There are many different levels of purchasing in my book - there is the price negotiating that goes along with that 20 or 30 year mortgage commitment… when we bought our house several years ago Matt and I had a serious talk about how much we could afford… it was significantly below the asking price on the property… I suggested we offer our maximum amount we could pay and tell our realtor to tell the owner’s realtor not to counter because we could not afford more… at first Matt thought our offer was “embarrassing”  - I said why should we be embarrassed - we don’t know the owner - we are trying to find our dream house… now is the time to explore all possibilities… we figured making the offer would rule the home out so we could stop thinking about it and move on in our search… our realtor was a little skeptical but like any good realtor will make just about any offer and low and behold - they accepted!!! We were thrilled… and quickly had to come up with one thousand dollars to hold the contract or whatever you do… Matt said - do we have that much money handy?  I laughed and said if not we have no business looking to buy a house..  it still feels good to know we got a “deal” even though it wasn’t exactly planned that way…

Then, there is the not quite as long lasting car buying commitment… that can range from a quick… here’s your money in full to maybe 5 years… I would never finance car for more than five years and our goal is always to have it paid off in three or less… why pay all of that interest?  I have had several different car purchase experiences… in an earlier blog I mentioned my old boxy blue jeep - I got $1,500 for it… by cash for clunker standards that isn’t much but at the time it seemed like a whole lot for the shape it was in… on that deal I felt like I got a bargain…

Even the smallest of deals creates a warm feeling.. which is why I am writing this blog to begin with… on my dinner break tonight I killed a little time at the mall… not really expecting to find anything.. there are sales all over the place.. typically I see why the clothes are such a good “deal” when I try them on… because they don’t fit right or when I try something on it looks like it would make better wallpaper than a sundress (that was definitely the case with one of my selections tonight) but the deal of the day came when I tried on a pair of jeans that fit perfect… jeans are the hardest thing for me to shop for… I was thrilled… there were several different mark downs on the tag… too many for me to decipher… 50 percent off original price… 40% off of markdown… blah blah blah… when they rang up at the register I couldn’t believe it - they were $8.69… great jeans for under ten bucks… you can’t beat that… not only did I get a deal but it put a little smile on my face and makes me look forward to the fall weather at least just a little bit…