People ask me all the time am I an extreme couponer and I always answer no I am not. I can truly say that I am an extreme saver. I love to save on every avenue of my life and save as much as possible with as little hassle as possible. I am a woman and I love to shop but I have to get some bang for my buck.. Here are some tips on saving on items that are not classified as household or grocery items:
1: Pay attention to commercials, advertisements and store circulars
Many times stores have sales that are for a limited time and in order to earn the most revenue as possible they do a lot of advertising in various outlets. Pay attention to these and get to stores early on the first day of sales to get the best selection. The best sales are further mark downs on clearance items but items go fast.
Recently Old Navy had a sale that was buy one item get another for a dollar or something similar to that. The gimmick with this sale was the first item was priced regularly so if you get two pair of jeans (which was going to be my purchase) priced at $40 each you are still paying $20 for each pair of jeans which is a no go for me personally. I skipped this sale. It is easy to get caught up in the wording of sales but stores have to make money so sometimes the sales only benefit them.
I started couponing because I have always been frugal but love to shop. I can not remember an item that I have personally bought for myself that was not at a deep discounted price or on clearance. All clothing, shoe, and miscellaneous (such as big lots, marshall, ross) stores have clearance and most times it is just items that are low in stock or have been in the store a while and room is needed for new merchandise. Clearance is usually marked down 50-75% off and is still great quality material at great prices. Yesterday I swung by JC Penny's to redeem my free Sephora lip gloss and use my $10 off a $50 purchase coupon (available in stores until 10/10) and I saved 146.51 by combining clearance shopping with the coupon and purchased some staples for my wardrobe.
4. Shop out of Season
Stores have sale cycles just as food does and they need to get rid of items that are of a certain season to make room for the upcoming weather. So shop backwards. Fall in the Summer and Spring in the Winter. So when the season comes around you are prepared and don't have to worry about purchasing necessities at full price5. Complete store promotions
A lot of stores have surveys that can be completed after a purchase that will give you a coupon for a future purchase. Most people overlook these savings. I personally do not.. Here is a coupon I recieved today for my purchase at JC Penny's on yesterday. I simply rated their store and waaalaaa ------------------------------>>>>>>6. Get cash back for your online purchases
There are websites where you can earn cash back on your online purchases by simply going to their website first and going to the stores website through them. Two of the sites I personally use and have recieved checks from is www.ebates.com and www.shopathome.com.
7. Save on shipping
It seems like a standard for companies to give you free shipping when you purchase $50 or more from their website but a growing trend is ordering things and sending them to a local store. If you have a local store in your area this is a great way to save on shipping. If you have to travel 25 miles to get to a store you are better off paying the shipping.
8. Printable Coupons
There are coupons for everything you just have to find them. Before I head to any store or purchase anything I search for a coupon. I simply go to yahoo.com and search ________ coupon. Most sites that come up have reviews on how many people a certain code or coupon has worked for. I use this frequently especially when I have to rent a car. There have also been a lot of coupons for $12 off a jiffy lube oil change on http://www.coupons.com/ (try zip code 98115) they may still be available if you are interested. These coupons do not expire until July of 2012 so you have plenty of time to save...
Well I hope these steps are helpful to you. I use each and every one in my everyday life to save my family in every possible area of our lives.. Thanks a bunch for supporting this site
RENEE
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