Picture this:

A few months ago, you were liberally applying from your new tube of toothpaste. Today, you realize that the tube is running low so you become a little more conservative. Soon, you are curling the length of the tube to squeeze out any amount of toothpaste you can get out of it.

That is a classic example of deflationary consumption.

Deflationary consumption: you use less as supply decreases.

More Value in Less
It crossed my mind as I found myself drinking a can of soda. After opening the drink, I’d be taking gulps. And once there was little left, I’d be sipping it slowly to preserve what I have left.

This behavior follows the basic law of economics – as supply drops, demand increases.

You still have to brush your teeth with some toothpaste, no matter how little there may be. Afterwards, you look back and wonder why you used it so unsparingly. But, when a new tube comes in, that thought goes out the window as you squeeze out more in one day with a fresh tube than what you used in five days with a nearly empty tube.

Simply put, everything becomes more precious when there is less of it. Time is an asset that we will have less and less of. To an ill person with a week left to live, those 7 days hold an incalculable amount of value.

Habits, Habits, Habits
The fix for deflationary consumption comes back to habits. That’s always been a key to success, no matter what the goal may be.

The essential step to curbing deflationary consumption is awareness. After realizing that I drank the first half of a can of soda within 5 seconds, I’ve become quite cognizant of this habit – and began sipping my sodas conservatively from the start. Once becoming aware, I began changing my habits. This realization is effective in influencing other areas of consumption:

• Toiletries (e.g. shaving gel, body wash, shampoo)
• Food (e.g. everything!)
• Office supplies (e.g. printer ink, Post-It notes)
• Services (e.g. cell phone minutes, gym membership)

Hopefully, this may set off an alarm in your head to see if you are also suffering from a case of deflationary consumption.

Soon, you’ll start using the appropriate pea-sized amount of toothpaste from now on when brushing your teeth.

(Photo credit: dolapo)

Yesterday, my father woke me in a hurry saying:

“I just remembered my credit card bill payment is due today. What should I do?”

He doesn’t understand English. He is computer illiterate. He hasn’t used an ATM in the 23 years he’s been in the U.S.

What he does know is to review the transactions and how to sent the check in for payment.

In this day in age, it is relatively easy to make any bill payment in seconds with the help of the Internet. Where the predominant excuse is “I don’t have money”, my father just doesn’t know how. He has always been on time with his credit card payments but this time, it just happened to slip by him.

The Options
In the event that a credit card bill payment was due today, our instincts would be to jump on a computer and pay it online. The transaction goes through immediately and the worries are gone.

No late payment fee. No APR hike.

But, it is also great to know your other options when some things don’t go as planned:

1. Paying online is the way to go. Online banking was a great invention. Simply link your checking account to the credit card account and you can pay your balance with a few clicks. Not to mention that most smartphones make this process a total breeze as well.
2. Make a payment over the phone. Almost everyone has a phone these days but we tend to forget the things we can do with a simple phone call because we’ve been spoiled by easy access to the Internet. But, we can make credit card payments over the phone.
3. Ask to have the due date extended. If you’ve been a responsible customer with a good payment history, the credit card company may be lenient enough to push back your due date so that you have time to send in a check.
4. Walk into the bank with the check and bill payment slip. In the rare occasion that none of the previous three methods will work, taking a trip to the bank is the last resort. This applies to cardholders whose cards are issued by financial institutions with a brick-and-mortar branch. Bring the payment slip and a check and the payment is processed on the spot.

Easy as Pie
My father did not register his accounts online and he doesn’t really trust having his personal information on the internet. I would have signed up his accounts or called in to get things done but he preferred option #4. He’s the type that is accustomed to the old-school style of banking – with a teller.

So, I searched up a nearby location and went with him to drop off the payment so that he’ll know what to do the next time something like this happens again.

He was a little frantic as most people would be but it is not a big problem as long as you don’t remember that you didn’t pay your credit card bill 5 minutes before 5:00PM.

(Photo credit: RambergMediaImages)

Social media is giving each of us a stage – a stage for a voice to be heard.

Forget walking into a store, dialing the phone, or sending an e-mail because there may be a more effective way to reach customer service. The powerful, trendy way to get some attention is via social media.

We, the people, have made social media channels into a core part of the marketing campaigns of many companies. The gazillion updates that are sent can cover unlimited topics that will occasionally include an inquiry, comment, or complaint about a specific company, product, or service.

Nowadays, you could be expressing your unhappiness about something on Twitter or Facebook and find a customer service reaching out to you to make that frown upside-down. This is the result of the rise of social media – bringing together something you love to do (blabber about everything happening in your life) and something you hate to do (dealing with customer service).

Our Voices Tweets and Facebook Updates Will Be Heard
Because social media tools like Twitter and Facebook are evolving as part of companies’ public relations and marketing efforts, consumers play a role in shaping the companies’ images. And they all want nothing but praises from our tweets and updates.

There may be 300 customer service reps and none of them are willing to work with you. Put your frustrations on Twitter or Facebook and you’ll get special attention because you are now targeting a part of the company whose goals are to improve its image and brand, whereas you’d typically be dealing with someone who is trained to follow protocol.

Departments of PR and marketing representatives are scouring the web for anything that may pertain to their company. If you are a regular reader of Consumerist, you’d know that some unsatisfied consumers, who shared their stories, would have their problems resolved or addressed because they were featured on a popular consumer website. Having a lot of Twitter followers and/or Facebook friends can offer the same results.

I may not possess a great reach on my social media channels but there are some companies that place more emphasis on their social media efforts than others, which gave me a taste of how neat social media has become.

• @Scottrade (Twitter) – Scottrade houses my Roth IRA account. They pointed me to the information I needed after tweeting a question.
• @TeamTurboTax (Twitter) – I didn’t know which version of their tax preparation software would be suffice but they told me. Also, they were great help during tax season as anyone could ask them tax-related questions.
• @Lunarpages (Twitter) – Last month, my Lunarpages webhosting plan was about to expire and I tweeted that I was open to switching companies unless they could offer better pricing. Later that day, I received a call from them and got a nice deal (my story here).

Leverage Your Social Media Presence
The trend is growing in our favor. Use it to your advantage.

Here’s how you can leverage your presence on Twitter and Facebook to possibly reach dedicated customer service:

• Twitter: There are Twitter applications that allow you to search a specific term and will also produce a feed just for those terms. Companies on top of their social media channels would have feeds where the terms may include their company name, brands, and products. Put these terms in your tweets and they may get noticed. Or, you can search for their specific Twitter handle and mention (@) them in a tweet.
• Facebook: Many businesses have Facebook Pages. Conduct a search through Facebook for these pages and “Like” (doesn’t actually mean you have to like them). Afterwards, you could be able to write on their “Wall” and open for all other fans to see.

While having a plenty of followers and friends is great, you don’t need them to make this work for you. After all, you represent a part of a company’s business. If they make you unhappy, you could spread the word and hurt the company. If they treat you well, you could spread the word and bring them new business. Therefore, it would be wise for them to be on your good side.

So, be sure to add this to your list of money hacks!

(Photo credit: Coletivo Mambenbe)

No, I didn’t jailbreak my iPhone, never did, and don’t intend on doing it.

Regardless, I haven’t found any need to have to pay for an iPhone application. The predominant apps that seem quite enticing are addictive games, which is a form of fun that I don’t find entertaining on a phone – I prefer rocking out to PS3 games with hardcore graphics on a 50-inch HDTV.

Plus, many popular apps are free. Banking, news, music, and social media apps cost nothing.

I do look up on various app tracking websites for any deals when certain apps go on sale. And by that, I mean when they’re free for a limited time. Others may not be as conservative as they succumb to the tempting iTunes purchases such as Angry Birds.

Interesting articles on personal finance:

• The Active versus Passive Decision at Free Money Finance. The choice between actively managed or passive investments has always been a hot debate. Hot funds have the potential of greater returns and greeters losses while passive investing is the simpler approach. But, the determining factor may be expense ratios.
• The diminishing returns of a college education at Pop Economics. An elaborate foresight on the economics of a college education and the effect on future job opportunities. Yet, I agree that a college education is still recommended.

Yakezie Shoutouts:

• How Those “Easy Payments” Can Wreck Your Finances at Personal Finance By The Book. Commercial trickery makes it so simple to bring something into your life without the ability to pay for it. Eventually, we realize how detrimental it is to our financial situation.
• If You Can’t Live on $40,000 Per Year, It’s Your Own Fault at Len Penzo dot Com. I feel like I can live on very little and I have. College was great training for thrifty spending habits. Are you living on way too much?

Recent carnivals that Realm of Prosperity participated in:

• Carnival of Personal Finance #273 – Labor Day Edition at Sustainable Life Blog

(Photo credit: koka_sexton)