Strategic Shopping
Strategic shopping does more than just save money, it puts your household budget on a long-term diet that changes habits which ends up saving even more money in the long run. While most strategic shopping guides refer specifically to grocery shopping, the underlying principles can be applied to your entire shopping budget. If you feel more comfortable applying these strategies to groceries at first, then feel free to do so. Just remember that you can later expand them to cover everything you buy.
The most important principle is to know your prices. How much did you spend on every item in your pantry? In your bathroom closet? In your lingerie drawer? Knowing what things costs is this first step in realizing whether you’re overpaying the next time you go shopping.
The next step is to know the savings programs at various stores. Grocery stores aren’t the only ones with frequent saving cards. Department stores, electronic stores, even restaurants offer discounts based on previous purchases or simply for belonging to the program. If you can combine a sale price with a store discount or coupon, you save even more. Don’t forget to apply this principle to online stores. Many offer their own discount programs
The final core principle is to know coupons. Know what coupons you have in a drawer, which you’ve been meaning to cut out a newspaper or magazine, which ones come in the mail each week or month. More importantly, what coupons do you have online? Signing up with most retailers will get coupons sent directly to your email. For online stores these are most often known as promo codes and they further reduce your final cost. If you know where your coupons are you’re more likely to be able to combine them with sales and other discounts to get the most out of your paycheck .