Wednesday, 06 January 2010
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8 Ways to Save at the Store
This post from delish.com offers up some great reminders on small things you can do to save on your next trip to the store. And while the tips are aimed at saving on groceries, the concepts are just as applicable to any kind of shopping.
So here's their list of 8 ways you can save at the store:
- Watch the Register: Make sure you're really getting that sale price you're after. Watch the register and make sure the sale price is ringing up.
- Don't assume regularly-priced items are scanning correctly: In general, you should just watch the register. Sometimes prices may scan incorrectly or produce items may be entered wrong.
- Collect your pay-off if there's a mistake: A lot of big grocery chains will give you can item for free if it scans for a higher-than-advertised price. And if notice an overcharge on the receipt after you've paid, not only can you get the difference back, but some states actually have penalty laws where you'll get some percentage of the difference back in addition to the price difference itself. In Michigan, for example, there's a "scanner law" that lets you get back the price difference plus a "bonus" of ten times the difference, with a minimum bonus of $1 and a maximum bonus of $5. Store are NOT ALLOWED to refuse to give you this bonus.
- Be persistent: Ask for a raincheck if a store runs out of an item on sale, and make sure the raincheck specifies the price and maximum number you can buy.
- Don't be fooled by deals like Two for $1: You don't always have to buy two items to get the sale price. If you do, most signs will state the single price explicitly.
- Stock up, but wisely: Check expiration dates so you aren't stuck with a bulk supply of expired goods. Even toothpaste can expire, so be sure to check.
- Weigh before you pay: A lot of times, things like ten pound bags of potatoes will actually weigh less than they are marked.
- Don't pay extra for convenience: Health and beauty items usually cost more at supermarkets than at chain or discount stores, so keep an eye out for the prices on these items.
How do you save at the grocery store? Do you use any of these tips?
Check out the full post here: http://www.delish.com/recipes/cooking-recipes/save-money-groceries?ocid=lifestylehp
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- From: Cara
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Comments (15)
This is basically what my mother does and well. I have a lot to learn from her I guess.
i steal
It amazes me that these arent common sense! Knowing store policies is always a good idea for anything - returns, price scanning, future sales. I cant imagine not watching the receipt. Mistakes happen all of the time! Whether it is cashier error or the error of the person putting the prices into the computer.
One tip that my mom has recently discovered, is restaurant supply stores. If you have a family of 4 or more, and you eat a lot of pasta or rice, or you have friends. Condiser buying a 20lb bag of rice or a 25lbs of pasta.
The pasta will often come inside the box in small bags, so go in with a friend if you need to and split the box or bag. My mom got 20lbs of pasta at .60 a pound instead of .75 at the grocery store.
I use 6 out of 8 of these tips. I rarely ask for rainchecks and I don't weigh potatoes before I buy them because I might be too trusting.
Those are some pretty good tips.
These are all really good ideas, especially the first 2. I have caught Wal-mart in this SEVERAL times. They advertise soemthing to be on sale but it never ever shows up at the correct price. And then when you point it out to them, they don't believe you,and they send some idiot to go search the entire gigantic store for it and of course they can never find it and AHH.
It's just infuriating.
hahaha i totally notice the beauty products and also, i always watch the register, something my mom taught me, saved me a lot of money after i use to no look at it.
aaack.
I work at checkouts in the supermarket and this regularly happens to me.
Customers are always eyeing the screen like hawks & when I accidentally scan something twice (I usually void it straight away) they immediately point it out...so annoying.
And Point #3 is correct as well. There are sometimes when certain things get scanned at a higher price than the stated price & the supervisor has to give the first item free & the following items (if you've bought the same things twice) at a lower price.
Oh and please if there any problems please take it up to the customer service desks, talk to the supervisors/managers. There's no point asking/telling the checkout girl the problem. We've got no authority to give customers refunds.
I do use some of these tips. I used to work in a pharmacy where the pharmacist gave me a tip about the difference of brand and generic. There is really none. The key word is active ingredient. If you read the label of the two items the active ingredient is the same. I save money by buying the generic.
I also check my receipt. At the grocery store once I was charged $20 dollars for something that rang up as a Coffee Basket. The manager said it was because of the UPC code. I was given a refund. The same thing happened at Aeropostle around Christmas time. I was charged 2x for a shirt. When I went back and pointed it out to the clerk, she said that the scanner was very sensitive, yeah. This one was a little suspicious, she never even looked into my bag to see if indeed I did not buy two of the same items. Watch those receipts!!
Good tips, except half of these are dependent on the cashier making a mistake/something ringing up incorrectly. That's not something you can depend on.
how to save money... ignore expiration dates, and use your gut instinct.
These are okay; it's always important to make sure you're not being overcharged.
One of my strategies (when I have time) is to plan my meals before I go to the store by looking through 2-3 supermarket ads online and figuring out how to work some of their good deals into my meals. For instance, if ground beef and sweet potatoes are on great sales, I'm having burgers & sweet potatoes this week, maybe two or three times. :)
Another thing to watch for is making sure that you don't get sucked in by their deals - don't buy the product that's $3.00 because it's on sale when the generic version is $1.50 at normal price - I think that's pretty common sense, but it takes paying attention.
smart shopping. I'm just usually a little too um.. lazy. :/
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