We recently had a birthday for one of the kids in the house and the present of choice was some pearl jewelry. So my other half went out to one of the more popular places in town to buy jewelry and came back with what she found and the picelist. At first I said sounds good to me, they have been around forever and have a good name. Then I thought about the saving money blog and said, why not go to a few other stores and do some comparison shopping. We had lots of time because we planned ahead. We didn't leave things to the last minute.

The result? We ended up finding a far better piece at a very cheaper rate. We came out winners on both ends by planning this birthday present well out a month before it happened. If you leave things to the last minute you are going to get burnt. You are going to buy on the spur of the moment and odds are you are going to overpay. Put a calendar together or use your computers appointment software built into outlooks email program. Plan ahead and save some money.