Extreme bargain shopping: Sharing the secrets
When times are tough, the frugal get going
Retail therapy? More like retail agony lately, as gas, groceries and just about everything else goes up, up, up. Yet some local shoppers have responded by taking their favorite sport to extreme levels, demonstrating feats of retail athleticism without ever harming their budgets.
They are the sale shoppers, bargain hunters and freebie finders among us — and they are sharing some of their best shopping secrets to help us continue to get the things we need (and want) even as our dollars lose their former flexibility.
“I haven’t paid for toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, or deodorant for over two years,” said Lisa Hill Nowicki of Hamburg, who discovered a strategy to get all these things for free. Each week she peruses the drugstore fliers and sale booklets for 100 percent rebate offers. Between the two stores she frequents, there are plenty of offers each month to keep her family of four fully stocked in personal items — with plenty left over, she said.
“You can’t be brand loyal, and you have to be diligent,” she explains. “And if you use coupons for these rebate items, you can save even more.”
The result? Saving money every month. Hill Nowicki also uses her rebate routine to take care of charitable donations. With little money left over in the family budget for cash contributions, she instead donates many of the free personal items she gets to organizations who need them, such as Ronald McDonald House. And just this week she added toothbrushes and toothpaste to a care package going to American soldiers in Iraq.
Yummy buys
Just when you thought the grocery stores were holding you hostage, some smart local shoppers explain how to stretch your food budget.
“I check the ads before I make my menu for the week, and plan meals centered around the meat that’s on sale,” said Trish Harrigan of Orchard Park. She also maximizes her coupon use. As a full-time working mom, there’s not a whole lot of time to cut them — so instead she gets the kids to clip them. Then she uses them when stores run double coupon promotions.
Hill Nowicki says she buys most of her groceries at “off” brand stores like Aldi’s. That’s a strategy experts recommend, too.
“Go generic,” said shopping experts Anna Wallner and Kristina Matisic, creators and hosts of the Shopping Bags and Anna and Kristina’s Grocery Bag, which both air on W Network. “In our tests, generic cleaning products and detergents can be just as good as name brands. And in our cookie taste test, we found that the store brand chocolate chip cookies were tastier than the well-known name brand. When you find a good store brand product, it can save you a bundle over the long term.”
Plus, one little known secret is that generic store brands are often produced by the major food manufacturers you’re familiar with — they are the exact same or very similar products, except they’ve been “private labeled” with the store’s brand. The only big difference is the price.
If you have the time, shopping multiple grocery stores for that week’s sale items helps save money, too, especially if the stores are in close proximity (and you don’t have to offset the cost in gas). It also helps if you’re a stickler for quality.
“I buy meat at a specialty butcher and chicken at a smaller convenience grocery store,” explained Missy Dunn of Buffalo. “It tastes better and is often priced the same or lower than at the large grocery store where I do the majority of my shopping.”
Vacations, staycations
When it comes to family outings, there are lots of easy ways to have fun without paying full price (or anything at all, for that matter).
“I charge everything on a Disney Visa — it gives you money back toward anything Disney. I also use a separate card to build up frequent flier miles,” said Harrigan, who has two school-age children. “Last year we went to Disney World, offseason, for four days and stayed in a ‘deluxe’ resort for free by using my Disney points and frequent fliers.”
Hill Nowicki shared another little-known travel strategy that she uses when flying. She makes reservations for her family on Southwest airlines, then monitors the price of that same flight every few days to see if it drops.
“Southwest will give you a credit if the price of your flight goes down,” she explained.
This year, Hill Nowicki says, it’s not in their budget to travel far — so they’ve found strategies to have low-cost family fun right here in town.
“We bought season passes for Fantasy Island — a family of four cost $200.” Hill Nowicki said.
Tightening belts doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice new clothing purchases, either, explained our savvy shoppers.
Shop off-season
All three moms — Harrigan, Dunn, and Hill Nowicki — said they buy the majority of their kids’ clothes a year in advance, when they’re on sale. In other words, they’ll buy summer clothes in mid-July in a bigger size for the kids to wear the following summer — at 50 percent to 75 percent off (or sometimes even more).
Dawn Gibson, 23, of Arcade gets a lot of great clothing buys at consignment stores, which have evolved to cater to niche markets like teens and twentysomethings by carrying trendy brand names and current styles.
“Used clothing stores like Plato’s Closet are popping up all over,” she said. “They have great clothes that hardly even look worn. I never buy full-price jeans anymore,” said Gibson.
Missy Dunn has a foolproof system for buying clothes from her favorite store at cut-rate prices.
At the beginning of every new season, she checks out the selection on the store’s Web site and adds all her favorites to her online “shopping cart,” which functions as a wish list of sorts. She then checks back with the site every few days to find out when they go on sale. Last fall she watched a $138 dress she loved drop to $38 — and snatched it right up. This year she got a cashmere dress for just $49 — marked down from an original $268 just a month before.
Anytime deals
The Shopping Bags ladies’ first rule of smart shopping for just about anything: ask for a discount!
“Most people negotiate when they shop for big ticket items like cars and homes, but don’t think to do the same for smaller everyday items,” they explained. “There is always room to negotiate, no matter what you’re shopping for.”
That’s a strategy Trish Harrigan employs.
“Just the other day the kids wanted to play putt putt and go-cart — it would have cost $60,” Harrigan explained. “I was scrounging through my wallet and told the guy working there — after killing him with kindness — that I’d have to run to the ATM because I only had $45. But he said ‘Sold!’ and we saved $15.”
Another helpful hint, the Shopping Bags added, is to look for reasons for the store to discount your item. For example, if there’s a shirt with a button missing or a loose hem, ask for money off.
“Be sure to keep requests for a better deal open-ended,” Wallner and Matisic explain. “That means saying things like ‘Is that the best deal you can give me?’ ”
The Internet
Smart shoppers also make full use of the Internet — for research and for shopping.
Gibson, who is about to get her first apartment, said she checks out the Buffalo section of Craig’s List almost every day to look for furniture she needs. (Craig’s List is a free forum where local sellers advertise everything from baby items to cars to furniture.)
“The Internet is one of our favorite tools for comparing prices,” experts Wallner and Matisic add. “No more driving around from store to store or calling each location for price checks. We also like to check out auction sites like Ebay to see if we can get a better deal on a specific item we have our eye on.”
Dunn also recommends signing up for coupon offers and sale notices at your favorite online retailers, so you’ll get e-mail notifications the minute sales begin.
