Hi Everyone,
Now that most of us have survived Black Friday and Cyber Monday (which lasted all week) we are still inundated with specials in our inbox, flyers and the all famous pop-ups. But does anyone know how to work them to their benefit. I do. This is how.
The first thing I should admit is that I like saving money. ;D Whether that comes in the mail, in flyers or are sent to me via email I review coupons and clip or print the ones that I know I will use. This also comes in handy when there are points involved.
One day a store offered a coupon for extra points when buying milk and bonus points for spending $20 or more in their grocery section. Lucky for me, I planned on buying $20 worth of groceries including milk. I got the extra points and everything I normally buy there grocery-wise. I spent $22.21 in groceries BUT got $5.60 worth of bonus points not including my normal points. That day I also had a coupon for $3.00 off toilet paper which worked out well since it was my brand and on sale for $3.99. So I got 24 rolls of toilet paper for 99 cents not including tax.
For my birthday I received a coupon to buy 3 showers gels for $10 and a choice of a free gift from a store I shop at. From the same store, I also received an email with another coupon for a free necklace and extra points if I spent $10 or more. So I bought the shower gels (that I normally buy), got a free 250 ml body lotion (one of four free gifts to choose from) extra points and a necklace for $11.30 including tax. Everyone loves my necklace. And I love telling everyone how I got it, why and the other freebies too.
Some stores offer bonus points if you spend over X# of dollars. Other stores offer a free something or other if you spend over X# of dollars. Either way, those stores, or promotions like them want to encourage us to spend more. This works if you don’t have a list and/or veer from it easily. This one rarely flies with me. I RARELY veer from my list. But if I am close to the limit, I have been known to spave. For anyone who doesn’t know, “spaving” is a term that came about in late 2006 early 2007 and it means “spend to save”. When I was in retail I would encourage people to do it, ONLY if it made economic sense. Here’s an example.
If I wanted to get my 20X the points I needed to find something in the store THAT I WOULD USE to put me over $50. Since I needed less than a dollar, I bought a box of tissues. That had my pre-tax purchases at $50.07. I am serious. So for an extra 49/59 cents I got $10 worth of free points. I have spaved with higher amounts ONLY IF the product, was either super cheap and/or I knew I would use it within two weeks or less. Spaving for food is my usual.
Rain checks still exist and I get them ONLY if the product is super cheap and I know I am going to use it. I get rain checks for V8 because I drink it daily. Air miles take a while for me to accumulate, but I still collect them.
BOGO isn’t really my thing but I’ve done it. Buy One to Get the Other free, half price or however marketers want to try to get us to shop more works because every store is doing it. They want us to increase their IPT, or Items Per Transaction. One way to do that is to price match.
I don’t generally price match because the items I buy don’t usually match up. With that said, I will be price matching the next time I shop because every store sells those two items in the exact same packaging and size.
Since I’m not really a, “shopper” I may have missed something. If so please forgive and Happy Saving while you shop before you drop from it and/or how much you have spent!
Here are some links that relate to this blog,
http://arebelsrant.com/you-cant-make-them-think/
http://arebelsrant.com/i-hate-being-inconvenienced-when-im-sick/
http://arebelsrant.com/when-i-shop/ (this one has two links)
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
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