Shopping Tip
The Best Deal
We all love to save when we shop.
After all the media pressure of Black Friday, you may have spent money you had not planned on, and now need to make every cent count while at the shops.
Here is a simple tip on how to get the most bang for your buck.
Did you Survive the Madness?
A lot of people ran out during the Black Friday excitement, and bought many new shiny items. Most did so on credit, with money they have yet to earn. For some it will take months, if not years, to pay off these discounted specials.
When shopping, it is always good to plan ahead and save towards the expense. If you were one of those wise shoppers, who had funds waiting that you had been saving up, and if you then found a great deal: Good for you!
Black Friday reminds us that we can all be tempted into buying things if advertisers show you nice new shiny toys often enough. It may now be time to unsubscribe from all those mailing lists.
The Great Price Cut
Beware of falling for clever advertising, where the advert shows the original price crossed out, and a new lower price shown. This is very common online, at big brand name shops.
Those original prices can often be ridiculously high. Thank goodness for the discount, wow what a saving!! But… if you look a little closer, the “discounted” price looks a lot like the regular price elsewhere.
The shop may be saying they slashed their prices, but actually they are showing you a silly made up price that no one would pay anyway, and their discounted price is simply closer to reality. Shops get bust doing this all the time.
Even then, with it being a more realistic price, you may STILL want to compare that price with what you can get from other suppliers.
Don’t fall for fake prices.
Compare Prices
Now it might sound obvious that when you shop you should ‘shop around’ and find the best deal. We know we should and with easy access to the internet and the ability to do online shopping, we tend to do this more often these days when shopping for pricier items.
It is a little tricky to do, when we are already in a shop walking the isles and shopping for groceries for example. After all, you don’t want to have to leave the store and walk to the nearby shop, and then check the price only to find out that the first store had the better price and then have to walk back to the shop and grab that item.
With the cost of fuel and how valuable our time is, it doesn’t make sense to do that, even if it might save significant money.
Here is a tip that might help:
Many stores now have online shopping (websites) where you can see the prices of items that you regularly buy. Some shoppers say they are able to use these shopping apps and sites to their advantage.
‘Shopping online can be a big time saver and help you avoid impulse buying’
Shopping online can be a big time saver and help you avoid impulse buying, but there is another way you can use these apps.
What you do is go into Shop A and open Shop B’s website or app. Now, as you shop, you can look at the prices in front of you that Shop A is charging and compare with Shop B on your phone.
There is no need to wonder if that pack of chicken, or bag of potatoes is cheaper at Shop B. You can find out immediately.
‘there is another way you can use these apps’
Wonder how much they are charging for cooldrinks at Shop B? Check the price right away, and make an informed choice.
This way you can be confident that you are paying the right price for the right item at Shop A and can either order the other items of Shop B’s app or head over there later, to grab those items with lower prices.
Doing this can quickly save you a lot of money. Money that you may not have, or perhaps could use towards paying for other things.
Note: To read the rest of this issue of Debtfree magazine click next/previous
