My family has only one television in the house, and it is primarily used for playing Wii games. It’s an enormous, extremely heavy old 32″ television, bought when I was in college and now approaching ten years old. In all four corners, the screen has begun to turn faintly blue, and it shows up particularly well on a white screen, as the cloudiness covers a good portion of the screen.

Not too long ago, I would have insisted on replacing this immediately, but in all honesty, it doesn’t interfere with any of our usage of the television. Thus, we’ll keep it until the issue becomes serious enough that it disallows our use of the television for any purpose.

Quite frankly, some of our friends and family think this is weird. “Why don’t you just replace it?” they ask. “You can afford it, you know,” they’ll say, as though they need to remind us that we can, in fact, spend money.

The real truth of the matter is that my wife and I have started to follow a set of unwritten rules about when and how to upgrade or replace the items that we have now. I thought it might be fun to actually write some of these down and share them.

Rule #1: If it isn’t broke, don’t replace it.
This means that if we have an item that is functional, we don’t replace it with something newer (there are a few little caveats to this that I’ll explain later). This rule is why we haven’t replaced our television yet and we probably won’t until the tube blows - it’s functional, so why replace it?

Rule #2: When we do replace something, we replace it with long term quality and reliability.
For example, our house came with a washer and dryer set that we plan on using until they’re on death’s door. At that point, we will pony up and buy quality replacements for them - ones that are energy efficient and designed to last for the long haul. This might cost us a lot out of pocket right then, but the efficiency and reliability of the items will pay dividends for many years afterwards.

Rule #3: Upgrading before the end of the lifespan is fine if there is a clear and compelling functional reason for the change.
Our kitchen knives are a great example of this. We have a functional set of kitchen knives that work well for most of our uses, but they’re not excellent and they are frustrating for some tasks (vegetable chopping, etc.). The knives simply aren’t designed well enough to execute repetitive chopping and so on. Thus, the knives are on our list of items to replace in the future. When we do replace them, we will replace them with stellar knives, ones intended to last a lifetime.

Rule #4: No item is upgraded unless we both agree on the need for the upgrade.
If this rule weren’t in place, I might have already replaced the knives. However, my wife is still riding the fence on them - we’ve slated a replacement for them in the long term, but not immediately. Why? Her argument is that they still do most tasks well, so we should buy single knife upgrades for specific tasks. My argument is that some single knives will just encourage us to upgrade all of them, so we might as well save the money and get the whole set. We will do a knife upgrade when we are in full agreement on what to do, but until then, we’ll wait until we agree on what to do.

Rule #5: Try to avoid things that have a steady “upgrade” cycle.
Video game consoles come to mind. We own a Wii, and we know from the past that video game consoles are “upgraded” every five years or so, with the console manufacturer reducing and then eliminating support for the old console as the new one begins to sell well. Does this mean we upgrade when the new console comes out? I don’t really plan to as long as I’m still enjoying games for my Wii - I actually have far more games right now than I have time to play, so why upgrade until I’ve gotten the enjoyment out of everything that I have?

The same logic goes for HD-DVD and BluRay. I see no reason to ever upgrade to them until it literally becomes impossible to get movies on regular DVD - and even then, I won’t upgrade for a while. Why? I have all of the movies I enjoy watching repeatedly on DVD already, so why upgrade to a new format? I’m very glad to see that some family members of mine feel the same way - one of them actually has a VCR in a box (just in case they completely go off the market) so that they can continue to watch their video tape collection and aren’t forced into an upgrade that doesn’t really add value.

In short, we don’t upgrade that often, but when we do, we do it with items of quality, not just a cheap replacement item.

In 1983, when my wife was just a little girl, she wanted a Cabbage Patch Kids doll for Christmas. Her parents were unable to find one, but her grandmother apparently bribed a shelf-stocker at a TG&Y in rural Iowa to grab a couple.

In 1988, I desperately wanted the video game Super Mario Bros. 2 for Christmas. My father sat out on a loading dock behind a store for almost six hours, then bribed the guy unloading boxes with a $20 bill and five pounds of catfish fillets (my father was - and is - a small-scale commercial fisherman) to just put the game in his hands so he could go buy it.

In 1996, my niece wanted a Tickle Me Elmo. I was able to get one by going to a Toys ‘R’ Us store in West Des Moines, Iowa, waiting in line for three hours, then dashing for a huge display of them. I grabbed one, turned around, and tried to get out of the crowd when an old lady tried to actually take the toy out of my arms.

Why do this? For many of us, seeing the joy of a child receiving that one toy that they most want for Christmas is an enormous motivator. I know, certainly, that my best Christmas memories are of receiving that one toy I most wanted for Christmas, but I realize now that on some level, I realized that it was more than just the mere gift. I knew that my parents had gone through a lot of effort to get the item and make sure that I had it that year for Christmas, and I knew it was because they loved me very much.

In the end, I don’t really mind putting in a lot of effort to get that one gift that a child wishes for the most - I’m much more bothered by a mountain of gifts, as I’m a big believer in the idea of diminishing returns if a child receives a lot of presents. Thus, my gift-giving strategy usually is two or three great presents, period.

There are a lot of ways to track down that “it” gift each year:

Go shopping early on a Sunday morning. This is the time when most major retailers put out the items listed in their flyer, so if you spot a highly desirable item in a store’s flyer, you should get there early on a Sunday to procure it. I know that I used this strategy to get my Wii earlier this year.

Talk to the people in the store where you might find the item. Just ask when they usually receive shipments and whether or not they’ll be receiving a particular item soon. Even better, if you have a friend who works there, work out an arrangement where they can directly help you pick up the item (hopefully, it won’t involve you sitting out on the dock).

Call around. If the item is not sizzling hot, but a bit hard to find nonetheless, make it a routine to call a lot of local stores asking for the item on a regular basis. If they say it won’t be in stock, ask when it will be. If they don’t know, ask to talk to a manager. Sometimes, the item will wind up being ordered by that store.

Hit up Craigslist. Explain that you are trying to find a particular item for your child for Christmas and are looking for any pointers or people that have one for sale. This isn’t a guarantee, but there’s a decent chance you’ll find the help you need - but often at a premium.

The lazy solution: use eBay. For high demand items, eBay (and/or other online auction houses) is the best place to find a high-demand item - but you will pay out the nose for it. Stick with highly trustworthy sellers, too - again, you’ll have to pay a premium. However, in the end, you will get your item this way. This is definitely the lazy way to the solution.

What if you can’t afford or can’t locate that one item that your child most wants for Christmas?

Don’t make a big deal out of it. Bringing it up yourself and being upset about it will just stir emotions in your child. If your child is disappointed at Christmas, be simple but firm about it and just move on with life. If the

Find other items that the child wants. Never get in a situation where a child’s Christmas wish list consists of one item. Make sure that there are lots of items to choose from, so that even if one is a clear favorite, you still have many options.

Spend time with the child. Time is the best gift you can give, not a Nintendo Wii. Play a board game with your child, or take the child to a park, or just watch a movie together. That will mean far more to the child in the long run than a snazzy gift.

Thoughts and good stories about getting an “it” toy for Christmas are welcome in the comments.

Customer loyalty programs are those free programs a person can sign up for at a particular retailer than offers rewards of various kinds for spending certain amounts of money or making certain numbers of purchases. Although it can be a bit of a hassle to sign up the first time, afterwards it is an extremely convenient way to get lots of lucrative coupons and discounts.

I’ve been doing this for years, but I often notice that many people simply don’t participate in such programs. They’re missing out - these companies ship out great coupons and store credit all the time. Might as well collect, right?

Six Steps to Free Stuff

Get a new, separate email address. I signed up for a Gmail account specifically to collect the mailings that come from these programs. This prevents my normal email from getting inundated with such things, plus whenever I plan on visiting a retailer, I log into that email address and search for available offers.

Always sign up if the program is free. Even if you think you’ll only go to a place once a year at most, a customer loyalty program is worth signing up for. I recommend giving that email address you’ve created (because some plans send out excellent coupons by email), but try to minimize the actual personal data you give to them. If it doesn’t violate the terms of service of the program, I encourage you to give a bogus address and phone number, in fact, because that info is regularly sold to telemarketers.

Search that email before you go shopping. I quite often get pretty good offers from various retailers by email, things like 30% off any single book in the store or other things like that. If I’m going to stop at a store to buy a book anyway, that coupon is like gold. Even better, most rewards programs allow you to accrue points for store credit, and they’ll usually email that address each time you reach a store credit threshold - also worth knowing if you’ve built up $20 in credit somewhere.

Don’t let the loyalty program affect your purchases. Almost always, I’ve made up my mind about what I’m going to purchase before I ever walk in the door of a store. If I happen to have a coupon, great - if I happen to have store credit, great. But these don’t influence my buying decision, nor does the number of points I might earn for the purchase.

Strive to use a card as often as you can when you make a purchase. If you’re at a store, by default ask if they have a customer rewards program. If they do, either sign up or remember that you already have and use that card.

If you start collecting a lot of cards, use some ingenuity to keep your wallet thin. You can either make your own customer loyalty card that combines several such programs, or else use the service at JustOneClubCard.com to keep all of your customer numbers and barcodes on one single card in your wallet. If someone asks questions (about 10% of the time for me), just tell the truth: say that you scanned your own cards and put them onto one card to save space in your wallet.

Notes on Free Customer Loyalty Programs That I Use

Airlines I’m a member of the frequent flyer programs for several airlines, but I have by far the most miles racked up with American (AAdvantage) and United (Mileage Plus) because they are the ones that fly the most flights out of Des Moines, the airport I use the most by far. If you fly frequently (as I did for a while), you can really rack up the miles and eventually use them for free airline flights.

Borders They neutered their Borders Rewards program several months ago (compared to the excellent free program they once had), but it’s still quite worthwhile. Every $150 spent earns a $5 store credit, plus they mail out 25% and 30% off coupons all the time. If you buy a book only on occasion, this is a really great program to join.

Best Buy Their Reward Zone program is solid, effectively offering 2% in store credit on your purchases. Since their prices on most video games are the same or $5 better than games elsewhere locally, I tend to buy my games there and build up credit.

Hotels Almost every major hotel chain has a program, and I’m a member of most of them. Since on the rare occasion we actually use a hotel we tend to make reservations, I just take along the card that I know I’m going to use and then present it at the desk. This has actually earned us a free night at a Marriott.

Staples Although I rarely go there, I do have a Staples Rewards card. Mostly, it’s a rebate program that seems to earn incredibly varying amounts depending on the day and the item purchased. I have used the rebates to get some free office supplies, however.

I use these programs mostly because these are the retailers most commonly available in northern Iowa. In other areas, there are many more choices, from additional retailers to grocery chains that use such programs (like Albertson’s and Winn-Dixie).

A few of my friends are big believers in buying organic produce. They basically won’t buy anything at all that’s not certified USDA Organic, and they claim loudly and repeatedly that this is really the only way to go if you care about your health.

To me, it’s more a matter of personal preference than anything else. While there are some benefits to organic food, there are some serious limitations to it as well.

First of all, with regards to the question of whether organic foods are better for you, it’s pretty hard to trust most sources of information. Almost every source of information has a clear bias on the topic, from pro-organic folks listing lots of positive attributes to others claiming there are no health benefits at all. Both sides have significant scientific literature that “proves” their perspective.

What’s the actual truth? As usual, it’s probably somewhere in the middle - organic foods probably do have a small number of benefits over non-organic crops, but the claims that some make about the benefits of the foods are likely overblown. Almost always, when you have two sides shouting loudly with very different perspectives, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

What about the lack of chemicals in organics? That’s largely overrated, too. Take a look at the USDA regulations on what is considered “organic,” particularly starting on page 427, where it lists materials allowed for use in organic crop production. I’ve selected a few allowed items:

calcium hypochlorite
chlorine dioxide
soap-based algicide
ammonium
calcium polysulfide
copper sulfate
lignin sulfonate

I just pulled out a few, actually, from the first few pages of the list, largely to prove the point that claims that organic foods are free of chemicals is nonsensical. Sure, most of the items on this list are perfectly benign, but are you going to study each of these chemicals to make sure your food is safe? If you aren’t, you’re in the same boat of trusting the USDA and the FDA as you would be when you buy non-organics.

In a nutshell, organic foods are likely somewhat better for you than non-organics, and are likely better for the environment as well. Is it enough of a difference to account for the difference in price? Maybe, maybe not - it depends on your values - but to believe that USDA-certified organics are strictly and clearly superior to non-organics is a substantial overstatement, especially when you consider the dollar value of the food.

Here’s the real truth: if you are really committed to foods that are produced with the environment in mind, grow them yourself or participate in a co-op that grows them to a strict standard. The vegetables in my garden are fertilized by compost I make myself, and the only things I spray on them are vinegar-based bug and critter repellents that I make myself in the kitchen. That’s food I’m glad to feed my family. When you buy food, at some point you have to trust others, regardless of whether you buy USDA-certified organic food or not. As for me, I’m perfectly happy buying the non-organics and mixing them with the food I grow myself.

When I write on The Simple Dollar, I often write about tips and techniques that I’ve found useful for saving and investing money. I’ll talk about the big things - like always spending less than you earn - but I also list things like ten ways to avoid financially responsible buying.

I have very little problem managing the big things. My debt is steadily going downwards, I’m starting an investing plan, and I’ve got most of the things I need to pay set up automatically. Even better, I’ve found lots of ways to minimize my spending so that right now, we’re actually spending less than half of our income on the required stuff, like food and minimum bill payments.

Where I tend to stumble instead is on the little things.

I’ll go to the store and pick up a game for my DS, justifying the unnecessary splurge by thinking to myself, “I am doing such a good job! This little thing won’t make a difference!”

I’ll go splurge and spend $40 on a bottle of wine, telling myself that it is the perfect complement to a meal I’ve spent an hour and a half preparing.

I’ll buy an expensive, high quality pocket notebook (for my idea notebook) rather than a simple Mead one that does the job just fine.

Now, many people would react to all this by saying you work hard, you deserve it and you save a huge amount of money each month, these splurges won’t really matter and what’s the point of life without those little things we enjoy.

The problem is that those little mis-steps are the ones that really add up.

Rather than buying a new DS game, I could either actually finish some of the ones I own or trade one of my unplayed ones online, thus saving me $25.

Rather than buying a $40 bottle of wine, I could go to the winery down the road from where I live and buy a perfectly good bottle for $10, not only saving me $30 but also supporting a local business.

Instead of buying that expensive pocket notebook, I could save $4 and buy the little Mead notebook - it’s just for sketching ideas, anyway.

None of those alternate moves deny me any deep pleasure in life. They just save some money and reduce the impact that my immediate needs have on my long term future.

Yet, I still regularly make these little mistakes. I have a $40 bottle of wine sitting in the wine rack right now, waiting to accompany some homemade lasagna. I have a pile of DS games (and a few Wii games), many of which I’ve not played through entirely. My pocket notebook is currently not a Mead (though I need a new one soon).

It often seems as though I can see the boulders and can get past them, but I trip up on the pebbles.

So what can I do to get past this? The most powerful technique I’ve found is reminding myself a lot of what the big picture really is. I keep a few items in my wallet near my credit card so that whenever I go to pull it out, I see what I’m sacrificing to make that purchase.

Even with that, though, it’s still a constant challenge to overcome the little things.

Whenever I hear that phrase the feeling you get from a Coca-Cola Classic, my tongue tingles a bit and I can’t help but think, “Man, an ice cold Coke in a glass bottle sounds good right now.” That ad works like a charm on me and it likely encouraged me to buy far more Coke than I ever would have without it. Why? Effective - and very skilled - marketing.

Many of us like to believe that we’re wise to marketing, but it exists around every corner. “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a form of marketing - if you see something your neighbor has and you want it as well so you can “keep up,” marketing is at work. Name brands are a form of marketing.

I don’t begrudge a company their marketing department - there are many people in marketing that are very skilled at what they do and any company obviously wants to sell their product. I also don’t begrudge material that carries advertisements - if it’s material I want to see, I realize they’re going to have to be supported financially somehow.

What I do want is to reduce the influence that marketing has in my own life and on my family. I don’t want my children throwing temper tantrums over the latest toy because an advertisement or a clever display convinced them that it would be the greatest toy they’d ever own. I don’t want to feel a compulsion to fill my home with name brand items because ads make me feel temporarily good about them (that is, until I check my credit card balance).

Here are five steps I recommend for minimizing that influence.

Turn off the television. Fast forwarding through commercials isn’t enough - many programs are laden with product placements as well. Just turn it off and find something else to do - it’s not as hard as you might think. Why am I so hard on television? The combination of video and audio in the advertisements there make it possible to attract multiple senses - hearing and vision - and thus open you up to all sorts of clever marketing.

Think about how an ad works Quite often, spending a few seconds just thinking about how an ad places an idea in your head is enough to really refute it. The next time you see an ad that makes you think, “Hmm… I want that,” stop and ask yourself what part of the ad made you think this. That question alone will often quell the need.

When you see stuff your neighbors have that you want, imagine how much debt they’re in. Most blocks seem to have one family that has all kinds of neat stuff. I know we do - we live very close to a family that drives two Lexuses, for example. I look at the Lexus and think, “Wow… I’d love to drive that,” but then I imagine the debt load of having two sparkling new Lexuses and then it turns almost 180 degrees - I almost feel sorry for them. I’m much happier without $1,000 in car payments each month.

Give generics a try. When you go to make a name brand purchase at the store, give the generic version of the product a try and see whether you’re actually paying more for quality or just for the name brand. You’ll find that much of the time, you’re just paying for the name.

Read a book. Books have a unique advantage: the price you pay up front for the book means that there won’t be advertisements inside (most of the time). Instead, you get a big chunk of entertainment and/or thoughtful ideas that isn’t interlaced with marketing come-ons. Time spent reading a book is time spent minimizing the effect of marketing, especially if you try out fare like Fast Food Nation.

About once a month as a Friday “bonus” post, I’m featuring an original article written by one of my favorite bloggers. This guest article was written by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits.

The enemy of frugality and simplicity and your monthly budget is the impulse buy.

We’ve all done it, of course, and it can be incredibly difficult to stop the urge to buy once it’s in us. There’s an incredibly cool gadget that we have to have, a great pair of shoes or jeans, a book or magazine or dessert that won’t cost much.

If you’re in the store, or at an online site, the forces of advertising and marketing are sometimes too powerful to overcome. And yet, they can be beat, with some simple strategies.

The trick, of course, is to think about it. It’s when the impulse urge is subconscious that it’s most dangerous. If you give it some thought, and realize that you have the urge, you can apply these strategies to beat it.

If impulse buying has been secretly undermining your monthly budget, here are 10 simple strategies for beating the urge. Choose the method that works best for you, or use them in combination.

1. Create a 30-day list. Make a new rule: you can’t buy anything (except necessities) until a 30-day waiting period has passed. Put a 30-day list on your refrigerator, and when you have the urge to buy something, put it on the list with today’s date. After a month has passed, you can buy the item. Many times the urge will have passed and you can just cross the item off the list. This works if you stick to your rule. The only exceptions would be groceries and other similar necessities.

2. Don’t go to the mall. You only get the urge to buy on impulse if you’re in a shopping area (or if you’re watching TV). So, prevent the urge from happening in the first place by not going shopping. Don’t go to the mall or Walmart or other shopping areas. Only go to a store if you have a specific necessity to purchase, and go with a list. Don’t buy anything not on that list. Now get out as soon as possible. Don’t just walk around window shopping for entertainment, or you will be sorely tempted. Find other ways to have fun.

3. Don’t go to online retail sites. Just as the mall will create the urge to buy, so will online sites such as Amazon. They make it too easy to buy something. Instead, stay away from these sites.

4. Monitor your urges. Make it a point to monitor your urges, if it’s a big problem. Keep a little piece of paper, and put a tally mark on it every time you get the urge. This helps you to become more conscious of the urge, which is usually something we don’t even notice. Different symptoms can appear, such as faster breathing or a faster heart rate, when we have the urge. By becoming more aware of the changes in our body, we can begin to get the urges under control.

5. Take a deep breath. When you do get the urge, there are ways to calm it down. Deep breathing, self massage, walking around, and drinking water can all help control the urge. Take 10 deep breaths, and the urge will often be diminished enough to resist.

6. Calculate the value in life energy. If you’ve been a reader of The Simple Dollar for long, you know about how to calculate your true hourly wage. Keep that number handy, and the next time you want to buy something, divide the price of the item by your true hourly wage … this will tell you how many hours of your life you had to give up to buy that item. Sometimes the number of hours can be eye-opening, especially for more expensive items. Consider whether you really want to give up that much of your life for that item.

7. Plan your purchases. Making a list before you go shopping is important. If you can make it a habit to stick to that list, you’ll eliminate a lot of little impulse buys. For other purchases, make it a habit to plan them, save for them, shop around, and even see if you can get it for free. Going through this process ensures that your purchases are more deliberate, and less on impulse. Plan ahead for birthday and Christmas gifts, and other large purchases that you know are coming up in the month ahead.

8. Freeze your credit card. If using your credit card is a problem, consider giving it up completely (I did). If that’s not a good option for you, try literally freezing your card. Put it in a Ziploc baggie with water, seal it good, and put it in the freezer. Don’t write the credit card number anywhere. Now, if you want to make a purchase with the card, you’ll have to unfreeze it. That little wait of a couple of hours can be enough to stop you from making many purchases.

9. Ask questions. Before you buy anything, ask yourself a series of questions. Is the purchase going to improve your life in some important way? Is the purchase supposed to make you feel better? Does it help you meet one of your life goals? Will it simplify your life? These are useful questions to help you evaluate the value of a purchase, and why you’re making it. Be honest with yourself — don’t try to sell yourself!

10. Keep the end in mind. It’s useful to have clear goals in mind at all times. What do you want to do with your life? Do you have financial goals that you’re trying to accomplish, in the long-term and medium-term? Keep your savings goals in mind, and know when you’re about to make a purchase how the purchase will affect your goals.

Leo Babauta blogs about simplicity, frugality, productivity and happiness at Zen Habits.

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices.

A while back, I mentioned how I build my own price book. While this is a great idea, for most busy people it would take a lot of extra work to execute it. However, I know from personal experience how much money a price book can really save you.

Here’s what I recommend instead: use the basic framework of the price book idea to just identify which local grocery store is cheapest on the items you buy regularly, then stick with that store. For me, identifying the store with the best prices for my purchases saves me about $20 a week over the average store - and it wasn’t the store I thought was cheapest, either.

Here’s what you need to do.

First, identify all of the grocery stores that you’d be willing to shop at. For me, the nearest town with any competitive shopping has a Hy-Vee, a Dahl’s, a Fareway, a Super Target, and a Wal Mart Supercenter, among the ones I would be willing to shop at.

Next, make a list of the twenty or thirty (or more) items you buy regularly. This includes basic food staples like bread, eggs, and cheese to toiletries and other such supplies. List produce, list beverages, list prepackaged meals - whatever it is that you buy regularly. For me, this list ended up with about thirty items on it.

Once you’ve done that, make a regular shopping trip to each of those stores. While there, note the price on each of these items in that store. I found it useful to print off several copies of the list of items, then take a copy of it to each store as I went, so I could jot down the prices. Take down the price of every item on the list - if a store doesn’t carry a particular item, find the closest substitute and note that.

When you’ve done this for each store, just add up the prices of all of the items to get your total for each store - and then you should do your regular shopping at the store with the lowest total. I’ve done this myself, and I discovered that the least expensive store for the items I buy regularly was not the store I expected it to be, and when I switched my regular store I found that my average grocery bill dropped noticeably - about $10 a week. Week in and week out, that adds up to $520 a year, even if you’re focusing entirely on basic ingredients and fresh foods, as I do. I can easily see how the difference might be much more if you buy a lot of prepared food items and sodas and such.

Admittedly, this one will take more than an hour - perhaps as much as two - but the rewards over the long haul can be tremendous.