Some of the best insights about shopping smart come from marketers. The trick is to learn their strategies for separating us from our money, and then play defense. That was the focus of a great post on the Get Rich Slowly blog, which reviewed the book, “Why We Buy.” For example, retailers do what they […]
Tag Archives | Shopping
Stay Away From Layaway
Buying “on layaway” is making a comeback. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the Depression-era retail practice of letting shoppers put items away while they pay for them a little at a time is coming back in fashion. Analysts cite our rough economy, which has limited people’s access to credit. Kmart has even made […]
Economizing Now and Forever
In the last issue of this eNewsletter, in an article about changes people are making in response to our tough economy, I asked what changes you’ve made that you believe will be permanent. Among those who wrote, Maria says she’s been taking a bus to work instead of driving. She’s saving money by doing so, […]
The Incredible Shrinking Package
Does it seem as though the packages lining grocery store aisles are getting smaller? They are. It’s a strategy some packaged goods manufacturers are using to pass along their higher costs. Instead of raising the price on a normal sized container, they are shrinking the container but charging what they used to charge for the […]
Changing Our Money Ways
With our tough economy leading people to eat out less often, switch from SUVs to gas sippers, and generally spend less, an MSN columnist recently wondered what would happen if we all suddenly got and stayed money-smart? That is, what if we paid our credit cards in full each month (46 percent of households carry […]
Price Check in Aisle Two
You’re in a store looking at TVs or T-shirts or tea bags. The price looks good, but is it really? The answer may be a quick text message away. As noted in a Real Simple article, send a text message to Google at 466453 (“Google” on most devices), type “price,” and then enter the name […]
Rebates Made Easy
Ever heard of Ebates? I found out about the web site from the blog Gather Little by Little. A quick online registration process gives you access to rebates from hundreds of merchants. The rebates are typically about two to five percent of the purchase price, but can go higher. For items you’re planning to buy […]
Overspend, Overspend-Me-Not
A recent Businessweek.com story mentioned a coupon site I had never heard of before that turns out to be unusually good: RetailMeNot.com. Enter the name of an online store where you’re planning to do some shopping and it’ll give you a coupon code, if available. I figured the site would have coupons for all of […]
Multiplying Your Tax Rebate
With rebate checks soon to start showing up in people’s mailboxes, retailers are eager to see us spend the money in their stores. For a limited time, several are offering to add 10 percent to the value of your tax rebate if you use the full amount to purchase gift cards at their stores. The […]
Price Matching
Savvy shoppers know that many retailers have either formal or informal price-matching policies, so it pays to do some comparison-shopping. For example, at Circuit City, if you find a lower advertised price at another local store, the retailer promises to beat the price by 10 percent of the difference. Or, if you buy something from […]