The Save Money Blog

Archive for the ‘Shopping Tips’ Category

I recently embarked on fixing up the old house. I have blogged a bit about it. The one thing I found that I was and am constantly going back and forth to a couple of different hardware store picking up big items and little items. All sorts of items I think I need. Like any hack handyman I end buying lots of things I just don't need and have to return.

What I have done is taken a larger size plastic freezer baggie, put it in a drawer that I walk by every time I come home and put my receipts in it. I probably have a entire receipt printer spool saved up in my bag from all of the trips I have been making lately.

 Now when I have to return something I just sort through the bag and find the receipt I need and off the hardware store I go. This method has saved my bacon and saved me money a couple of times already this month. Right now I have a $10 of spray foam I don't need and next time I go back to the store I am just going to fish through the bag, find my receipt and get my money back.

Beats running all over the house looking for paper, having to go to the store with no sales receipt or just not getting your money back.

I heard an interesting story the other day on a news segment. Although it was general about the holidays and money it got me thinking more specifically about Black Friday. The jist of the article was basically, you have been saving and scrimping all year to get ahead a little. The holidays is not an excuse to go all out and blow what you don't have. This important for the upcoming shopping events. We all have to Christmas presents so yes it's a time for great savings but in the back of your mind remember, don't spend what you don't have.

I was searching through google today for shopping information and see that Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and news stories are all over the headlines and search results already. If you plan on doing a little shopping and saving on either of these two days then you still have plenty of time to plan ahead. If you are looking to save money it may be a bad idea just to head out and start spending.

You should determine exactly what you are after and try to stick to those items. Get your Christmas list together and make an effort to put a list together of all the items you need and the people you have to shop for.

Now that you have a list or an idea of what you need start scouting out the stores that you normally shop at and see if they have their advertising up yet. Many of them probably have information about their upcoming sales and I have even seen a few that are already offering coupons.

You know have your list of items that you are after and scouted out your favourite stores and websites for sales and deals start comparing prices and adding to your list the places with the cheapest prices.

Those are just three basic tips to formulate a plan for your holiday shopping. Remember, nothing brings out the scammers online then the smell of a shopping holiday. If something sounds to good to be true it usually is.

This was a question a friend of mine asked me thet other day when I was showing some iPhone4 gadgets that I recently purchased. Of course not, why would I pay full retail price for something when I have to go to an online auction and find the items that I need for a fraction of the price. You do have to do your homework when buying from auction websites. You have to look at the sellers feedback and you have to research prices, brand names and shipping. For example, if a person if offering low prices with high shipping prices you should stay away from them. When they sell you a crappy item they just have to refund the purchase prices and not the shipping. It's an old scam.

My point is don't rush out to a retail store and pay way much more than what you have to for a brand name item. Do some digging and I bet you can find what you are looking for and save some money.

I have been blogging about the work that I am currently doing on my house. Mostly redoing my basement from scratch. Right now it is in a total state of disrepair. I have foam sprayed the basement walls, added an HRV as well as a heat pump and new blower. With all of this out of the way I am putting a plan together to drywall everything, add my tv room as well as a small office or computer area.

I imagine ones first move would be to rush out to a box store and look at office furniture. I was driving by an office liquidator store and decided to stop in. I found out that lots of offices will dump their existing furniture and supplies not because there is anything wrong them but because they have redecorated. I couldn't believe how it is to pick up a decent desk and chair set.

The lesson is, you don't have to buy everything brand new. Do some digging and find a used store, a liquidator or a charity that sells donated items. There are lots of options to save you some money.

My friends kids are both at university this fall and he was doing some ranting about the cost of textbooks. He is like many people. He just sends the kids off with a credit card to the campus book store and buys everything new. I know that is what I did my first year of university. In hindsight it was a terrible waste of money for me. There are a number of other options out there that you should never have to buy new expensive text books.

The first think I would do is look for used books. You can do this my looking for ads in your school newspaper. Students are always selling their books off from the pervious year. There are also flyers and bulletin boards scattered around the campus where you can probably find somebody selling their used books. We have a number of used books stores in town where you have a good chance at finding used text books.

If you can't find your text books used then I would shop around first before throwing out the money at the campus book store. They may not have the best price. There are a zillion online book stores. I would be willing to bet that you can find a good deal on those books.

I have been on a bit of a run lately with doing some upgrades around the house to my appliances, heating equipment and even my gadgets. I love reading reviews to see what other people thought or think of the items I am thinking of buying. The reviews are pretty important because they are from people that bought the item already and know if it is good or bad.

For example, if you go to any electronics website you will see tons of reviews and ratings from consumers. I was reading some digital camcorder reviews recently and they are a good case point. There are so features and facets to today gadgets like cell phones, digital cameras and lcd televisions that it is hard to stay on top of. Reading reviews really gives you insight into things that you might not think of. Things that you might forget to ask the salesperson. If you are going to spend the money, you want to be informed.

Of course, you sometimes have to take the reviews with a grain of salt. Some people like to complain for the sake of complaining. After you read through a few of them you will be able to pick the bad reviews from good reviews.

I recently became one of the many in the world carrying a smartphone in my pocket. I made the jump to an iPhone4 this month and it has opened my eyes to a whole new world. The one thing I was amazed at was the number of barcode scanner apps that you can download. Some of them are free (which I obviously prefer) and some are the usual .99 cents. I downloaded a couple of the free barcode shopping apps and was suprised how easy it was to get prices on the items you use everyday. You just scan your items with your iPhone camera and from there you can compare internet and local prices and in some cases you can even read product reviews. If you have the time and are really interested in what prices you are paying then this might be something you are interested in. Here is a photo from one called ShopSavvy. There are many of them in your iTunes store.