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Sales and holiday shopping, coupons and cash back, gifts, clothing, household supplies, and warranties. Buy at the right time and at the right price.
Before you pay extra for a name-brand pain reliever or allergy pill, turn both boxes over and compare the Drug Facts labels. If the active ingredient and the milligrams listed beside it match, the store brand does the same job for less. Buy it, unless you react to a specific dye or filler.
Pay a store card’s balance in full by the first due date, and its checkout discount is yours to keep. If you’d carry the purchase instead, a year of interest at the card’s rate, often above 30%, can cost as much as the discount saves. That’s still cheaper than carrying it on a typical credit card.
Check your credit card’s guide to benefits before you pay for a store’s extended warranty. Many cards add a year to the manufacturer’s warranty at no extra cost on items bought with the card, so the store’s plan can duplicate coverage you already have. Keep the receipt and warranty in case the item breaks.
Turn down the extended warranty, or protection plan, at checkout, unless a breakdown you couldn’t afford is likely. Stores keep at least half of every dollar spent on these plans, so on average, less than half of what buyers pay comes back as repairs. Put the plan’s price into your savings instead, and it stays yours when nothing breaks.
Before you grab the family size or the sale item, check the unit price on the shelf tag, which gives the cost per ounce, count, or sheet. It’s the only fair way to compare packages of different sizes, and when both tags use the same unit, it shows in seconds whether the bigger or discounted package costs less.
Most big-ticket items, like TVs and mattresses, follow the same sale calendar every year, but new cars no longer do. If your purchase can wait a few months, write down the exact model and today’s price now, then buy in its category’s sale window instead of the week you start wanting it.
If your grocery store’s free app carries digital coupons, they come off at the register only if they’re loaded to your account before checkout. Spend five minutes before each trip clipping every offer on your list, add any rebates a cash back app offers, and pay with a card that earns extra at that store.
A sale tag shows the discount the store claims, not whether the price is actually low. Before you buy anything pricey on sale, look up its price history and compare today’s price with the lowest it hit in recent months. If it isn’t close to that low, set a price alert and wait.
Before you buy online, click through a cash back shopping portal to the store you already planned to use. The store pays the portal a referral commission, and the portal passes part of it to you, on top of your card rewards. Use it only for purchases you would make anyway.
When you want something you didn’t plan to buy and don’t need, put it in your cart and wait 24 hours, or longer for a big purchase. The 24-hour rule lets the rush of the moment fade, so tomorrow you judge the item itself. If you still want it at that price, buy it.
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