Shopping Off Season with a List
Shop Smart for the Best Prices
One of the great secrets of saving money is to take advantage of the deals as they happen. Sure, you may not be thinking of home improvement in the middle of winter, back to school in the spring, or holiday shopping in August, but don’t let that prevent you from getting the deals.
One thing that helps me is to keep a running list of things that we want or need. This benefits me in two ways. First, it prevents impulse purchases. If we decide that there is something we want to buy, I add it to our list. Sometimes after we sleep on it, we find that we really didn’t want it at all or we find a cheaper way to have it. Think of the money that saves!
Second, having this list helps us to get the very best price on everything. If I spot a good deal or a coupon code, I can compare it against our list. This works for both big ticket items and general household needs.
Third, sitting down with the list helps us to anticipate our purchases and prepare for them, both by saving up enough money and doing research on the best brands and prices.
Here is an example, when our ancient television was starting to develop color issues, we added “television” to the list. We did some research and decided on the best size, brand and features for us. Months later, Sears was quietly getting rid of the current year models to make room for new brands to feature in the upcoming holiday season. We called around to find the model we wanted at a big discount and then combined that offer with a coupon. Had we purchased the same television just a few months earlier, we would have spent an additional 100 percent (twice the amount we paid). We also saved on any interest, since we had the cash saved up.
There are a couple of ways to organize your list. I prefer to keep mine on my smart phone. This way I always have it with me, especially when I am out shopping. My list includes the item plus any notes about it, such as model number, best price seen so far, etc. I can also use this list to search for coupon codes and shop online. Sometimes I might see an item but know that I can get a better price online.
My list also includes general items, such as clothing needs and sizes for the kids. This way, I can stock up on those clearance racks and deals without worrying about buying too many shirts and not enough pants, for example. When Gap had its end of summer polo shirt sale, I was prepared.
Shopping off season with a list can really save you money, so I recommend that you get one started today!
Problems with Printable Coupons
Lower Your Grocery Bill with Printable Coupons
What good are printable coupons if the your store won’t take them? Read more for some solutions to this problem!
It can be really frustrating if you go to the trouble of finding some really good Internet printable coupons that you can’t use. it takes some time doing the match ups and making sure that you get most of your items for free or really inexpensively. To then be faced at the checkout with a huge bill when the store doesn’t take the coupons can make the best of us upset.
You can avoid all of that stress if you know how to deal with problems that printable coupons present.
Why Won’t They Take Them?
Sometimes it helps to understand exactly why some stores or even just some cashiers won’t take printable coupons. The main reason is that they aren’t sure that these coupons are legitimate. Avoiding coupon fraud is big on the store’s list of procedures.
When printable coupons first came out, many people abused them, either making up coupons using the brand logo or altering real existing printable coupons to get better deals or free items. Stores lost a lot of money this way on coupons that couldn’t be redeemed with the manufacturers of the products.
How Can I Use Printable Coupons Successfully?
To use printable coupons successfully, keep the following strategies in mind.
- Print Directly from the store website. Many stores issue their own coupons. Target is a good example, but I’ve seen many printable coupons on traditional grocery store websites as well. because these coupons are generated by the store itself, they are easily honored.
- Shop around. If your store doesn’t take printable coupons or gives you a hard time about them, find a new store. You can also speak with the manager and tell him or her that you would like to shop there but will have to take your business elsewhere to XYZ store since it does honor the printable coupons.
- Find out the official coupon policy. Grab a copy of the official coupon policy (usually found online at the store’s website or in person at the customer service desk) and keep it with you. Many cashiers aren’t really familiar with the coupon policy and may reject coupons even if the store accepts them. If this happens, you can show the cashier the policy that says the coupons should be honored.
- Contact the manufacturer. Sometimes if you complain that an official coupon wasn’t accepted, the manufacturer of the product will send you traditional coupons that can be used in the store instead. In fact, I have heard that some people even get rebates on their products for the amount of the coupon or the full amount of the product directly from the manufacturer.
Good Luck!
How to Be a Designer Deal Diva
Don
Do your friends and even strangers compliment you on how well you dress? Do they want to know how you can look like you stepped out of a magazine without going bankrupt? If so, then you must be a Designer Deal Diva. (And if you aren’t, well, don’t worry, you can be).
The secret of course is to do some smart shopping and wardrobe planning. My friend, Sara is really good at this. She always looks polished and can combine the right bits of a trend with classic pieces, so she always looks fresh and wonderful. You would never guess that her clothing budget is less than most people spend on just casual non-name clothing.
The first thing she does is look for great prices on classic pieces that will stand the test of time. she is willing to spend a little more on a great pair of dress pants, for example, because she knows that the right cut and fit will last for years to come and just need some updating with accessories. You can often find classic pieces off season in the clearance areas of both traditional retail stores and online stores.
Sara is also willing to have better quality pieces tailored to fit her well. So if she finds a great quality designer piece that is a size or two off, she will spend a few dollars to have it altered and still save up to 80 percent off of the normal retail price.
Next, Sara looks for trendy pieces and accessories that will work with what she already has. She will look to get killer deals on these items since they won’t be able to remain in style for as long as the classic pieces. Seasonal sales and coupon codes will yield some great stuff.
Sara also has a good eye, so she can re purpose items she already has, such as turning a large scarf into a casual skirt, or even cutting and braiding an old tie-die t-shirt into a belt. Sure, we may not all have her talent, but perusing fashion magazines or websites could give us some ideas on how we can adapt trends to work with what we already have.
Finally, Sara is not afraid to buy clothing at non-designer stores, such as Walmart or Target. Many popular designers develop less expensive versions of their designer clothing lines for these types of stores, so you can often finds some great pieces this way. Also, Sara knows that something that is relatively inexpensive can look couture when it is combined or “hidden” by real designer pieces, such as when she combines an inexpensive pair of Lee jeans with a long Prada sweater and great shoes.
If you want to start getting your designer diva on, you can follow Sara’s example:
- Start with a few key classic pieces
- Don’t be afraid to alter great finds
- Use trendy pieces to work within your wardrobe
- Peruse the fashion magazines and fashion websites for ideas and get creative
- Combine low cost items with designer clothing.
To get you started, I took a look at some current designer coupon codes and deals.
Hurry!!! Anne Klein - 24 Hours Only - Anne Klein Dresses - Starting at $79 & Free Shipping on $75+ orders.
Anne Klein - Shop Anne Klein now and receive Free Shipping on all orders over $75!
Expires: 06/09/2010Coupon code “SHHH!”
Save $15 OFF designer fashions At TheTopSecret.com with coupon code “SHHH!”DesignerShoes.com - Free Shipping on any order. Continental U.S. Only. Use Coupon Code: AFREEUSA
Shoebuy - Free Shipping on Designer Clothing Collection.
6pm.com - Shop Designer Handbags at up to 75% off Retail!
Couture Candy - New Customers - 15% off your Full Priced order.
Coupon Code: LOVE - Some designers excluded.Portero - Enjoy up to 85% off Luxury Designer Handbags, Watches, Jewelry and more.
Gift Closet Deals
Do you have a gift closet in your home? If you don’t, you should consider starting one. A gift closet can save you money.What is a gift closet?
A gift closet doesn’t have to actually be a closet. it could be a box under the bed, a place in the attic or even a little bit of cleverly hidden storage in an ottoman, a desk or even behind a couch, depending on your available space.
A gift closet is a place where you can store various gift deals that you find throughout the year. Then, whenever a gift need comes up, such as a birthday, anniversary or other holiday, you can go “shopping” in your gift closet.
How does a gift closet save money?
A gift closet saves money because it allows you to pay next to nothing for the gifts you need to purchase. Instead of overspending at the last minute for a gift, you can keep everything within a budget. For example, I know my son’s friends all like Bakugan toys. So when Sears was doing a toy clearance event last month, I was able to stock up on these toys. Instead of paying $10-$25 per toy, I only spent $3-$7 per toy! You can’t beat that.
Where can you find gift closet deals?
To find the best gift closet deals, just keep your eyes open. When you are out shopping anywhere, be sure to check in at the clearance sections, because you never know what you might find. Check my Twitter, too, because I’ll often post deals I find when I am out and about, such as the V-Smile cartridges that were in clearance at all of the Radio Shack stores.
Stock up on gifts when you find a really good coupon code or deal online, too. Combining orders will often save your on shipping.
Hot online deals
All of the birthday party requests have been coming in for my kids, and my gift closet is a bit depleted from the Christmas holidays. So I did a little searching this morning.
These are the online brands that usually have some good stock up deals for the gift closet. You can click on the brands below to see a list of coupon codes and discount links for each of them.
GameStop: They often have specific deals of the day. Some of my favorite ones are $10 off plus free shipping, and the buy one get one free deals on new and used video games.
ToysRUs: For hot toys, this is where I go first. When there is a popular toy, they will often offer discounts on it. Also check out the clearance deals.
Lego: I haven’t met a kid yet who doesn’t like Legos. Legos are a great gift for boys or girls, so I stock up here when they offer a really good deal.
Amazon: Their deal of the day sometimes hits on something that is great for the gift closet, such as DVDs. For younger kids, I look for coupons and deals on Melissa and Doug products because they seem to hold up well and are a good value.
Also, make sure to browse as many brands as you can for coupons. You never know what you might find, and the best codes often run out quickly.
Hot Travel Deals and Coupons: Expiring Soon!
Get more vacation for less money
Whether you are looking for last minute Spring Break Deals or planning that summer vacation, it is always a smart idea to check out available travel deals and coupons before you book anything. You can save hundreds of dollars on your vacation this way.
Travel deals usually don’t last very long, so be sure to pounce on any that you like, and keep checking back for new deals.
Here are some of the best travel deals that are available online right now.
Viator - 15% off New York TV and Movie Sites Tour. Expires: 03/31/2010
Viator - 15% off Orlando Magic NBA Basketball Ticket Package. Expires: 03/31/2010
Travelocity - $150 off a 5-Night Flight + Hotel Pride Vacation in selected Cities from Travelocity. Use Coupon Code GL150. Expires: 03/31/2010
Priceline - Check Priceline`s Weekly Airfare Deals! You’ll need to sign in to see the deal.Do You Woot?
My friend Kristy recently turned me on the the wonderful world of Woot and Kids Woot. I had heard of these web sites before, but I somehow never got around to checking them out very much. It wasn’t until Kristy started sharing the deals she was getting by posting them in her Facebook Status that I really started paying attention.What is Woot?
In their own words, “Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap.” Woot features a single item each day for a deeply discounted price. You can only get that item on that particular day, and as long as supplies are available. New products are launched at midnight central time and will be available until the next launched product or until the the product sells out.
Why is Woot cool?
Well, Woot is pretty cool, or hot, or rad or whatever your generational term happens to be simply because you can get a great product at a deep discount. Shipping is always only $5, and you can buy up to three of the same product per account. It is thrill of the chase. Really great products at really deep discounts sell out quickly. And the editorial comments that go with the products are clever and fun to read. Even if you have no intention of buying anything, you’ll want to stop by just for those comments.
What are the different Woots?The main Woot is http://woot.com. You’ll find all sorts of products there. There is also Kids Woot at http://kids.woot.com, Shirt Woot (with free shipping) at http://shirt.woot.com, Wine Woot at http://wine.woot.com, and Sellout Woot (which is combining with Deals Woot) at http://deals.woot.com/sellout.
What are some Woot strategies?
To get the deals on Woot, there is really only one thing to do. When you spot something you want, don’t hesitate about buying it. The site never tells you how many of that item is available, so you never know when it will sell out. By the time I convinced my husband that we wanted a new featured Rooba robotic vacuum for our home that was discounted more than $80, it was already sold out.
Serious wooters stay up until midnight or set their alarms to make sure they catch the deals as soon as they launch.
KMart’s Coupon Blunder
Dedicated couponers have been planning for the upcoming KMart double coupon days in April. There are serious limits on the number of coupons you can double, and you must have a KMart card. However, you can still save big, you just have to go prepared. And be sure to carry the local ad with you, so that cashiers will know that they are doubling. Sadly, at many Kmarts in the past, the cashiers are the last to know about promotions like this.
KMart had what appeared to be a great coupon on its website recently. You could print it right from the website, and it offered $10 off a purchase of $20 or more. As consumers started redeeming it, there were incidents in some stores of customers being accused of printing a fraudulent coupon. Still others reported that they were congratulated by the cashier on saving so much money. Kmart pulled the coupon this week, citing “unauthorized circulation”. The fact is, KMart made a mistake.
The coupon was only supposed to be honored at select stores in New York, Baltimore and Chicago. But somehow, the “unauthorized distribution” occurred when customers downloaded the coupon from the website. It had no limitations on stores printed on it, and there were no restrictions on the number of times you could print it. Perhaps “unauthorized distribution” is what KMart calls coupon and deals bloggers sharing the information and providing the link to the website.
There’s a lot of discussion on KMart’s Facebook page about this. They have apologized for the error. My suggeston is that KMart hire some marketing people who understand blogging, social networking, and the power of the web.
KMart’s double coupon days will be April 4-10. Look here to see some coupon matchups so that you can be prepared.
Having Fun on a Budget
Whoa does my family need to get out. You know that you have been indoors too long when a family trip to IKEA feels like a trip to an amusement park. With everything that has been going on at home and with the weather, our fun meter hasn’t been exactly pointing to full.It took that IKEA trip to really put things a bit in perspective. Still, we don’t have the budget for extra expenses. So, we sat around the dinner table tonight and did some brainstorming on how we could get some more fun without the expense.
My suggestion was that we take a look around in our community. Although most community events happen in the summer, there are still free things to do. The local church is offering a fun night for kids with a moon bounce and snacks, and this includes free baby sitting! The local library is offering a family movie, the Lions’s Club has a low cost pancake breakfast, and a nearby ice rink has an event that offers two free hours of ice skating time when you rent skates.
My husband focused more on having fun at home. He wanted to rent some movies. This can be done for free two ways. The local library system allows you to check out movies for free. Our supermarket has a RedBox machine. There are plenty of RedBox coupon codes that give you free rentals!
The kids suggested having sleep overs with their friends. This is basically free, with maybe a tiny bit of money for snacks. The cost is so small, though, especially if we make homemade popcorn, homemade pizza and buy drinks in bulk.
For spur of the moment fun, we decided we could always bake a fun desert together or go dust off the board games.
What things do you do to have fun on a budget? I’d really like to add some more ideas to our list.
How to Save Money on Medicine
Medicine is getting expensive these days, whether it is over the counter medicine or prescriptions. Most people grumble but pay whatever price they are told. However, you can save money on your current medicines. Here are some ways to save.Look for coupons
Believe it or not, some prescription drug companies offer coupons that can be used on your prescriptions. The makers of Nasonex is one of them. (Click here for $15 off). https://www.nasonex.com.
There are also coupons for over the counter medicines as well. Just use your search engine and plug in the name of the medicine and the word “coupon” to find these offer, or check out the forums.
Look for online coupon codes and deals
In addition to coupons, you can find online coupon codes and deal, especially for use with over the counter medications. For example, Drugstore.com is offering $5 off of a $30 offer or $10 off a $50 offer through this link.
Use the Walmart $4 deal
Walmart offers a prescription program that features $4 prescriptions. They also offer some 90-supply medications at $10. Check out the list. If your medicine isn’t listed, your doctor may be willing to switch your brand to one that is on the list. You can learn more about the program here. http://www.walmart.com/cp/4-Prescriptions-Program/546834
Buy it pre-tax
Many employees offer a way to use pre-tax dollars to pay for medication. Basically, you designate a dollar amount that you will use for the year. That amount comes out of your pay before taxes. You are usually given a card that can be used just like a credit card to pay for your medication. The catch is that if you don’t use up all of the money by the end of the year you lose it. But it is easy to use up the money, especially when you consider that everything from over the counter pain killers to band aids are allowed to be purchased with the plan.
Organizing Bonus Cards
Bonus, reward or store loyalty cards can be great. They allow you to get discounts and sale prices at your favorite store and they allow you to get rebates and register rewards. They only problem is that every darn store seems to have a bonus, reward or loyalty card.Why is this a problem? Well, I for one was having a lot of trouble keeping track of all of these cards. First I tried loading up my wallet with every card I got until it looked like some overfed and groaning animal, stretching the leather of my wallet and making it impossible to close. Then I tried to convenient key chain cards, but they too were crowding things. Plus, I couldn’t remember if a card was in my wallet or on my keychain.
Another problem was keeping track of who had the keychain with the bonus cards on it. For example, if I ran to the pharmacy but left that particular set of keys with my husband, well then I was out of luck and out of bonus cards.
But ah-ha! Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I have a solution that seems to work well for me. I simply made sure that all of our bonus cards came in the keychain form. Then I purchased a new, virgin, keychain just for the bonus cards. To make finding them easier, I placed a small bead in between the cards on the keychain and even color coded the beads: green for groceries, red for the pharmacy, etc.
All of the bonus cards are in one place. I usually keep them in my purse, but you can also keep them with your reusable shopping bags, or anywhere that is convenient.
