Frugal Living Tips - Shopping

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to living a frugal life is shopping. Shops abound everywhere you go, the supermarkets give you more rewards as you shop more, and even the products themselves are designed to make you buy more. You are bombarded with ads over the radio, the television, the Internet, the print media and the billboards encouraging you to shop till you drop. And when you have shopped until you can shop no more, they encourage you to shop some more.

So, to have any hope of living frugally, you really must master the shopping tips given below. Many of the tips are actually common sense but it doesn’t hurt to review them and you might just get a new insight on a new way you can save on your shopping.

Branded Goods
Branded goods are a little too expensive for my taste. And if you are adopting a frugal lifestyle, they should definitely be too expensive for your taste too. I mean, it really does not make good economic sense to buy a pair of pants or a handbag that costs hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars when you can get a perfectly good one for a tenth of the price. Everything else would be the same, except for the little logo that tells the whole world that you paid through the nose for that piece of merchandise.

It’s On Sale
How many times have someone told you that they bought a certain item because it is on sale? And they will tell you how much money they have saved due to the massive discount they got. But if you ask them if they were planning to buy the item in the first place, chances are that they will tell you they won’t have bought the item if there was no sale. And no amount of reasoning will convince them that they had actually spent instead of saved money. Maybe they just don’t want to admit that they are wrong.

But sales are not all bad either. If you are in the market for a certain item, and you are willing to wait awhile or shop around, you should probably be able to find a shop in which your item is on sale. Just remember not to use the sale as the sole excuse to buy it.

Coupons
When I’m talking about frugal living and saving money, how can I not talk about coupons? When you go to a store and buy something, they charge you $10. But if you give them a coupon, you get to pay only $9.50. So, when you get coupons in the mail, or somebody hands it to you, don’t just look at it as junk mail. Look at it as free money. Spend a couple of minutes to go through them and set aside those that you can make use of.

Use Cash Or A Debit Card
Unless you are super disciplined, going shopping with a credit card is not a good idea. Bring along cash or get yourself a debit card. A debit card works in exactly the same way as a credit card, but you get to spend only what you have. And remember not to put too much money into the debit card, because we all know what’s going to happen if you do.

Make A List
Every time you go shopping, make a list of things that you want to buy. And I’m not talking just about grocery shopping. Even if you are shopping for clothes, know what you are looking for before you hit the mall. And remember that the purpose of having a list is so that you do not buy more than what you plan to. So, stick to your list, and don’t get sidetracked by every pretty trinket that you see.

Expiring Food Items
A good idea before doing your weekly grocery shopping for food that has an expiry date, like bread and milk, is to check your fridge first. It would be such a waste to buy a week’s supply and return to find that you still have half a week’s supply in the fridge.

Refills
Many commonly used household items comes in its own container complete with a dispenser. Examples would be liquid soap and dish washing liquid. Rather than buy the item along with the container each time you run out, look for the item in a refill pack. That way, you save some money and you do not need to throw away a perfectly good container every time.

Buy More
When you buy more of a certain item, you always get a lower price. So, look around the house for items that you use on a monthly basis, and see if you can buy more of it the next time you go shopping. But be mindful of the expiry date for food items, or you are just going to end up throwing them away.

Second Hand Goods
Second hand goods have a rather bad reputation of being dirty, smelly, germ infested and only good for filling up the trash can. Many second hand goods do merit that reputation but if you take the trouble and look around the second hand stores, you just might be able to get something that is almost new, for a good fraction of the price of a new item.