A good way to keep more of your money is to spend less of it on the things you buy.  Don’t just walk into a store and pick up something and buy it.  Discuss the price with a representative, see if they can lower it.  Don’t walk in with that attitude that you simply have to have the item.  Walk in with the attitude that you can easily leave the store without giving them any of your hard earned money if they don’t negotiate the price with you. 

I know that on the news everyday it seems the anchors talk about the slowing economy and as you listen you start to get down and worried.  Slap yourself and realize that there are still a lot of people making profits in the type of economy.  You can be one of them.  At least use the doom and gloom to your advantage and go into stores ready to negotiate the price.  Remember there is nothing you HAVE to buy.  Some food, clothing and shelter is nice but above and beyond that is not necessary.

As an example my Fiancé and I purchased a guitar amp last week.  We had been talking about buying one for about 6 months.  We had been playing a lot of guitar and decided to go for it.  We went in with an idea of what we wanted and about how much we were willing to spend.  We went to the store and started looking around.  An representative offered to assist us.  We advised him of what we were looking for and he pointed out some amps in our range.  We only needed a small one to play in the apartment or doing a  little band paying in a garage; nothing to perform in a large space with.  We saw a fender amp for about 170.00 that we really liked.  We also had some other items we wanted to purchase like guitar strings, cords and some picks.  We rounded up these items and then told the representative that we wanted to purchase the fender amp but the price was a little out of the price range we were looking for.  We asked if there was any special going on or if he could lower the price of the amp.  He pulled out a calculator and then said he could lower the price to 119.00.  It seemed so easy.  We had done a lot more haggling in South America when purchasing a belt.

Go ahead and ask them to lower the price for you.  They will probably say yes.  If they say no, just walk away.  You probably did not need the item anyway.