For many consumer goods, the price that you’ll pay right now for that item is higher than the price you’ll pay six months down the road. There are a lot of reasons for that.

The big one is that many companies issue products in cycles. Every so often, they replace the version of the product currently on the market with a new one that’s usually just a fairly small tweak on the old one.

There’s also the simple “new” factor, which pops up on things like video games and DVDs. When they’re new, companies charge a premium price for those items. When they’re not new, the price begins to sink.

My solution for taking advantage of both of these factors is to simply decide on the product I’m going to buy, then putting that decision aside for a while. The time can vary based on how much you “need” the product.

Cell phones are a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Like many people, my cell phone eventually gets beat up with heavy use. Whenever my cell phone contract is up, I typically replace my phone with a new one, usually a very low cost or free one that comes with the contract.

The thing is that many of the models that the company carries go through a pricing cycle. They start off with a fairly high price, but when they’re replaced by newer cell phones with just a few more bells and whistles (that, in all honesty, you’ll barely use), they tend to see their price drop pretty steeply. Eventually, they’re replaced.

The thing is, most of those slightly outdated phones do everything I want a cell phone to do.

So, what I often do is look at the models a few months before I’m going to be upgrading my phone. I figure out the one that works for me and then walk away.

A few months later, when my contract is up, I stroll in and, most of the time, the phone I decided on is still there, often at a lower price. Sometimes, it’s a recently discontinued model that’s free with the contract.

Want another example? Whenever a new computer game is released that I want, I simply add it to a list and wait until the following December. There’s a good chance that the game will be available at 75% off or better at some online sale or another. I’ve been doing this very thing for years.

Patience saves you money. If you don’t need the thing, wait a few months. You’ll save some money in the process and won’t lose any of the quality of the item you desire.

This post is part of a yearlong series called “365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),” in which I’m revisiting the entries from my book “365 Ways to Live Cheap,” which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my “photography intern” for this project.

The hardest part about being a parent is realizing that the six year old boy who runs up the stairs to give you a hug the moment he gets home from school is going to disappear soon and never return.

He’s going to keep growing up. Before long, giving Dad a hug isn’t going to be that big of a deal. He’ll have new interests. Eventually, he’ll go through his teen years and the birth pangs of independence that those bring. Not long after that, he’ll be an adult with his own life to traverse.

That little boy who thinks I’m the greatest thing in the world won’t be here forever.

The same thing is true of my daughter and my youngest son, but the winds of change blow stronger with the oldest one. His childhood isn’t going to last forever. In less than a decade, he’ll be driving a car. In fifteen years, he’ll be living on his own.

I don’t really lament this. I look forward to seeing the adults that my children will eventually grow up to be.

However, I do recognize that my time with them as children is short. Right now is the only time in my life where I’ll have the joy of being a parent to young children, with all the joy that brings.

This is something that’s particularly special about this point in my life. When I was younger, I didn’t have children. I didn’t have the day-in and day-out joy of interacting with and raising three young kids. When I’m older, I won’t have young children at home any more.

There’s something particularly enjoyable about every stage in life, from childhood to single adulthood to retirement. Each has particular things about it that you’ll only have at this point in your life.

Enjoy them.

I remember fondly the things I did when I was a child. I loved playing in sandboxes. I loved going to parks. I loved giving and receiving hugs from my loved ones.

I remember fondly being a college student and a single adult. I could stay up all night talking to friends. I could go on incredibly long walks, all day long if I wanted to.

Other stages in my life will hold special things, too. I’ll spend time with my grandchildren (if I have any). I’ll travel without any professional worries, doing things like tossing a tent in the vehicle and departing for a month. I’ll donate large chunks of time to charities.

Each stage holds special opportunities that really won’t appear at any other stage in my life. Almost all of these opportunities are ones that cost very little in terms of money.

You don’t have to own anything to enjoy having a healthy young body that can participate in sports.

You don’t have to have a bevy of possessions to enjoy playing tag in the yard with your children.

You don’t have to own very much to wander about the country with your wife when you’re both retired.

Enjoy the varying opportunities life gives you at each stage along the way. Possessions don’t make for a life well lived.

I think I’ll take a break from writing and go play soccer with my kids before they get too old to want to play soccer with their dad.

You’ve found your soul mate and you’re goin’ to the chapel and you’re goin’ get married. Congratulations. But are your credit scores compatible?

It isn’t a particularly romantic conversation, but talking about your credit history and how to manage your new financial life together is something couples can do to avoid disappointment or embarrassment once the honeymoon is over. It’s something to take seriously, considering divorce lawyers and therapists say one of the most prevalent causes of a destroyed marriage is financial troubles.

Stay Open and Transparent: Share Scores

As mundane as it sounds, looking at your intended’s credit report could be the best way to determine if they can handle money issues in a responsible manner. If your fiancé does not want to show you his or her credit report, that may give you pause. If they are willing, set a date to look over each other’s histories and discuss any red flags. Your fiancé did have a life before meeting you. There could be very legitimate reasons for past problems, and your fiancé may not appreciate feeling like they are on trial when you are both trying to map out a financial management strategy. Identify problem issues and come up with a plan to address them. But do it cooperatively.

Pay It Off Before Getting Hitched

You should consider paying off large credit card balances or past due items showing up on a credit report prior to your wedding. Doing so allows the two of you to have a fresh start before any financial squabbles come up in your marriage. Sometimes it seems like marital spats are all about money or kids. But considering you’ll have new financial issues to hammer out, bringing old ones into the mix could hamper things.

Separate Bank Accounts

You may share a life together but you probably don’t have to sever all of your independent financial ties. If your partner has a significantly lower credit score going in to your marriage, you may want to consider keeping your financial lives separate until that score goes up. Again, this is a decision you would make with the understanding that, down the road, it will be a beneficial choice for a married unit. Marriage transactions, like buying a home, purchasing the minivan when junior arrives and taking family vacation, can require good and sustained credit to consistently enjoy. With a separate bank account, the spouse with credit challenges can still have some monetary independence so they can make purchases without impacting your financial status.

Joint Goals

Even when the two of you are maintaining separate bank accounts, that does not necessarily mean you aren’t working toward goals as a couple. In fact, maintaining a separate bank account for the partner with poor credit history may help keep the better credit score high enough to make financial plans a reality. Remember, if you make a plan, try and stick to it, even if it means your funds come from two different sources.

Spending Habits

Let’s be honest: What matters to one spouse may not be all that important to the other. If your partner is spending money on things you don’t appreciate, there can be resentment. It may help to determine how much of your total incomes each spouse can have for disposable and impulse purchases. If you both agree ahead of time on a set amount each month, this arrangement allows for individualized spending habits without compromising the overall financial health of the marriage.

Be the Responsible One

If you are more capable of properly handling the finances, logic says you should be the one doing it. Your partner has other strengths that he or she can bring to the relationship. But, whatever the case, keep each other informed on the finances. Respecting the fact that one partner is better at managing money will help make this arrangement work.

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A few years ago, I received an iPod touch as a Christmas gift. It was a very fun toy to play with and I did find a few nice uses for it, such as a quick tool for jotting down notes, but I mostly used the thing as an mp3 player.

In the end, most of the non-music uses for it were replicated by my run-of-the-mill cell phone, so there was no real need to pay extra just so I can have two devices for those little extra tasks.

Right now, I can’t name a genuinely useful thing that an iPod touch can do that my run-of-the-mill cell phone can’t really do.

So often, we hear about some new technology or new product line that will enable you to do things that you haven’t done before or allow you to do things in a completely new way – or at least the promotion of the product tries to convince you of this idea. Apple’s product launches are a great example of that kind of promotion.

When a new product appears, we’re often shown an ideal case of how someone might use the product. It seems pretty impressive, but when you start digging into the details of it, things start to break down. Is it really doing anything you’d need to do? Is it really doing anything new?

A great example of this is the iPod touch I mentioned at the start. For those unfamiliar, an iPod touch is basically just an iPhone without the cell signal. Theoretically, you can do all of the stuff you can do with an iPhone except without the service plan.

It sounds great on the surface, but when you start looking, the image starts to fall apart a little. Most of the genuinely useful things you can do with an iPhone – talk to people wherever there’s a cell phone signal, use location-aware apps anywhere you go – don’t work with an iPod touch. It also requires that you be near a wi-fi point to actually use the internet.

What about comparing it to a normal iPod? As a music player, it’s not all that great, either. It has a relatively short battery life compared to other mp3 players.

In short, it doesn’t really do anything too new, although it looks flashy. There are a few situations where it might do something nifty, but is it worth the extra cost? Not really. If you want a dedicated portable music player, buy one of those instead.

Once you start evaluating products like this, a lot of things start falling apart. Their new features really aren’t all that amazing or useful to you. Sure, you might be able to invent a rare situation where you would use it, but is it worth paying a lot more just for that special case?

Take a food processor, for example. Unless you start looking at very high end processors (which go far and beyond what I’d need in my kitchen), they don’t do anything I can’t already do with a good blender (which I already have), a spice grinder (which I already have), or a sharp knife (which I already have). So why own one? Sure, I’ve seen many cool examples of how they work, but it’s just a duplication of things I can already do.

When you’re thinking of buying a new product, compare it to what’s already out there at a lower price and consider what is actually different between the two. If the extra features are not something you’d actually use with any regularity, go with the less expensive item.

This post is part of a yearlong series called “365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),” in which I’m revisiting the entries from my book “365 Ways to Live Cheap,” which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my “photography intern” for this project.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Sentimental clutter
2. Piano lessons
3. Investment worries
4. Lentils?
5. Unsure of total debt
6. How many children?
7. Credit cards and spousal death
8. Cheap grilling
9. The value of life insurance
10. Revisiting games of childhood

Several of our plants acquired a surface fungus over the past week, one that made it appear as though they were covered with a light dusting of snow.

Our solution to the problem? We didn’t head to the store to buy chemicals. We just mixed together a few tablespoons of baking soda and two quarts of water, filled up a spray bottle, and headed outside. Between my wife, my daughter, and I, we covered several plants with this mixture.

Two days later, virtually no fungus. It worked like a charm, cost us only a few pennies, and saved us a trip into another town.

Q1: Sentimental clutter
I have 2 children ages 19 & 21. They are in college and only come home summers now. This summer we’ve been sorting through their rooms and trying to clean stuff out. My problem is that I’m the one who is struggling with what to donate or throw out and what to keep. I am TERRIBLY sentimental. I’m finding it hard to part with barbies, books, pinewood derby cars, etc. Any suggestions? Also, how about the huge box of school papers and projects? Same issues there. I’m having such a hard time letting go. I keep thinking even if I can get rid of stuff maybe a couples years down the road when my kids are more mature they’ll regret getting rid of some of these things.
- Joan

My suggestion is to do what my parents did, which worked well.

My mom kept a lot of my childhood belongings in storage. Every year or so, she’d make a pass through them and eliminate a few items. She’d save the highlights of those items for me to look at, and rarely would I want to save any of them.

Over several years, everything from my childhood boiled down to a small box of things I wanted to keep and another box of items my children wanted to play with. She also kept a very small handful of items, too.

Give it time. Make a pass through the items every once in a while and ask yourself whether each item really needs to be kept. Over time, you will whittle it down.

Q2: Piano lessons
I was wondering if you still teaching yourself how to play the piano? If so, how’s it coming along?
- Andrew

I chose to stop taking piano lessons last fall when I found my time getting more and more pinched. The time investment of practicing regularly and attending lessons was difficult to keep up when The Simple Dollar was eating up more and more of my time.

Basically, my family is my top priority. When there’s something that’s consistently taking time away from them, then I start looking at what I’m doing wrong and look for a change. At the time, the piano lessons were the easiest thing to drop, even though I really didn’t want to.

I am considering returning to lessons in the near future once I get several personal projects out of the way.

Q3: Investment worries
When I got my job in 2010, the first thing I did was follow your advice and sign up for a 401(k). Between my contribution and my employer match, I’m contributing 16% of my income to my retirement, which makes me feel good. What stresses me out though is the day to day fluctuation in the value of it. I find myself checking it every day and I get sick to my stomach on days when it loses 2-3% of its value. Thousands of dollars vanish in a blink. I know intellectually that it’s okay but my gut still hurts. How do I get past that?
- Marc

You need to stop looking at the balance every day, for one. All that does is contribute needlessly to your stress level.

Most investments with a moderate level of risk (like stocks) fluctuate a lot on a day to day basis. However, people typically don’t invest in them unless they’re day trading or they’re in it for the long haul. If you’re in it for the long haul, the day to day fluctuations don’t really matter at all. You’re really only interested in change over larger periods, like years or decades.

My suggestion is to review your retirement accounts annually, no more, no less. Most years, you’ll find nothing to stress out about.

Q4: Lentils?
Do you eat and or like lentils? I know they’re good for me and they smell good, but every time I’ve had them, they always disappoint. I want to like them for health reasons but I’ve yet to find a good recipe. I know you’re a vegetarian so I was wondering if lentils are part of your diet and how you cook them to be tasty.
- Karen

I like lentils. However, I know that many people don’t.

My favorite use for them is in a savory soup, of which this is a good example. Lentils serve as a great backbone for a soup, providing texture and a bit of flavor, but with the flavor of other seasons coming over the top.

If you don’t like a particular foodstuff, though, don’t sweat it. There is a wide world of foods out there to try.

Q5: Unsure of total debt
What is your advice to someone who is not sure who they owe? I am really good at hiding so I am not sure what my debt is, who I owe it to, how much I owe, etc.
- Megan

I would start with my credit report.

Go get a copy of your credit report at the Federal Trade Commission’s website. When you retrieve it, use it as a checklist for your debts.

You need to spend the time to figure out what each item is on that credit report. Many of them will be debts that have a balance. Some might be debts that have closed. Others might even be things falsely attributed to your credit report.

This isn’t perfect, but it’s a very good start.

Q6: How many children?
How did you and Sarah come to the decision to have three children? How was three the right number for you guys? Why not more? Why not less? What went into that decision?
- Erica

We intended to have at least one child since before we were married, so the first one was simple.

After each child, we spent some time talking through the issue of whether to have another one. At our current station, we’ve decided not to have another one, though the idea of adoption has been discussed.

Our biggest issue each time was whether or not we felt we could give sufficient attention and care to each of our children if we added another one to the mix. After our third, we began to feel a bit less sure about our answer to that question.

Q7: Credit cards and spousal death
When my wife passed away, I was cleaning up her bills. Discovered an interesting fact. She had a credit card from Sears in her own name. The balance was $1200.00 on it. I called Sears and explained that my wife had passed away. I wanted to know what was the legal ramifications for myself as the husband. Since I had not signed on to her card and she was deceased, the balance would be forgiven on the spot. I asked if they wanted a copy of proof of death. They did not require that. In fact, a few days later I received a Sympathy card from Sears as well.
- Eric

Sears handled that situation with grace.

Of course, most companies would handle this situation in a similar fashion. It’s pretty clear you had no direct liability in this situation, so a company would have a pretty tough time pushing this and trying to convince you to cough up the money. They wouldn’t have much of a leg to stand on, but they certainly could use persuasion. Most companies interested in preserving their reputation wouldn’t go that route.

Still, it’s always good to know that there are decent companies out there.

Q8: Cheap grilling
My wife and I are trying to cut back on our food spending, but it’s really hard to do it in the warm spring and summer when we’re tempted to grill all the time. I know you guys grill. How do you keep it cheap?
- Vincent

Sarah and I are pretty much vegetarians (I’m all the way there and Sarah is 90% there), so we mostly grill vegetables. We make skewers full of vegetables, wrap vegetables in aluminum foil (we just ate zucchini and tomato grilled in foil for dinner yesterday, along with other things), and sometimes just toss them straight on the grill.

The basic technique we use for saving money is the same we’d use if we were eating meat. We just look at the store flyers for the fresh items that are on sale and focus on buying and preparing those.

For example, we found a sale on zucchini recently, so we grilled them two different ways (sliced into discs and dipped in olive oil, as well as the foiled dish described above). We take what’s cheap and try to come up with delicious ways to use it.

Q9: The value of life insurance
On the subject of Life Insurance, I would like to stress the importance of a mother/wife being insured, especially if there are small children involved or already in College. My wife died in 2000 at the age of 54 from Breast Cancer/Brain Tumors. It was agressive and shortlived. Absolutely no history of cancer on either side of my wife’s family. We had a policy for $100,000. I can only tell you that with 4 children 11, 15,16,17., it was a valuable investment. From diagnosis to death was about 7 months. If this was to be done over again I would be sure that we would have had no less than $200,000 of insurance. We were blessed with generous donations from our church family as well. I was adamant in having my wife insured. (Years earlier, my sister also died of Breast Cancer at age 37. Left behind a sad husband and 4 boys, ages 6 years to 15 years. I ended up raising them for the next 16 years as a single 28 year old bachelor and she had no insurance at all).

I wish people would not be so grim about insurance. It is a blessing to have when the storms of life hit.
- Leon

I think most people avoid life insurance because it makes them think of their own mortality. No one wants to think of themselves dying.

The reason for life insurance, though, has nothing to do with you. It’s not for you. It’s for the people you love the most in this world. It’s for your kids and your spouse. A life insurance policy just guarantees that they’ll have a good life, come what may.

If your money invested in life insurance is completely wasted, it’s still a good outcome because you lived for all those years. If it’s not wasted, then you made a killer investment for your loved ones. It’s a good result either way.

Q10: Revisiting games of childhood
Just wanted to see if you had any opinions on the new Axis and Allies version (currently sold in game and bookstores). I grew up playing the old Axis and Allies, and still play it pretty consistently, however, I am wondering if it’s worth upgrading.
- Aaron

There are actually a lot of versions of Axis and Allies floating around out there.

The basic version – the one you’ve probably seen – is pretty similar to the old one from the 1980s. The gameplay is more or less identical. The biggest changes are ones that alter the victory conditions and the stats of the various units. Overall, the changes are pretty minor and are almost all good changes.

There are quite a few alternate versions of the game floating around, too, where the game focuses on specific battles or theatres of operation of World War II. There’s a Europe version, a Pacific version, a Guadalcanal version, a D-Day version, and a Battle of the Bulge version. These still retain the basic gameplay of Axis and Allies, with big changes to the map and the victory conditions and the unit types.

If you really liked Axis and Allies as a kid, any of these will work. It’s a pretty good game, even beyond the nostalgia of it. If you have someone to play it with and will get a few plays in, it’s actually a pretty cheap form of entertainment.

Got any questions? Email them to me or leave them in the comments and I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive hundreds of questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

In April 2010, Apple’s iPad debuted. Depending on the exact model you purchased, it set you back around $500.

In March 2011, the iPad 2 was announced. Within hours, I saw people posting their nearly-new iPads on Craigslist and eBay. With all the competition out there, the prices dipped as low as $100 a pop.

I know one of the people who sold his first generation iPad during that rush. The iPad he sold was in extremely good shape, as he kept it in a case the entire time he used it.

Simply by waiting 11 months or so, a person could have saved 75% of the sticker price on an iPad.

Most of the time, waiting several months on buying a new product, particularly a tech product, will save you a significant portion of the list price.

I’ve witnessed the same thing with computer games, where a new game will come out in April and cost $59, but then be available on sale for $10 that December.

I’ve witnessed it with televisions, with DVD players, and with countless other pieces of technology.

I’ve particularly witnessed it with cell phones, where a cutting edge phone drops in price as much as 80% within a year. It still does everything it did a year earlier, of course, but the price is drastically cheaper.

Of course, there’s one other big reason to not be an early adopter besides the price: you don’t have to worry about the technical hiccups.

Whenever a new piece of software debuts, it almost always has some significant bugs under the hood. I’ve seen operating systems completely crash or fail to update on the day of release. I’ve seen video games be almost nonfunctional at first until a bug fix is released. I’ve seen DVD players with firmware that makes it impossible to watch many types of discs, which is of course fixed but only a few months after release.

If you wait, you not only get the full features of the item that you would have got on the release date, you get them at a lower price and without all of the early release bugs and problems.

Even better, you give yourself plenty of time to evaluate the product and figure out if you actually want it. The hype machine can often convince people that they want a product, only to leave them realizing later that they barely use it. Waiting gives you the time to get past the hype and figure out if the item is actually useful for you.

Don’t be an early adopter. It costs you money and time in a lot of different ways.

This post is part of a yearlong series called “365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),” in which I’m revisiting the entries from my book “365 Ways to Live Cheap,” which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my “photography intern” for this project.

This morning, I took all three of my children with me to the grocery store, where we bought food for the next two weeks or so.

After I unloaded those groceries and we had a nice family lunch, I took my oldest son to soccer practice, did some household chores, then the five of us went on a long family bicycle ride including a stop at a park and a stop at the home of some friends. We had dinner together, then we worked on some projects out in the yard.

I put our three children to bed this evening and they collapsed out of sheer exhaustion. They got a ton of fresh air and exercise, as did I.

I’m writing this article as I sit on the floor outside their bedroom, with my laptop open in front of me. The hallway is dark, as is their room. I can hear the gentle rhythm of my daughter’s breathing as she sleeps.

I have that good physical feeling of a day spent doing things outside and that good emotional feeling of having a strong connection to my family.

It was a day where the most important thing was to spend time together, enjoy the outdoors, work on some personal projects and family projects, and see a few friends.

It was a day where none of us were stressed out about our work or about our money. We talked. We hugged. We worked together on things. We played. We simply enjoyed each other without the specter of financial stress.

Today is the embodiment of what my goals have been over the last several years. The number one thing I’ve wanted is a strong relationship with my family, one where my children feel safe and free from worry and happy and secure with their relationship with me and with Sarah and one where Sarah and I have a strong marriage.

Taped to my laptop are two notes, one written by my daughter and the other written by my oldest son. They wrote these notes the other day of their own volition, while I was busy changing our youngest child’s diaper and clothes after an accident. Each of these notes says “Dad I love you.”

Those notes pretty much embody what I’m talking about.

A strong family life seems like a mundane goal to a lot of people, but it was that goal that drove me to make every major financial and professional change in my life.

Almost everybody has something out there that they want. The biggest thing that you want might be a good family life, but most likely it’s something completely different. Maybe it’s a place in a city with a bustling cultural life. Maybe it’s a lot of long afternoons to read great literature. Maybe it’s a place in your state legislature where you can help mold the policies and laws.

The real challenge is to figure out what you want most and toss a lot of less important things to the side to get there.

For me, that meant making several incredibly difficult career choices. That meant abandoning many of the hobbies I used to fill my time. That meant giving up quite a lot of impromptu spending.

I gained something more important in exchange for those sacrifices, and what I gained is represented by the sunburn that’s on my cheeks right now, the peaceful breathing I can hear coming from the next room, and those two notes stuck to my laptop. To me, that’s worth a lot of hard decisions, little sacrifices, and a few mistakes along the way.

What do you want? Figure out what you want most and chase it – hard. It will probably require some financial changes, some shifts in spending, and maybe even some hard professional choices.

If it’s what you really want, though, it’s worth it, because everything else is really less important.

One of the best decisions I made during my years of poor finances after college was to sign up for the automatic loan repayment program that my lender made available.

To understand why it was such a good choice, you have to roll back the clock to the situation I found myself in right after college.

For starters, I was really inexperienced with managing my own money. I was freshly out of college and earning the first significant paycheck of my life. Money management was completely new to me. The idea of meeting monthly bills was largely new to me.

I was aware of most of the concepts of personal finance, but actually putting them into practice is completely different than understanding them conceptually.

The end result of this was a somewhat cavalier attitude towards bill payment. I managed to pay my bills on time, but I didn’t worry much at all about juggling them and pushing right up to – and right past – due dates. The idea of a credit score was a vague concept that didn’t really matter to me. Interest rates were pretty secondary in importance to me.

Signing up for automatic payments on my largest debt at the time took some of the weight off of my immaturity. It was all taken care of. The money came out of my primary checking account, reducing my only worry to making sure I kept up a reasonable minimum balance.

Automatic student loan payments help cover for some immaturity at the very time when many young people are completely inexperienced with money management. It minimizes the chance that they’ll mess up this important thing before they can really grasp the consequences of messing it up.

There’s another big reason for doing it, too. It can often save you money.

If I signed up for automatic student loan payments, my lender knocked 0.25% off of my interest rate. That saved me several hundred dollars over the course of my student loans.

In addition to that, if I made my first twelve monthly payments, I got another 0.25% off of my interest rate. That also saved me several hundred dollars over the course of my student loans.

Many lenders offer such programs. Some lenders promote their offer heavily, while others may require you to ask about it. In either case, if you’re facing student loans, it’s a good way to start saving yourself some money very quickly. Check with your lender to see if such programs are available to you.

For me, it was good all around. The automatic payment plan kept me responsible. The interest rate reductions saved me money. If an automated plan can do the same for you, it’s well worth signing up for.

This post is part of a yearlong series called “365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),” in which I’m revisiting the entries from my book “365 Ways to Live Cheap,” which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my “photography intern” for this project.