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Decide Which Assets to Manage

See Frequently Asked Questions on How To topics.

Good Supplies to Manage: The B Items

Think about classifing your assets into three groups: "A" assets are so expensive, bought so often, or so critical that you have to be very involved in each purchase. These are things like cars, homes, TVs, etc. "C" items are inexpensive (like gum), rarely bought (like purple pencil erasers), or the price never changes -- so, who cares?

MakeLifeEasy doesn't help much with the "A" items or the "C" items. For "A" items, do your homework and find a good low-price store (or a good shopping bot) to cut your costs. And enjoy shopping for them -- it's fun (isn't it?). For "C" items, don't worry about it -- there's not much you can do.

It's the "B" items (the things you purchase over and over again) where MakeLifeEasy can give you a lot of bang for the buck.

And it's those B items that really drive you crazy! These are the medium-value items that you have to reorder again and again. Bottom line, the computer can really help you here. Your "B" items are "supplies". But that includes more than you might think:

Personal care items
Food and household supplies that you don't buy every week.
Yard and garden supplies
Office supplies
Supplies for a specific hobby or part-time job (such as painting or photography)
Anything else that you "inventory" (e.g. liquor for a home bar)
Apparel. Yes, apparel. Think about it: Your closet is an inventory of clothing.

Remember that you often "hold inventory" even without thinking about it. When you buy a big can of coffee, it can last you for weeks or even months. So even though you bought only one can, you actually stocked up on it. There are thousands of examples of this: things like condiments, spices, wines, etc. etc.
As a rule of thumb, consider managing any purchase for which you can easily buy at least 30 days' worth. The time and effort you spend to manage them will be worth it.

Also, MakeLifeEasy will help you to stock up more than you do now -- if you want it to -- to help you save cash and reduce the time and trouble of shopping.

Benefits of Managing Supplies

MakeLifeEasy helps you to track the "days left" for these so that you don't forget to buy them when you need them. It also tracks your prices paid and summarizes these in useful form on your smart shopping list so that you can buy the right amounts at the right time for the right price.

Good Durables to Manage

Let's go back to those "A" items for a moment. Homes, Cars, Books, Computers, Consumer Electronics, Movies, Music, Software, Toys, Video Games -- these are all high-involvement purchases. MakeLifeEasy can't really help you purchase these. But, once you purchase them, you can load them into your asset list so that you can track the total value of all your assets (to make an insurance claim, for instance), to help you maintain your assets correctly, to replace it when it needs to be replaced, and to sell off assets that you'd rather get cash for than continue to hold on to.

Benefits of Managing Durables

You can get lots of useful summary data about your durable assets. See the Results section.

Don't Bother Managing These...

Lots of "A" and "C" items aren't worth managing in MakeLifeEasy. Here are some examples:

Very high turnover foods, like milk or bread. You can't really stock up on these, and you have to pay attention all the time to make sure you have what you need, so MakeLifeEasy won't do as good of a job as you do yourself.
Most other foods, like prepared meals, etc. Usually the way you do it now is better than the way MakeLifeEasy can do it.
Stuff you buy rarely, as you need it, without adding much value to your total assets. For example, parts for your home, like doorknobs.
"Services" you buy that don't add to the total value of your hard assets, like concert tickets, movie tickets. However, you may want to enter some "reordered" services (like haircuts or oil changes) if you want to get notified when they "expire". This can be handy.
Frou frous; any stuff you buy on impulse without having a real need for it. Don't bother telling MakeLifeEasy. And enjoy!

But, a final word: you can enter any item -- including those listed above, if you want -- to get information on your expenses, your total asset values, or the other summary reports available. Usually these types of items aren't worth the bother, but you can be the judge.