What’s The Best Way To Shop?

I’ve been teaching a lot of people how to save money recently.  I have to say that I love doing it and it is FUN for me.  I get excited!  Who doesn’t get excited when saving money?  Now, one way to really maximize your savings is to use coupons stacked with sales.  If you use a coupon on a regular priced item, you’re not really saving that much money.  In fact, you can probably still buy the store brand for less.  However, if you use your coupon with a sale, you can get the leading brands for less than the store brand!  That’s what I’m talking about!

Since I’ve been sharing my coupon techniques with people, I’ve been getting a lot of static from the non believers.  You know, the one’s who haven’t taken a coupon class yet or say it’s a waste of time.  Ha!  We know they’re crazy right?  But why are they crazy?  I have been told that to use a coupon you have to buy something you normally wouldn’t buy.  Or, why would stores put things on sale if it will make them FREE or make them lose money on it?  I have the answers.

To answer the first question with a question: Are you telling me you don’t bathe with soap?  Or, brush your teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste?  Hum.  Then maybe couponing isn’t what we should be discussing here.  Anyways, there are coupons for something that everyone uses.  If you’re a total heath nut and you refuse to buy anything but fresh and organic food, you can still use coupons!  The biggest part of a budget is usually in the toiletries and household items.  Such as body wash, shampoo, laundry detergent and cleaning supplies.  I’m not going to go into all the ways to save on these items using coupons, you can go to a class or watch one of my videos for that.  I just want everyone to know that coupons are not just for useless items.

Second question.  Why would stores put a product on sale if it will make them lose money?  How can they do that?  This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions.  It’s simple.  These sale items are called loss leaders.  A loss leader is a product that is put on sale below market cost to stimulate other sales.  Check out the picture above.  Here you see that Office Depot has one subject binders on sale for only a penny!  What?!  They are definitely not making any money off of the one subject binders.  But everyone who took a look at that ad has already decided that it’s a good deal and they will be making a trip to Office Depot.  Now, you have to look deeper into the ad to find that you must spend a $5 minimum to get the penny items.  Ah hah!  It’s a marketing strategy.  Most people will still do the penny deal even though they must first purchase a $5 minimum.

Even though this loss leader required a minimum purchase, that’s not always the case.  Take a look at the ad pictured below.  The President Feta Cheese is on sale.  With the sale alone you are already saving $5.39!  That’s a great savings and you’ve only get one thing and haven’t added your coupon yet!  This item is a loss leader.  It’s put on sale to get you into the store.  Since you will be shopping with them to get these great deals, they are hoping you will buy other things that you need that aren’t on sale.  For example maybe a store puts hot dogs on sale, but not the buns.  Well, you have to have buns to go with your hot dogs right?  This is how stores can put such great sales on items every week.  They want to entice you with the loss leaders and then hope that you buy other things that are not such a great deal.  This is where your couponing and savings techniques come in to play.  If you as a couponer only focus on the loss leader items, then you can save tremendously throughout the year.  Yes, some weeks you will grab items that you don’t need to use right away.  But, if it is something that you will use in the next six weeks, then you are being smart and saving money in the long run by purchasing it at its all time low.

Do you have any questions?  Ask them by leaving a comment below.