem, pushback from the family. It seems Massengill had purchased 20 cans of soup, instead of the two he was supposed to get. Not only had he “wasted” money, but he had created a storage headache. He had some explaining to do.
As it turns out, Massengill wasn’t some clueless husband seduced by a sharp display or the thought of endless nights of beef barley soup. Acme was having a “10 for $10” sale, and Massengill, who serves as an executive vice president for financial planner Robert W. Baird & Co. in Conshohocken, was merely taking advantage of a good deal.
“It was a case of buying more to save more,” he says. “The 20 cans of soup cost me $20. Usually, each can goes for $2.58. By buying so much, I saved $32. And it’s not like the stuff stays around our house for long.”
Massengill was merely following some of his own advice. Even though there are other ways to carve hundreds of dollars off the monthly budget, those $32 savings do add up. These days, you’ll find Massengill hunting for those 10-for-$10 sales, and at the price clubs, buying 100 razors “for 12 bucks.” A veritable bargain hunter, he’ll gladly purchase the generic version of the children’s aspirin he takes for heart health. He even gets top-shelf beef at about a third of its cost at specialty grocers.
Massengill does his homework, finds out what the best deals are and then acts. “You want to maintain a realistic lifestyle and experience the benefits of your hard work, but you need to pay attention to what you’re paying,” he says.
During his last State of the Union address, President Barack Obama spoke of a spending freeze. He and Congress have been trying—often without success, in light of the trillions of dollars our government has in debt—to cut costs. Businesses throughout the country are working to do the same things. That’s why Massengill is buying so much soup—and why the rest of us can find plenty of ways to cut back on our expenses.
Some out there have attacked the cutback scenario with an all-encompassing passion, saving money as if it were their life’s work. They examine everything, from their utilities to the type of gum they chew. Massengill suggests another approach.
“Go by the 80-20 rule,” he says. “If you know 80 percent of what you’re spending, you can have a better handle on your finances than most,” he says. “When you try to come up with every penny, you end up procrastinating. Look at your large bills and see where you can save. Then look at things like how often you go to dinner.”
Michael Stewart, a CPA and PFS from Havertown, agrees that it’s important to go with the big things first, but more savings can be found the deeper you look—and it’s not too difficult to do. He recommends keeping a monthly budget and writing down just about every dollar you spend. “It’s amazing what people do when they count pennies,” says Stewart. “Where do they spend their money and where do they waste it?”
