Frugal Shopper

Frugal Shopper Secrets Proven To Save You Cash

Whether you're shopping thrift store, grocery or discount clubs, by putting these tips to use, you'll be a much savvier shopper.

We know you'll benefit from these techniques because we've used them successfully for many years. Bottom line, we've saved big dollars that we put in our pockets instead of the stores'.

Bargain Shopping

Planning Your Purchases Is Essential

Planning ahead of time before you shop will help you avoid unplanned purchases which we've found usually costs more money than planned purchases.

Before you shop, ask yourself, do I really need this or do I just want it. No matter how tempting it may be, you really don't want to buy an item that you don't really need if you want to shop wisely and save money.

Don't forget to plan ahead for holiday shopping, birthdays, etc. throughout the year to save money. Yes, we actually carry our budget sheet with us when shopping. If we come across a great deal, even if it's before the holiday or birthday, we'll buy the item and write it into our budget.

Use Discount Shopping Websites To Do Research

Research is especially important if you plan on making a large purchase like an appliance, TV, a car, furniture or even a home. You'll find the extra time spent researching will save you a great deal of money on large purchase items.

You'll find using discount shopping websites to be an excellent starting point to get an idea of what a particular item costs.

For example, we needed a new computer, so we began surfing the net by googling "cheap computers". We found several sites that had the PC with the features we were looking for, but ended up buying a nice HP PC at a great price at tigerdirect.com.

If for example you're shopping for a particular appliance, research the pricing by googling various appliance stores, using buy.com, overstock.com, amazon.com, etc to get a good idea of what that appliance costs. Then, you're much more informed when you hit the streets to shop for the product.

Researching pricing is important, but you'll also want to make sure you buy a product with the features that you need, not want.

For example, appliances come with several features; size or capacity being one of them. But buying an extra large capacity washer or dryer that you don't really need is throwing away unnecessary cash. Basically, we'll purchase what we need to get the job done without all the extra high cost bells and whistles.

Thrift Store Shopping

Thrift Store Shopping

A big misconception about thrift stores, is your buying old, used beat up clothing. That's not the case at all. In fact, we found that most of the clothing was worn very little or not at all because people overspent on their clothing or outgrew them and ended up donating them (for a tax write-off) to the thrift store.

We can't stress enough what a goldmine of bargains you'll find at thrift stores. And it's not just clothing, these stores will have furniture and other household items at bargain basement pricing.

Be sure to shop various thrift stores in your area. Some are better than others in terms of product selection and availability. After visiting 5 to 6 thrifts, we found our top 2 and we are frequent visitors.

Yard Sales

We've found that the major reason people sell their household goods at yard sales is to clear space in their homes. Plus they can make a little money at the same time. So, when you shop around, you can find some great bargains.

For example, last spring, we purchased 4 bag loads of kids clothing for our little girls for $10.00. The clothing was from a family down the street whose daughters outgrew them. These cloths were like brand new, hardly worn. Again, many people overspend on shopping. We figured if we had purchased these cloths at the store, it would have run us $200.00 easy.

Dollar Stores

We shop the Dollar Tree where everything is $1 - Ahh yes, frugal living heaven. What's really neat about this store is they stock up on new items every week, so there's a fresh variety of products that you can choose from.

Items stocked include gift bags, party supplies, food, toys, health and beauty items, gifts, books, stationary, house wares and other consumer items.

Other Frugal Shopper Tips

• Shop off-season.

  You can find tremendous deals when shopping off peak. For example, if you need a snow blower, shop in the spring/summer. If it's time to replace your lawn mower, shop in the fall/winter season.

  The same concept applies to other items. For instance, we got a great deal on patio furniture when buying it in the winter.

  Basically, merchants need to clear room for the in season items, so they'll generally mark down pricing on off peak items ranging from 30% to 60% or more. We purchased a snow blower last spring for 55% below price, soo nice.

• Rebates.

  If you take advantage of rebates, you can really save significant dollars. Shop on site store or on-line store rebates. As an example, we recently purchased a nice HP printer and knocked about 35% off the price by using the mail in rebate.

  Since rebates are generally mail in, it takes a few weeks to get the rebate money. So, to track and ensure you get your money, you should keep a list of your pending rebates.

  On our list, we'll designate a column for the item name, date purchased, where purchased, dollar amount, rebate amount, rebate contact number and follow-up date. Then, we mark down in our calendar to check our rebate list monthly.

  It doesn't happen often, but we've found that you need to follow-up with these rebate companies sometimes. They're obligated to pay you, but if you don't follow-up with a select few they tend to seem to forget to pay you.

• Discount Shopping Clubs.

  You can really find bargains this way. We use Costco and especially enjoy the buying in bulk discounts.

  The trick with discount shopping clubs is discipline. We head straight to the back of the store ignoring the gimmick/impulse items (electronics, DVD's, specialty racks, etc).

  We focus on toilet paper, soaps, pet food, meat and bread. Then we head to the Costco pharmacy which also has very competitive pricing on prescriptions.

  We just do this once every other month. Again, the key is discipline - avoiding the impulse items and going after the money saving items.

• Shop the clearance racks.
• Learn the sales patterns at your most shopped stores.
• Buy with cash only, no credit.
• Shop with a calculator.
• Keep an eye on the cash register.
• Food Savings. Please see frugal grocery shopping
• Watch while your items are being scanned.

  We've had more than a few occasions where the scanner made an error in favor of the store.

Frugal Grocery Shopping

Frugal Shopper - Wrapping It Up