As I revealed in my last post, I am now a proud owner of a Droid incredible. I upgraded partly for easier access to the internet for mobile bargain hunting. I’m sure most of you have found it’s smart to check online prices before you buy big ticket items, but what about the small ones? Where do you cross the line. At what point does being frugal become cheap, or downright maddening??
Should you spend hours before you leave the house doing price comparisons on every item you might conceivably walk past during that day? Probably not… Are you going to look up half of those same items next week because you didn’t make it to the store on time? Even less likely… All the same, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come home after impulsively buying something, only to find that I could have saved 20-30 dollars simply by crossing the street to the competitors. That lost money adds up fast. Think of all the other impulse buys you could have made with that money.
So, here’s what I do, and hopefully it can save you as much as it’s saved me!
Imagine you and a friend are shopping and something catches your eye. You stare at it for a second, you start thinking things like, “I really could use one of those” and “wouldn’t that look great next to my [whatever].” You start to get that burning feeling in your wallet that just won’t go away. You quickly snatch it off the shelf, throw it in your cart and go merrily on your way.
But wait… Your friend tells you that Big Bobs Widget Bin (all the way on the other side of town) has the same thing for half off. “Great, now you tell me; we were just there!” you scold your friend. Even still, you would have to be crazy to pass up a deal like that.
Fortunately your friend, like me, carries their trusty smartphone. They power it up, zip over to Big Bobs website, and there it is- half off and everything. They flash the screen to the clerk; a few keystrokes later your friend saved you 50 bucks- all for 2 minutes worth of work.
Think about that for a second, if you were paid $50 for every 2 minutes of work you did… you would be making $1500 dollars an hour. When was the last time someone paid you $1500/hour? Personally, I can’t think of once. This will obviously help far less during your $3 – $5 purchases and much more on $50+ purchases. I be posting again in a few days some tips that work well on any items, large or small.
Some things to know
- Most stores will price match a competitors store.
- Some stores have different sales in-store and on their website. Most of them will adjust the price, but only if you tell them to.
One place that comes to mind is Harbor Freight Tools. I save TONS of money every time I go there simply by checking their website first. - There’s not many, but some stores will EVEN match internet prices! The ones that do may have some limitations, and most will only match the after-shipping price… but what do you have to lose?
