Must Be the Season of the Switch

If one were to make a visual of my brain in the form of a road map, it’d look a lot like President Dwight Eisenhower’s interstate highway system program leader got an extremely time-limited crack at redesigning some ancient city.

Picture a few super highways piercing through a latticework of untold numbers of small, crooked streets that go this way and that, starting and stopping, intersecting here and there.

The few super highways represent the few important things that I’m pretty focused on, short-, medium-, and long-term. Like The Missus, Thing One (The Elder), and Thing Two (The Younger); my health and well-being; personal finances; and whether and when there’ll finally be another installment in the Fletch movie series.

The byzantine network of local streets represent just about everything else in my brain. My thoughts sometimes go down one cramped, single-lane road, only to wander off headlong onto another. Then they get cut off and jump to another street altogether. There’s usually a logic to the movement, but the outsider would go insane be flummoxed trying to discern it.

Does that evince a lack of focus on my part? Maybe, sometimes. But the subjects I’m thinking about, and the consequences in the offing, are mostly low-stakes. How about an inability by me to live in the moment? Sure. I’m definitely guilty of that more often than I’d prefer.

A hazy shade of winter

Here’s an illustration of my mind being in about the last place one might expect it to be. Ask anyone what their favorite day of the year is and I suspect that you’ll find that most people will say one of the following: their birthday, some holiday or other, New Year’s Eve or Day, or April 16. Likely just a lot of accountants only for that last one, but I think you catch my drift.

Ask me what my favorite day of the year is and I’ll say, without batting an eyelash, “December 21.” And that’s because it’s the shortest day of the year.

Why is that day my favorite of the year? Well, the short answer probably is because I have a warped mind. But more to the point is that my mind is wandering. And on December 21, I have a big grin on my face, thinking about the six months of days with ever increasing minutes of daylight that are about to follow. December 21 is as bad as it’s going to get in terms of potential daylight. The worst is over, and it’s all positive (in my mind) for the next six months. Every day, better and better. More and more daylight and, where I live, sunshine, which I love. Soon, too, rising average daily temperatures.

And yes, Dear Reader, as you may now be thinking, I do get a bit sad on June 21. That’s one of my least favorite days of the year. Anyway, I am what I am and that’s all what I am.

The point, however, is that on any given date my mind may be focused on a completely different part of the year, even if fleetingly. I think that’s decidedly not the case for the average Joe or Jane.

Markdowntown

This penchant of mine does, however, often prove good for my wallet. In no small part because it results in me focusing on what I might need (or want) at that distant time. Put another way, it means that I’m looking to shop in the off-season, when supply and demand are flipped on their heads.

That usually means that there are bargains to be had. Not infrequently I’ve found, the price for whatever off-season item I’m looking to acquire not only is lower, but ridiculously low. Or, on occasion, free. Which happens to be my favorite price. As a buyer, that is. As a seller, I think that price stinks.

Sure, supply can be a problem, but I shop second-hand a lot. And so long as those sellers—brick-and-mortar and online—are in the mix, I can almost always find what I’m looking for. Because I play the long game pretty well, too, waiting for what I want at the low price I prefer not to exceed generally isn’t a problem. Waiting also sometimes can have the added benefit of allowing for more and/or better offers to come around.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon an article like this one on the best times of the year to buy certain items. A lot of the information in the article wasn’t news to me. But some was. So I was glad to have learned it. Notably, these articles focus on retailers. As I mentioned, with second-hand sellers in the mix, the universe of sellers and the calculus of what to buy when can be adjusted.

This habit of a meandering mind also is helpful in many other contexts, too. Such as when trip planning. For example, some of our best trips have been to popular national parks in the spring or fall, rather than the summer when they’re way more crowded, the weather often scorching hot (and in some places, humid), and the prices for everything much higher. Or to Europe in the winter or spring, for the same reason. I’ll also typically be planning those trips way far in advance and tracking prices so that I get a better bang for my travel hacking points buck.

The possibilities are many.

And in the end . . .

Of course, not spending money at all often is the best option. Buy Nothing groups and Freecycle are great for that as to goods. There also are sources for getting services for free, too.

Then again, when you need something, maybe you can just DIY it. Even if you have to get a little creative.