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When I ran my last information and software business, we had a golden rule when it came to technical development: Good, Fast, Cheap: pick any two. The reality was that if you wanted to develop good software quickly, you needed to shell out some serious money. If you wanted it cheap and good, it took some time. Over the years, we developed good internal processes and grew our talent which allowed us to develop great software both inexpensively and quickly because we had invested the time and resources upfront. But it didn't happen overnight and was expensive in the beginning. As we profess living the good life cheaply here at LiveCheap.com, time is an element that you need to get comfortable with.
How does this rule work when it comes to living cheaply I'll give you an example from the other end of the spectrum. I have a friend that decided that he was going to buy a Mac computer and he was going to buy it now. So he just waltzed over to an Apple store and asked for the best Mac they have. He ignored the salesperson's questions about what he planned to do with it and whether he really needed the best. "Top of the line" is his response. It was that simple - he wanted the best and he wanted it immediately. Good, fast, and $2,500 later, definitely not cheap. He got two of the three elements and walked away a happy customer.
Now back to the rest of us - those that want to stretch the dollars we have. We might want a Mac computer too but we want it cheap. That means we need to do some research, looking for the cheapest Mac that meets our needs without getting features that we won't value or use. It also means finding out if there are any discounts or maybe ways to save on sales tax by shopping online at say MacMall. Perhaps we want to look into used or "B-stock" inventory or maybe we can buy it for our kids and get a lower price. All of this research and price checking takes time. It might take a few hours or maybe a few days, but if it saves us $500, it's well worth it.
Now some will inevitably say, "But it takes so much time for not a lot of savings!" Well, that's true in the beginning. The first time you buy a computer, you aren't going to know much and it will take so long that your savings, for all the time and effort, will equate to less than minimum wage. But the price difference is only one aspect. Paramount of course is that you get a good product. In our Mac example, it is pretty simple since Apple is known for making high quality products. But what if you were choosing between two netbooks? More expensive doesn't always mean better.
There is another option of course which is to go for the Cheap and Fast. You can head down to Walmart where you will get rock bottom prices and except for the long checkout lines, it will be pretty fast. Good? Possibly on a few things, but most likely, you will be giving up some quality. There are many people that will make this trade-off but, in the long run, it can be fairly expensive.
Like my software team, any investment that you make in doing the research, yields benefits in the future. When you are a seasoned Cheapster, you develop a method of getting the best for less using fewer of your resources. Take the example of booking a hotel on Priceline.com. It takes some investment, but after a while, you can efficiently get a great hotel room for a bargain price. Over time, I have gotten a knack for getting Priceline hotels at rates that almost make me blush. But you can only do this if you learn how to master Priceline and learn about the city you are booking in. If you want your hotel room booked in 2 minutes, you can do what my secretary (we called them that back then) in Chicago would do: call the best hotel in Midtown Manhattan and book it at the rack rate.
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