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smart shopper

Shopping

Shopping For A New Television: 5 Ways To Save Money

tips for shopping for a TVLong gone are the days of “a television in every home.” Now it’s more like a television in every room, plus laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other entertainment devices for every family member scattered throughout the house. That said, a TV is still a major purchase. Depending on what you’re interested in, you could be looking at an expenditure of several hundred to several thousand dollars for this premium entertainment product. Of course, you needn’t overspend to get the quality you crave – there are plenty of ways to save on the purchase of a new TV. Here are some options for the savvy shopper to consider.

Comparison shop and wait for sales. The place to begin is by checking out the many brands, sizes, and options available to you in order to narrow your search to the handful of TVs that will meet your needs. From there you should track prices on the few models you’re really interested in, waiting for sales in order to get the best discount. The beauty of doing it this way is that you can catch any prices that actually increase before sales (bumping up the cost before adding the discount so buyers really aren’t saving). And of course, wait for any coupons you might get from memberships with electronics retailers like Best Buy. Don’t forget to check online outlets like Amazon, Tiger Direct, and Newegg, as well.

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Shopping

Ways We Save On Groceries Every Month

Believe it or not, there are some easy ways you can save money on groceries. Here are a few things that we do to save:

1)      We keep track of our grocery spending. We use a simple Excel spreadsheet to keep track of spending each month. That way throughout the month, we can double check how much we’ve already spent. This keeps us on track.

2)      We check the online flyer for our favorite grocery store and make our grocery list according to the sales. Of course, we don’t buy things just because they’re on sale, but if the items are a staple we will make note of the best price and be sure to select that brand.

3)      We buy two weeks’ worth of groceries at once rather than going to the store multiple times. We find this saves us a lot of money and time, too. If you’re going to do this, it is important that you eat the items that go bad fast first, and then save the longer lasting items until the second week. It won’t take you long to figure this out.

4)      We use our Visa rewards card every time we pay for groceries. By doing so, we earn reward points that we can redeem for travel and other perks. We make sure to pay the balance in full each month so as to avoid any interest or late fees.

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Shopping

How To Avoid Incorrect Purchases – Tips For Bargain Buyers

smart shopping tips“Greed is good!” This is a well-known money quote for many families, which contribute to their money ambitions, but is it really clever to catch too many promotions? Today, we’ll talk about some of the valuable financial tips that will save you from big trouble in life by simplifying your bargains. So, lets begin!

Cheap is Cheap

Sellers always plan to offer products at very reasonable prices with little profit margins. These products are made by the material left  during the manufacturing process. It has been observed that there are significant defects in these discounted products. The notion that “Everything here is cheap and yet in best quality” is no longer valid. Studies show that only 1/4th of discount products are real bargains. Therefore, our financial advice is: “Buy quality products once rather than repeatedly spending money on false bargains!”

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Shopping

5 Tips For Saving Money On Your Wedding Dress Without Having To Sacrifice Style

wedding dress shopping tips that will save you moneyShopping for a wedding dress can be a harrowing process, what with trying on dozens of gowns to find the right one and then attempting to balance a budget with the prospect of purchasing the dress of your dreams. While you’re probably keen to save money wherever you can, you certainly don’t want to sacrifice style in the process. So here are just a few tips that should help you to meet all of your goals (fashionable and financial) when you shop for your wedding dress.

Shop trunk shows early. In most cases, trunk shows do not offer discount dresses, so you might wonder why you’d want to go. The main reason is to try on designer styles that local stores may not otherwise have in stock. Even if you can’t currently afford any of the dresses you slip into, going to these shows early in the planning process can help you out in a couple of ways. If you take photos and note the styles you like, you may be able to find them later on for less (once they’re out of season). Or you could look for something similar that costs less once you know what is flattering on you and which styles, cuts, or embellishments you prefer. And if you find the dress of your dreams, you can make a down payment and have plenty of time to pay it off before your big day. As a bonus, you’ll get a free consultation with representatives of the designer, and these professionals should be able to find the best look for you in their collection.

Shop online. If you have your heart set on a designer dress, consider that you may be able to find one online for less. Not only are there hundreds of discount dress websites to help you here, but you can also keep an eye on eBay or even Craigslist when you’re searching for a specific gown. Although you may end up with a second-hand dress, chances are it’s only been worn once.

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Gifts

An Easy Way To Christmas Shop For Less

christmas shopping online saves stress and is a lot of funI had a great time Christmas shopping this year.  I don’t really enjoy shopping in crowded malls, so this year I avoided the mall scene altogether.  I shopped on amazon.ca and found everything I was looking for, and at reasonable prices, too.

Here are some ways to make amazon.ca work for you:

 Take advantage of free shipping.   When I first started shopping, I found a few items I really liked but didn’t pay attention to the shipping fees.  When I proceeded to the checkout I realized that the items I chose did not qualify for free shipping.  Go figure!  I hadn’t noticed that the items I selected were not Amazon products, but instead, were sold by a private seller using the Amazon website. Those products do not qualify for free shipping.  So, after learning this the hard way, I decided to make a point of only looking at the products that are eligible for free shipping.  Amazon provides free shipping when you buy a minimum of $25 worth of products.  That’s a great deal!

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