Save Money While Shopping

This is the information age, and there’s no sense in you not taking advantage of it! Stores are informed in advance of their sales sometimes as much as months ahead. Never hesitate to ask the management or customer service desk if and when the item you’re interested in will be going on sale. If they know, they will gladly tell you, because they don’t want you going somewhere else to buy it. If a store happens to be sold out of an item you wanted, never hesitate to request a “Rain Check”, which is basically a guarantee that when the store gets more of the item, you’ll be able to claim one for the sale price.

Something a lot of people forget to ask for, and Cashiers forget to apply, when requesting a refund – is the sales tax. You are entitled to your sales tax back as well, but in some cases you won’t get it unless you ask. If you take an item for refund to the service desk, they’ll scan it for a price check, and tell you, “You’ve got $24.99 coming back, would you like to exchange for merchandise, or have this amount refunded?” At this point, you need to say with a smile, yes, but I’d like that amount plus my sales tax.

There’s limites sources devoted to ways to save money at restaurants, and they cover things I’ve never even thought of before. But one thing I did learn to do was slip a few individually wrapped pasteurized processed cheese slices into my purse when we were going out for burgers. The shelf life on that stuff, unrefrigerated, is days so a few minutes in my purse was fine. Most burger chains charge a quarter a slice for cheese! No jokeâÂ?¦ and when I had 5 kids, my husband and I were spending $1.75 on cheese alone every time we had burgers! That’s crazy, I can buy a whole pack for that! Take cheese – save money!

Always try to position yourself in view of the check out register display, especially if you have sale or clearance items in your cart. Watch as these items scan to make sure they scan at the sale price – and not regular price. Larger chain stores usually never have this problem because their bar code system is so accurate. But smaller stores, especially independently owned stores, are notorious for this mistake. And it’s easier to correct there at the register than it is later on at the service desk. Also, always try on sale and clearance items! There is no returning these if they don’t fit!

Learn to respect your own right for frugality and never allow peer pressure to rush you through a check out line, or into picking a product at random to get going faster. If it takes you 15 minutes to locate your coupon so be it. If the people in line behind you don’t like the wait, they’re free to move to a different isle. So many times people have been rushed and forgotten to make the correct entry in their check book register – and wound up over drawn later, or unable to balance their checkbook because of a missing entry. There’s no need for this, you have the right to take all the time you need to conduct your business. And try to schedule your shopping time as you would a Doctor’s appointment. You never really know how long a Doctor’s appointment may take – so you make the necessary arrangements. If you’re in a rush when shopping, you’re going to make snap product decisions and probably not be as frugal as you could be.

You work HARD for your money, and you DESERVE the best quality and most quantity that money will buy!