Think just because you find a sale that you're getting a good deal? Think again.
Not all sales are deals, and not all deals come from buying sale items.
So how do you sort it all out? Brush up on your shopping skills.
Some may not want to be bothered with finding ways to save money when shopping, but being a savvy shopper or using online programs can mean significant savings, cash back or free items.
For example, using coupons and knowing the prices of items can result in savings of 20 to 40 percent off a grocery bill.
Gary Foreman, publisher of the Dollar Stretcher Web site
Stretcher.com, said when consumers are looking to buy anything -- be it from a mall or a car dealer –--they should spend a half-hour beforehand doing research, which can save a lot of money.
“I feel sorry for people who go into a mall and buy something for Aunt Harriet" without preparing first, Foreman said. "There’s no good way to do that.”
Part of that research involves taking note of prices, so consumers can find good deals.
One of the areas where tracking prices can have the biggest impact is with grocery shopping because it’s an area of the budget that can be trimmed. In other words, the cost of groceries isn’t a fixed expense amount of someone’s entire budget like a mortgage or car payment can be, but it is a necessary regular expense.
Foreman said the average person spends about 20 percent of their budget on groceries. He said cutting a grocery bill does not need to involve a lifestyle change.
Kara Rozendaal, a financial planner who runs
Practicalsaver.com, said tracking prices helps identify if something is a good sale or if it’s just a good advertisement.
“You can’t go off the size of the ad,” she said.
There are several resources for getting educated on grocery prices. Practicalsaver.com offers a free newsletter that compiles prices of sale items for four major grocery store companies in the western U.S.
Rozendaal said companies that own grocery stores in other parts of the country may have similar savings on similar items elsewhere. So Albertson’s stores may go by that name in some states, but that company's stores are called Acme in the mid-Atlantic region.
Practicalsaver.com recently launched a free table of grocery prices that can be downloaded onto users' computers so people can keep track of items in their area. The tool also helps people organize coupons so they don’t go unused.
Rozendaal suggested steps to approach keeping grocery costs down. First, she said, set a fixed dollar amount for groceries per week. She said by setting a cash limit, people will look at sales differently. She was able to trim at least 30 percent of her bill by setting a spending limit.
Next, she said people should change the idea of what they think they need. For example, a family may not need four boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in their cupboard. By stocking up with sale items, Rozendaal said she cut her grocery bill by 40 percent.
“Only put great sale items in the cupboard,” she said.
Rozendaal said the “ultimate level” to saving on groceries is using coupons.
“Only use coupons when it’s a on a great sale, not a great advertisement,” she cautioned.
Rozendaal added that shoppers don’t have to use a coupon just because they have one.
An estimated 77 percent of American households use about 8 billion coupons to save $4.7 billion on their grocery bills, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
There are several Web sites that offer coupon savings programs or simply link to printed coupons.
But not all coupons are legitimate. Coupon fraud is a million-dollar industry, so consumers want to make sure they are using legitimate coupons for purchases.
Bud Miller, executive director for the Coupon Information Corp., said there are coupon-clipping operations that take real coupons from normal advertisements and then clip and resell them.
The organization keeps a list on its
Web site of counterfeit coupons.
Miller strongly advises against buying coupons on eBay. He pointed out that some coupon books sold on the site have blanks that need to be filled out. The consumer must then buy the serial numbers separately for each coupon after buying the book.
“It doesn’t make sense to pay money for coupons that are given away for free,” he said.
Miller said the most counterfeit coupons are those of high value and those for free products.
Coupon Clubs
Coupon clubs typically offer members access to lists of manufacturers’ coupons that users specifically want or for specific stores.
Grocerygame.com offers members access to its exclusive list of inexpensive items and matches it with manufacturers’ coupons. The site charges $1 for a four-week trial. Members pay $10 for eight weeks of access to the list for one store. Prices vary depending on how many lists subscribers sign up for.
Another fee-based coupon site is Centsoff.com. It charges $7.50 on the first order of 50 coupons that it claims are only those the shopper wants.
Coupon Web Sites
There are Web sites that have a free downloadable toolbar such as
Smartsource.com and
Coupons.com so users can easily print free coupons from their Web sites.
Specialoffers.com compiles an extensive list of printable coupons directly from manufacturers and has a feature that lets users add the site to existing toolbars such as Google and Yahoo.
The site’s store directory list links to all retailers’ coupons, for both online sites and bricks-and-mortar department and specialty stores.
Coolsavings.com offers printable coupons by category and links to free items and samples.
Mommysavesbig.com has extensive lists of both
printable coupons to redeem at stores and a list of coupons for
online stores.
It also has a great list of links to
free items and samples.
PinchingYourPennies.com gives tips on using coupons and shopping online and in stores. It has a list of forums called Screaming Deals by state. It also has an extensive coupon code list for online sites.
Thecouponchick.com links to coupons from online stores. Its affiliated site,
thefreebiechick.com, has links to current freebie deals by category for both online and bricks-and-mortar retailers.
The site also has links for people who want to do mystery shopping. Secret shoppers evaluate their experience in a store or restaurant and typically get reimbursed for the goods or services they purchase in exchange for accurate feedback about their shopping trip.
Those who are interested in taking surveys for market research groups or other companies can get cash back or other incentives. Thecouponchick.com has links to
current surveys being offered and the incentives that go with them.
Deal Web Sites
Several Web sites not only list discounts from online and bricks-and-mortar retailers, but they also link to stores' latest deals and will even notify users when deals come up.
Dealcatcher.com is a combination of links to current freebie items, online and in-store coupons, links to rebates and a comparative shopping section. The freebie section allows users to sign up for an RSS feed of current deals as well as a keyword-drive e-mail alert service so users don’t miss freebies or deals on items they want.
Slickdeals.net lists deals by day on its homepage. The deals are listed in an expandable window that includes the link to the deal and its discount code. It also gives users the option of leaving comments about the particular deal, telling a friend, or even opening a user's AOL Instant Messenger window with a link to that deal. Users can also apply their own keywords to a particular deal with its tagging feature.
Bradsdeals.com touts itself as a site of hand-picked deals. It lists
deals on one page and has
top deals on another page. The site also allows users to leave comments or e-mail a particular deal to a friend.
Refundsweepers.com has an exhaustive list of links to online and in-store coupons, freebies, free samples and featured offers.
Shoppingbookmarks.com lists links to online deals on its homepage and then allows registered site users to find deals by day with its calendar feature. Its forum page has an active section of free deals by phone, mail and online. It also has a forum for rewards and referrals.
Salescircular.com has a long list of links to printed sales advertisements by state.
Reward Programs
For online shoppers, there are some Web sites that offer cash-back rebates and other incentives such as gift cards.
Ebates.com and
Mr. Rebates are similar in that they both offer cash back if you click through to online shopping sites from their portals. The sites tell users how much of a percentage in cash back they receive for each store on their list.
Another incentive Web site,
mypoints.com, allows users to earn points to redeem store gift cards, travel and restaurants for online shopping.
A cash-back Web site called
Bigcrumbs.com offers cash back on items bought on eBay and other online retailers.
Limbo is a Web site that allows users who guess the lowest unique price for an item to buy it at that price. Some parts of the site do charge per bid, but many are free bids. The site boasts that it sold a new Mini Cooper to a user for $50.43 and a plasma HDTV for $8.85.
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