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smart shopping

Health & Beauty

Use Safe Hygiene Products And Save

After speaking with a friend of mine who is studying holistic nutrition, she made me aware of the dangers involved in using some of the everyday products we take for granted.  For example, there are harmful chemicals found in many brand name deodorants that I had never thought twice about purchasing in the past.  Apparently these chemicals are absorbed by the body and can cause problems including cancer.

I decided to be more particular about what I bought from that point on.  I was able to find a deodorant comprised of 70% organic ingredients.  It cost about $5 more than the regular deodorants I had purchased in the past.  Unfortunately, it didn’t really work very well. I still didn’t want to go back to buying the harmful products so I decided to try out Norwex’s Crystal Deodorant. For those of you who don’t know about Norwex, it’s a company with the mission of providing cleaning and hygiene products that don’t contain harmful chemicals.

The Crystal Deodorant cost me $12.99 and since I consider myself to be fairly frugal, it seemed like an awful lot of money to be forking over for deodorant.  As it turns out, the deodorant seems to work really well, thankfully, and if it lasts at least a year then I will have more than made up for the money I would have spent on regular deodorant.  In fact, I think it might even last longer than that.

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Shopping

Ask For Last Year’s Merchandise And Save Money

A great way to save money when you shop is to be willing to purchase last year’s merchandise.   When buying shoes, don’t be afraid to ask the sales representative if they have any shoes left over from last year in your size.   If you are lucky, they will have just the shoes you are looking for, and at discounted prices since they came from last year’s stock.

Recently my husband and I benefited from this strategy.  While shopping for shoes in the States, the shoe salesperson brought out various pairs of shoes from last year that fit us perfectly. We were able to get good quality shoes without paying regular price.  As a result, we saved at least $60.

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Shopping

Become A Member And Save Money When You Shop

Although it may be annoying to have so many cards in your wallet from all the various stores where you regularly shop, it is worth your time to become a member when it results in saving you money.  It’s important to familiarize yourself with the benefits of membership and often all it takes to apply is your name, contact information, and mailing address.  The best part is that membership is often free!

You can also benefit from becoming a member in a country other than your own.  This worked for me when I was shopping for groceries during our travels in the U.S.  While shopping I noticed that members enjoyed significant savings, so when at the till, I asked the cashier if I could become a member even though I was Canadian.  She said it was no problem and it only took about two minutes to fill out the application form.  On that same bill, by taking the extra 2 minutes, I was able to save about $15.00.  It never hurts to ask!

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Shopping

Shopping Around Pays Off

The other night my husband and I went shopping for special devices used for dental hygiene.  The two items we were looking for included a Philips sonicare toothbrush and a Waterpik waterflosser.   These may sound like really weird gadgets, but they are supposed to help promote dental health and we definitely need to be taking better care of our teeth.

We started off by checking out the prices at Zellers.  The waterflosser was $100 and they didn’t have the toothbrush.  Next we went to Superstore, where I expected to find the lowest price for these gadgets.  We discovered that the toothbrush was $100 and they didn’t have the waterflosser.

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Shopping

Is It Worth Your Money? Take The Quiz To Find Out

Do you think it is worth the money to have a lawyer draw up your will?

Do you consider generic prescription drugs to be as effective as the more expensive brand names?

These and other topics are brought up in the Kiplinger.com quiz “Is It Worth It?

To buy or not to buy- that is the question.  There are certain things that are offered to us that may seem like a good idea but later we find out that we wasted a lot of money for nothing.

Before reading any further, I would encourage you to take the short “Is It Worth It?” quiz on Kiplinger.com under the Spending Wisely section.

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