Really Great Deals

One of my favourite things to do is find good bargains. Yesterday I went to town armed with coupons and a list a mile long of items I needed to buy. I was able to find what I needed, and a few more fun items, and still keep my expenses to a reasonable price. Here's a brief breakdown of the best bargains I found.

jcpenney is now my favourite store to buy clothes. While a little higher in price than Ross, it has more choices and some really great clearance racks. I signed up for their email list and got a $10 off a purchase of $50 or more. I went in on a day when they were having a storewide clearance of 15% additional discount, used my coupon, and only bought items that were already marked half off or more. I also returned a pair of pants I'd bought a week ago but hadn't worn yet, and re-bought them at the cheaper price.

World Market is a great place to buy foods from different countries, particularly for the TCK who has traveled the world, or so it seems! When I'm hungry for pickles, shortbread, licorice, or marzipan, this is the place where I can go to find what I need for a fairly reasonable price. I signed up for their email list and they sent me a $10 off $10 purchase or more for my birthday!

Payless has some really good sales called BOGO where you can buy one pair of shoes (or handbag or socks) and get the second item half off. They also honour AAA memberships, and I signed up for the AAA text alerts for weekly deals. They sent me a coupon for 20% off a regular priced item; normally you can use your card and get 10% off any item in the store.

Grocery Outlet is a favourite of many of my friends, mainly because you can get some really good organic deals here. I love it when they have wholesoy yogurt or sprouted hamburger buns, and I always keep an eye open for healthy snacks. I even picked up several bags of Dutch spice cookies once for a really great steal!

There are many other great deals out there, if you keep your eyes open. At the end of my shopping trip, I paid $125.71 for items retailing at $317.94, which is a savings of 61%! I also returned a number of items that I had bought and decided I didn't need after all (or like a pair of shoes that didn't fit properly), which means I'll end up paying just over $20 after all the returns are credited back to my account.

Now this isn't a typical shopping trip, because I don't often return a whole bunch of things. What is typical, though, is looking for really great bargains. Using coupons (only if you were already planning to buy at that store), buying items on sale, and signing up for the loyalty programs are some of the best ways to save money.