Are you a bargain shopper? (2024)

I was made fun of by some friends last weekend because I admitted I still clipped coupons and used them on double Coupon Tuesdays at my local supermarket. I don't have a binder for my coupons or anything (like many I see on Tuesday nights,) but I do have a little envelope in which I keep them. I read the weekly circulars, and plan meals around what is on sale. Whenever I go in a clothing store, I look for the clearance rack first.

I make pretty good money. I don't HAVE to get excited because Two Good yogurt is on sale AND I have a BOGO coupon, but I do. It's exciting to get Gucci loafers for about the price of Bass Weejuns after they have been marked down three times at the outlet.

It's the thrill of the kill. It must be what hunting is like.

Anyone else?

What has been your best bargain? What is the shopping head mounted on your wall?

My best bargain was at a TJ Maxx 20-plus years ago when I saw, sat in, and then made my husband go to the registers with my charge card to tell them the real Herman Miller Eames chair was ours. There were some scratches on the back of the plywood shell. The back of the chair faces the wall and the scratches don't look so bad anyway since I evened out the color. It cost $599 when retail was about $3400. I found the matching ottoman later on eBay for $150.

Nowadays the set costs about $7000.

[quote]Are you a bargain shopper?

Absolutely. It's the thrill of the hunt.

My income goes up and down a lot, so I save a couple bucks whenever I can.

I read the circulars and if there are coupons I use them. I check ALL discounts attached to my Chase credit cards and use them all the time. Why pay more if you can easily pay less?

I use coupons, but they're almost all on my supermarket app now. Also check the expiring bread shelf (if I can get a loaf of La Brea Bakery five-cheese bread for $3, I'm happy). I got a pound of ground bison that was cheaper than a pound of ground beef recently.

But my specialty is holding quite a few credit cards and being aware which one gives 5x the points back in any given quarter on supermarkets, gas stations, etc. Just by doing this, I haven't paid for a flight in years.

[quote] I was made fun of by some friends last weekend because I admitted I still clipped coupons and used them on double Coupon Tuesdays at my local supermarket.

OP, were your friends mean about it, or just gently teasing you? IMO, it's nobody's business if you want to be a bargain shopper -- IF you're not inconveniencing another person.

I had a friend who has "memberships" to all these different stores. When she and I would go shopping together, it would sometimes take forever to pay for something. She was always trying to take advantage of some type of bargain involving buying 3X of something and spending more than $XX to get 15% off. It just seemed pointless, to me. We were at Macy's once and it was mind-numbing.

Are there any more deals anymore? Feels like everything is over-priced, second-hand stores are culled for all the good stuff before it hits the floor, and if you do see something well-priced, the construction and quality is lacking.

Even 'on-sale' items were marked up 6-8 weeks prior only to be reduced.

That being said - Aldi always feels like a steal. Can't get everything there, but 80% of it is very good and the prices can not be beat.

[quote] I’m the opposite, I’ll gladly pay an extra dollar if it’s in a smaller and less chaotic store.

I used to live in the vicinity of two supermarkets (from the same chain).

One was maybe a mile down the street and had an inner city feel to it. Just the parking lot was unpleasant.

The other one was four miles away. This one was in a neighborhood with lots of older people plus more affluent people. I used to drive the extra miles to go to this store.

[quote]do you pay annual fees for any of your cards?

Yes:

Chase Sapphire Reserve, $500. But you get $300 back in travel credits and you earn 3% on all dining and travel purchases. It also comes with full travel and rental car insurance and doubles the warranty on expensive purchases (I dropped and broke a new iPhone and the card got me a new one for free). Maybe not worth it if you don't travel and dine a lot.

Chase Freedom, $0. 1.5% back on all charges.

Two Southwest cards, each with a small annual fee. But you get annual points that more than cover the cost of the card, and one of them entitles you to four free upgraded boardings per year.

Each card has 5% bonus on various categories throughout the year, and I'm diligent about using the right card in the right place. Last winter I got a free flight and five free nights in a hotel just by using points I'd earned at gas stations, grocery stores, etc.

Of course, none of this is worth it if you carry a balance. I pay off each card in full every month.

OP Here.

My friends are the best. They "Make fun" of me in a way that only people you have known for 20 years or more can do. Having a little envelope of coupons in my glove compartment at all times deserves some kind of retort.

Even though I know it was all bullsh*t, that "Extreme Couponing" show spoke to me on a deep level. Bringing home 100 jugs of Tide for $3,00? An unattainable dream. (I'm kidding. Somewhat.)

Aldi is great for a lot of things. Their cheese selection is impressive and cheap.

There is a store called "The Sharp Shopper" about 45 minutes from me. It is, as described above, a discount market mostly used by the Amish. I keep myself to going only once every two months because I tend to go a little nuts. Last time I got 10 cauliflower crust pizzas (Tattooed Chef?) for $10. Luckily, my neighbor has a chest freezer in his garage he lets me use. The other amazing thing there is discontinued things. They had cases (CASES) of Diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale with Lemonade (no longer available in stores) for $7.00. I don't remember how much I bought, but I still have a case left in the basem*nt. I'll miss it when its gone.

When we flew on the Concorde, we met the ultimate bargain shoppers. The guys across the aisle from us were chatty and told us how they'd paid for their tickets: with Eggos.

Apparently Kellogg's (who make Eggos) had an air miles offer so if you tore enough certificates off enough boxes of Kellogg's products (in their case frozen waffles) you'd accumulate enough miles to fly on the Concorde. They lived in Houston and said tearing the certificates off the boxes wasn't the hardest part: it was getting the quickly defrosting waffles to homeless shelters and kitchens before they thawed out. They said they'd spent about $3000 on the Eggos which was, of course, a lot less than the $14k the tickets cost.

[quote](retired; excellent pension; net worth> $3 mil)

Sure, Jan

Yes and no. In everyday shopping for food and disposable household things, no. There's a good department store with a great grocery store in the basem*nt that I visit probably once a week. They have monthly(?) promotions of 3 items for the price of 2, and once a year(?) the same but 2 for the price of 1 offerings. If I stumble across something like that I will stock up a bit. I might look at the sale items in a store if I'm there, but I never think to go for a sale.

I buy art and antiques and there I'm a bargain hunter because I have to be: my taste level is usually far, sometimes very far above my budget so I'm happy to take advantage of miscatalogued things at auction, an unattributed painting that I can identify, or find the odd thing that an otherwise knowledgeable dealer missed, in general to apply patience and buy well when there's a lightning strike of opportunity.

Yes for the things I love and can barely afford, and generally no for everyday consumable goods.

I use digital coupons at supermarket, buy on sale and BOGO items only.

I check a site that publishes "sneak peak" of NEXT WEEK's supermarket sale flyer to make sure I'm not buying something this week that will be on sale or BOGO next week. There are various sites that offer "sneak peek" of upcoming sales flyers of most supermarkets and drugstores.

R31 yes that's my jam. I over spend on useless collections that bring me pleasure of the mind and senses.

I recently built a fragrance collection and it was great fun hunting down fragrances for much below their current generally perceived value. Next year I'm going to start selling some. Some vintage and discontinued fragrances become "hot" for a couple years on the resale market but then cool down. A bottle of vintage Dior Jules for example can fetch 300-600 bucks.

[quote] Yes for the things I love and can barely afford, and generally no for everyday consumable goods.

You're doing the opposite of what, IMO, you should be doing. Just because you have a store near you doesn't mean that store will always have what you want, in stock. Also, there may come a day when you have difficulty even getting to a store and it would be nice to have a small stock of consumables at home.

Spending money on things you can barely afford ... put that money into a 6-month emergency fund.

All of this penny pinching is really silly if you are blowing money on things you can't really afford and if you have no emergency fund.

[r30] I was joking about the Tide. I do buy the gigantic one with the spout when it goes on sale, and then I use a coupon on top of it.

I probably could store 100 bottles of it though. I have a big unfinished basem*nt with plenty of storage space.

And the soda hasn't gone bad yet. When it does, I'll toss it. It certainly wasn't a huge expense.

My coworker, an attorney, showed me the bottom part of his store receipt. He wanted to show me the amount of money that he "saved" with coupons.

I said, "Where's the top part of this receipt? I want to see what you got. If it's Gatorade and stuff like that, I don't see the value."

He wouldn't show me the top part of his receipt.

[quote] I don't have a tux, am retired and will ever need a tux again.

You can just go with the jacket and black fishnets and pumps, r44.

My neighbor and friend, Linda, uses my freezer to store all the bargain frozen foods she gets, so I know how well she does. She's notorious and admired in our local supermarket and is famous for getting rain checks for bargain items that are out of stock (even if she wasn't going to buy the item in the first place). She often gets the manager to sign the rain check, so when she tries to redeem it a year later, the clerks don't balk. Often, when she goes to checkout, the other clerks will watch to see how well she does with the savings. Sometimes they applaud. Once, a clerk questioned her on all the multiple coupons and rain checks and called the manager over. As he walked to the checkout counter, he saw who it was and shouted, "Oh, it's Linda. Give her what she wants!" and walked away.

She goes shopping every day and often calls me when she finds something that she knows I use and bus it for me, so she's my friend with benefits.

[quote]You're doing the opposite of what, IMO, you should be doing. Just because you have a store near you doesn't mean that store will always have what you want, in stock. Also, there may come a day when you have difficulty even getting to a store and it would be nice to have a small stock of consumables at home.

[quote]Spending money on things you can barely afford ... put that money into a 6-month emergency fund.

R35, my situation isn't so bad as I painted or as you interpreted. There are four grocery stores within two blocks of my house; there's really no need to lay in supplies (even during COVID there were no shortages) and most people do a little shopping every day or two. And every store delivers, for free. I mentioned another grocery store that is the only one that that has organized sales.

When I said I watch for opportunities in art and antiques because my taste exceeds my wallet, it doesn't mean I can't afford food, or don't have savings, or don't own property, or don't have retirement funds, or have to worry about cash should an emergency arise. What I meant is that I can't easily afford spending many thousands on a chair or a painting every time I see a good one, but I know the market for these things very well and can, now and then, find the 10,000 chair for 1000, or the painting worth 10,000 or 25,000 for 900 or 1600.

I haven't seen a BOGO grocery-offering in four years! Best we can hope for is "buy one, get second at half price," and even those are few and far between.

There are no bargains to be found. I loved thrifting, but even that has lost its appeal.

[quote} (even during COVID there were no shortages) and most people do a little shopping every day or two.

I guess you lived in a magic kingdom that had no shortages during Covid. And no, most people don't do a little shopping every day or two, esp. people who work full-time.

r55, you need to head South for BOGOs.

Publix and Winn Dixie have tons of BOGOs every week on popular items.

R55: My local Ralphs (Kroger) has a BOGO sale on fresh chicken every few months. I'm not sure of the interval (except late October/early November when they need to make space for turkeys), so I just keep my eyes peeled when I'm in there & check their website, periodically (sale usually lasts a week).

I make my dogs' food with chicken, so I go through a lot of chicken. When I see that BOGO, I go to town, buying as many whole chickens and/or thighs/picnic packs (which are the cheapest per pound) as will fit in my freezer.