Ramblings-n-Writings

One of the best ways to stretch your income is to employ what I call shopping strategies. The best way to use these strategies is to choose ones that work for you and modify them for your lifestyle. Take some time and google the strategies we talk about to see how others shop.

The key to saving money through shopping strategies is to not be brand specific. Does it make sense to pay $8 for a pack of toilet paper just because you like the brand when you can get an equivalent quality brand for $5 on sale with a coupon?

For our lifestyle, shopping strategies cover 4 areas – clipping coupons, shopping sales, reducing shopping trips, and avoiding “big box” stores.

• Clipping coupons. Some people bemoan the idea of coupons – they’re for processed foods, take too much time, and require the purchase of a newspaper. In my opinion, all of those excuses are invalid.

  By spending one hour every couple of weeks clipping coupons, organizing them, and planning my shopping trip, I routinely save 45% on our groceries. That means if I put $200 worth of groceries in my cart, I pay $110 instead of $200. Is an hour of my time worth $90? You bet!

  Purchasing a Sunday newspaper (or whatever edition for your local paper) for $1.50 will offer a lot more in coupon savings. Do you eat out? If not, would you like to? At least every other week, I find coupons for chain restaurants in the coupon fliers (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, IHOP, Chuck E Cheese, Coldstone Creamery, Baskin Robbins, McDonalds). My personal favorite is the IHOP coupons because my husband and I can both have a huge meal for a total of $8. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a meal out occasionally? It’s possible with coupons! (And remember that $1.50 we spent on the paper to get the coupons? Even if we use only the IHOP coupon, the savings of $8 is worth the $1.50 invested.)

  Did you know that stores are now offering “electronic” coupons – the kind that you add to your shoppers card? In the last couple of months I’ve used $40 worth of electronic coupons on my Krogers’ card (that extra $40 sure comes in handy too!). The great thing about electronic coupons? You can sometimes use the electronic coupon plus a paper manufacturers’ coupon!

  Coupons aren’t just for processed foods like so many naysayers complain about. I buy all of our toiletries and household products with coupons. Do you use deodorant, shampoo, toilet paper, razors, diapers, hair spray, etc.? If so, you can save money with coupons.

• Shop sale prices only. This applies to food, clothing, toiletries, pet supplies, office supplies – everything! I have a really hard time paying full price for items. In fact, many times even if I “need” whatever it is, I’ll let it sit on the shelf until it goes on sale.
  Food: Grocery prices have been rising over the past six months or so, but you know what? Sale prices are still the same as a year ago. I’m not paying any more for my groceries now than I did last December. The key to food shopping is stocking up. If an item that you use is on sale, don’t buy just one. Buy two or three (or more).

  Think of it this way – normal price is $2.50, sale price is $1. Technically, you can buy 2 on sale and still spend 50 cents less than buying 1 at normal price. Not a bad option. But let’s stock up! If you buy 5 on sale, you’ve spent the equivalent of 2 at normal price, but saved $7.50 in the long run. (This scenario applies to items that won’t expire by the time you will use them.)

  Clothing: Shopping at thrift stores like Goodwill and the Salvation Army are great ways to get good clothing at decent prices. However, my personal favorite is department store sales, specifically the “end of season” sales. I love JCPenney’s $1.75 racks. They offer good, quality clothing at really reasonable prices. The “end of the season” sales usually happen in the middle of the actual weather season so the clothing is completely wearable and fashionable. And, by the way, department store clothing is far superior in quality than “big box” store clothing and sometimes what you can buy at thrift stores.

  Toiletries / pet supplies / office supplies: Look around for the best price on your item. If you know that the cat food is getting low, check all of the Sunday sale fliers for the best price. Don’t buy a bag of food at full price just because you need it. Learning the CVS game comes in handy too for purchasing toiletries and other basic household supplies.

• Avoiding “big box” stores. Guess what? Shopping at Wal-Mart won’t save you money and they don’t necessarily have the lowest price. A little over a year ago, Wal-Mart was the only place I shopped other than an occasional grocery store trip. Then I learned the CVS game, how to use coupons effectively, and how to strategize. Now I save way more money than I ever did at Wal-Mart. Don’t believe me? Read this post.

  If you are a big Wal-Mart fan, I know I won’t be able to convince you in one blog post that Wal-Mart isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Their fluctuating prices drive me crazy and make it really hard to budget. Here’s one example from this past week. We didn’t need cat litter but I wanted to get a back-up container for when we did. About three weeks ago, I paid $6.13 for a 14 lb. jug of Tidy Cats at Wal-Mart. Last week, the same jug was $8.49. What?!?! That’s an almost $3 difference! I couldn’t bear the thought of paying that price even with a $1 off coupon so I left the jug on the shelf. We stopped at the local grocery store for a few items and guess what? They had the exact same container for $6.32, not on sale. Guess where I bought my cat litter?

  Another area of Wal-Mart and big box stores that bothers me is the discrepancy in prices. The indiscriminate buyer may not notice, but a lot of times it is cheaper to get 2 smaller items than one big item. Not too long ago, my mother-in-law was making jelly and needed more sugar. She asked us to pick up a 10 lb bag. I don’t remember the exact prices, but it went something like this… I spotted the 10 lb bag for $6, reached down to pick it up, and then realized that a 5 lb. bag was $2.50. Hmmm…interesting. $2.50 x 2 = $5 for 10 lbs., definitely cheaper than a 10 lb. bag for $6. After that episode, I pay attention to prices a little more and at least 50% of the time, 2 smaller items are cheaper than one big item.

  One advantage to Wal-Mart is price matching especially if it is difficult for you to visit multiple stores. We do this frequently on weeks that we aren’t grocery shopping. However, price matching only works on advertised specials. And you can use coupons on the price matched items, but remember that Wal-Mart doesn’t double coupons like most grocery stores.

• Reducing shopping trips. Is it advantageous to grocery shop every week? Some think it is; some think it isn’t. My personal preference is to do one large shopping trip per month. Our large trip averages about $75 per month, and then during the other weeks we might spend another $25 if there is an exceptional sale or we need an item. Having $100 to spend on a large trip makes it so much easier to buy sale items and plan a variety of meals. And there’s no stress of staying under budget of a smaller amount. Another bonus is that the less you frequent the store, the less you will spend.

  I also try to plan our large trip around a good sale week – typically the 10 for $10 sale. With the use of coupons, I always walk away with free food during a 10 for $10. Who doesn’t like free food?

What shopping strategies do you use?

Series posts: Introduction, Step One: Evaluation, Step Two: Creative Adding, Step Three: Creative Stretching, Step Four: Shopping Strategies

Related posts:

1. Check Out GroceryGuide.com
2. I Went Krogering!
3. Surviving on One Income: Creative Stretching
4. Surviving on One Income
5. Super Savings: CVS, Kroger, Wal-Mart

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