What do you do when shopping to save money

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I never pay full price for anything except sometimes food, but I buy generics when I can. I do thrift shops sometimes but after working at Goodwill I am a bit squeamish. For shopping I go to Aldis for things like canned goods and they actually gave organic fruits and vegetables. Their fruits and veggies are pretty good!

I should do coupons but I dont.

We dont eat out much.That saves a lot.

How do you save a buck? Or dont you?
 
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Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I'm thrifty without a doubt, but not cheap. We eat really well, and seldom do I critique prices. If we want something, we buy it, but of course we still remain realistic.

I used to coupon (tons), but as the kids each came along, I didn't have the time, and before long couponing and me grew apart. I still love catching sales, especially the semi-annual case-lot sale, which I'll buy things such as canned milk, canned tomatoes, canned veggies, and whatever else jumps-out at me.

Because we always eat at home, stretching our food budget is fairly easy.

I used to shop thrift stores (tons) when my kids were little. Gosh, they had everything! We even had a baby consignment shop when my third oldest was a baby, and I remember buying loads of clothing and things from that shop. Savings, savings, savings.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
I mAy think of other things later, but off the top of my head:

Aldi and Sav-A-Lot in my area have the best discount pricing. I do my monthly shopping there.

I shop the sales ads.

My favorite grocery store does price-matching, so i use that often for the weekly sales.

Dollar General-at least in my area has a coupon on the back of their receipts that offers you $5 off a $25 purchase the following Saturday.

When my daughter was young, I bought a lot of her clothes from Gymboree. Their end of the season sales in February are wonderfully inexpensive. i would buy next winters wardrobe for very little.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Apple. That's the thing about young and growing children, nothing fits them for very long, so whatever you can get second-hand is a dream.

I did garage sales and thrift stores when my kids were little, but at a certain age, the clothes get a lot more worn out.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Bingo! You said it, Apple. Yuppers, yard and garage sale goer here, too, especially when my kids were young. Always came across lots of toys and books and things, and good stuff, too!
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
One of the best money saving tips is to itemize your taxes if at all possible, and keep track of your charitable deductions.

Clothing is a particularly good deductible expense.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
I just went to Gymboree and the End-of-Summer sale has me nostalgic for the times when I would buy my daughter beautiful yet inexpensive clothing there.

In my previous post, I meant to say that clothing “donations” are great charitable donation write-offs.

I was on here way too late last night, as hubby was talking with his brother about an important situation.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
We never have enough deductions to itemize, so the charity stuff just really doesn't matter. We donate, but it's rather unimportant from that standpoint.

We shop at Aldi's too for a lot of things. Our local one doesn't seem to have good produce though. I also use ecoupons through my other usual grocery store app, and I use WalMart Savings Catcher, which builds up into store credit. I also use ibotta, which is an app that gives you cash back you can download onto a gift card after $20. You just pick the items offered and if you buy one - for instance, there was $2 back on two 12 packs of pepsi products the other day - then you scan your receipt to them. I got .25 back on bananas - any variety and .25 back on bottled water (just one bottle, any variety) the other day.

If anyone wants to do ibotta, message me!!! I'll get like $10 if someone signs up thru me! I think the person signing up does too.

I buy from the clearance rack. I buy off season. I buy generic and store brands.

I'm really exceptionally cheap.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
We never have enough deductions to itemize, so the charity stuff just really doesn't matter. We donate, but it's rather unimportant from that standpoint..

I’m quite surprised!

State taxes? Mortgage interest? Property taxes?

My daughter that owns a house even itemizes, and she is single, no kids, makes about 80k, and lives in a no income tax state.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
I’m quite surprised!

State taxes? Mortgage interest? Property taxes?

My daughter that owns a house even itemizes, and she is single, no kids, makes about 80k, and lives in a no income tax state.


Single, no kids, means a lower standard deduction than Jabber and I have. We have quite low property taxes where we live and only owe like $80,000 on the house, so not that much in mortgage interest. We usually get state taxes refunded at least in part and they just aren't that high here. We run our medical expenses through a pre-tax cafeteria plan, so we don't have enough of those left over to use.

Our accountant said we no longer had enough deductions to itemize after our rental property was sold. He ran all the numbers, we just don't have enough.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Single, no kids, means a lower standard deduction than Jabber and I have. We have quite low property taxes where we live and only owe like $80,000 on the house, so not that much in mortgage interest. We usually get state taxes refunded at least in part and they just aren't that high here. We run our medical expenses through a pre-tax cafeteria plan, so we don't have enough of those left over to use.

Our accountant said we no longer had enough deductions to itemize after our rental property was sold. He ran all the numbers, we just don't have enough.

Sorry, didn’t mean to pry.

Congrats on getting the house closer to being paid off! That will be a big weight off your shoulders when it’s done.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Sorry, didn’t mean to pry.

Congrats on getting the house closer to being paid off! That will be a big weight off your shoulders when it’s done.

Oh I wasn't offended at all. It would be better if my house were just done...so we could MOVE. LOL We'll pretty much immediately be in debt again.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Not necessarily for the OP, but if you live near a community college with a veterinary tech or animal care program you can often get your dogs groomed (by a student) and sometimes examined for a low cost or free.

I know the one closest to us also does spay/neutering, but not sure about the costs involved.

If you live near a cosmetology school, you can often get hair/nail/skin care services for much less from students supervised by their instructors. This often includes services like facials and waxing.
 

Wish

Active Member
I have weird ways on trying to save money, none that really work that well that's for sure. Being as though I am a single person and it is very hard to shop just for yourself. It's impossible for me to make meals just for one (myself) and having left overs is not good for me because I will eat it all, I have no will power when it comes to food. I have to be careful of what is in the house at all times. But one of the things I do try to save money is shop at Bi-lo (supermarket on the east coast). Individual items there are expensive so I don't shop there for individual items, but when they have the 10's for 10, it's an ah-maz-ing deal! I stock up for the year on those. Saves me so much money. I also am the first one there when butter goes on sale no matter where it is. Butter holds up very well in the freezer. Last year, Jan 2017, there was a sale at Kroger of Land O Lakes 4 long stick butters for 10 packs for $20.00. Usually they are $5.00 a pack! That was a steal! All 10 packs lasted me up until Feb 2018! You pull a stick out of the freezer, it's like brand new when it defrosts. Anyway, so that is what I do to save money. It's not really cuponing, it's buying the 10 for 10's or deals similar to those. I am all over those.

Salvation army, good will or thrift shopping, forget about it here. All of these places are very highly priced in our area believe it or not. It is a very common complaint in our town/city about it. You would be very disappointed if you visited any of these place here. The best cheapest place to shop here is, Walmart. Womp. womp. womp. Or I find some deals online.

I am not a big garage sale particpant at all but let me tell you, I took my 5 year old niece around a neighborhood yard sale a few months ago and I scored big time for her! I got her 10 pairs of shoes, brand new for 13.00! They were her exact size! The name brand stuff and she LOVED them! Because they were all so nice! I also got 15 pieces of sterling silver and turquoise for $5.00 at some nice ladies garage sale! I was like what is going on today? I never get this lucky, ever!
 
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