Last night's Financial Peace University class was on getting a better deal when you're out shopping. Dave talks about how almost every other country in the world barters for items. We are one of the few countries that almost always pays retail.

We have a son that is always bartering for things. He's very good at it and he's only 18! I, on the other hand, am like Sharon Ramsey and find it embarrassing. I'd rather pay full price than try to talk someone down. I don't "do" conflict. ;-)

How about you? Do you bargain for prices? What items do you barter for?

I was reading yesterday's blog post on Christian PF and a sentence in Craig's post really got me thinking. He stated, "...what they don’t tell you is that today’s pleasures becomes tomorrow’s burden."

This is so true. As Americans we have become conditioned to expect instant gratification. If we want something, we just purchase it on our credit card and we'll worry about paying it later when the bill comes. Seldom do we make ourselves, or our children, wait until we can actually afford (i.e. have the cash to pay for) whatever that new shiny object is that has caught our eye. We want it and we want it now! As Dave Ramsey likes to say, we have ruled out the ancient word "no" from our language.

What do we gain by waiting to make a purchase? Often if we'll wait, we will lose the desire to buy whatever it is we thought we couldn't live without. So many things are bought on impulse and then quickly set aside and forgotten. I have things that fit that description all over my house. Had to have them at the time, never use them now.

We build character when we make ourselves wait. We learn the lesson that we do not have to have everything right this minute.

We quite often save money when we make ourselves wait. We might find that item somewhere else at a discount, at a garage sale for a fraction of the price, or even decide we really don't need to buy it at all.

And we sometimes save ourselves a lot of stress by waiting to make a purchase because we don't have that burden later in the month of trying to find the money to pay for it.

Is there an item that you've wanted to buy lately that you've put off purchasing? What benefit have you reaped from waiting?