Young and Frugal

I love a good deal, in fact I love a good deal so much that I have bought just about everyone I have come across.  Hard Drives, RAM, flash drives, shoes, sports equipment, you name it, if it’s a deal, I buy it.  In college, I bought deals to the tune of about $5,000 in credit card debt by the time I graduated, after all who can refuse a 400 gig Hard Drive for $100 (2 years ago)?  Did I need these things?  No.  In fact I ended up giving some of it to friends when I moved cross-country.  Is buying something because it’s a deal stupid?  Yes, but by running up my credit card bill I learned a great deal about deals.

• The internet is a bargain hunter’s best friend.  There are literally hundreds of deal websites out there.  My two favorite forums are fatwallet and slickdeals , these websites contain tons of great deals on everything from shoes to plasma TV’s.  They also contain tricks and tips for getting deals and negotiating on larger purchases.  I got Mary hooked, and now she does research on these sites before she makes purchases.  Also check out Dealcoupon for up to date coupon codes.

• A sale is not necessarily a deal.  Trust me, I work for a retail corporation.  Just because something is marked as a sale, or is on “clearance” does not mean it’s a good deal, it’s marketing.  Ever notice how certain department stores have the “biggest sale of the year” every Saturday?  Sure, sometimes things on clearance are a great deal, especially in the back corners of Home Depot or Lowes, but some of the time you can find a better deal by going online and researching.

•  Coupons Coupons Coupons!  So you’ve researched online and you weren’t able to find a better deal, but you were able to find a website that has it for the same price.  I’d be willing to bet that there is a coupon that will save you at least 10%, whether it be a free shipping coupon (combined with no tax online it’s a huge bonus), x% off, or a free gift with purchase (Office Depot is notorious for these), you can find a way to make a deal work in your advantage.

• Price Matching.  Did you know that many stores have best price guarantees?  For instance, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, Home Depot, Lowes, Staples, and a great deal of other stores will price match to another store.  Some of these stores even promise to beat their competitors prices by 10% of the difference in price (not 10% less than their competitor).  Say that Home Depot is having a sale on a refrigerator for $999 and Sears sells the same model for $1199.  In this case, Sears would give you the better deal even though it’s not on sale:

Sears Price:                  $1199

Home Depot Price:       $999

Difference:                     $200

Sears Pricematch:         $999

10% of Difference:          $20

New Sears Price:           $979

That may be the easiest $20 you ever made, just make sure you have a clear understanding of the price match policy and the store associates should help you out with no issues.  But that’s not all; because you are now buying at Sears and not Home Depot, they may be having a 10% cash rebate (as they do now).  So if you go this route, you end up saving another $98.  Allowing you to save $118 total, for maybe 20-30 minutes of work.                       

*Warning, many stores will also offer additional discounts if you pay with their store card, this can be a great tool, but it can also be a dangerous game for people who have trouble controlling their spending habits.  Please be responsible, and if you are in over your head with debt, a discount from a retailer for using a credit card will most likely cost you more in interest than you will save in your discount.

• Check Store Credibility.  Many deals you will find online seem too good to be true.  If you find a great deal on a website you have never heard of, it would be best to check out the stores credibility before you hand over all of your personal information.  The best resource I know of for this is Reseller Ratings.  This site is filled with tons of valuable information and has a section dedicated to giving online store ratings.  So you can type in the store name and read up on them.  If they are not on this website, chances are they are not an honest retailer.

• Stack ‘em up! What happens when you combine a price match with a coupon (or several)?  I can only describe it as finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  It can work, but it really depends on their price matching policy, the fine print on the coupon, and the competence of the salesman.  Most coupons and price match policy’s say that they can’t be combined with other offers, but occasionally it can be done (it never hurts to ask!).

• Bundle.  From my experience, this mainly works at big box electronics stores.  Most managers at Best Buy or Circuit City are thrilled to throw together a bundle of big ticket items at a discount for you, especially if you buy one of their coveted service plans that they want you to buy.  Margins are slim on big ticket items like TV’s, but they can discount stereos, cables,* and installation services because the markup is much more, therefore to help seal the deal, many times they will personalize a bundle for you.  My brother bought a 55” DLP, Receiver, Speakers, and Cables, and saved over $500 on all of it.  It is best to avoid peak times when attempting this.  (NOTE: I never recommend buying the cables from the stores.  You can purchase the same quality online for a fraction of the price at Monoprice.)

• Be nice to the person.  They are just trying to earn a buck, and many times they are still in high school.  The best way to get a deal is to treat the sales person with respect, call them by their name, and don’t be pushy.  Most of all, if you are trying to stack, and it clearly states that the coupons aren’t valid with other offers, don’t push it.

• Be Ethical.  There are many ways to try and get deals from stores, some of which are ethical (what I posted), and some of which are not.  Please be ethical, don’t lie to try and save yourself a few bucks.  Karma is very real.

Now that you know some of the tricks, it’s important to determine what defines a “deal.”  For me, deal is getting a better price than what the seller is asking, or getting additional things thrown in.  When Mary bought a swimsuit online recently, she searched a found 2 other coupon codes that she could use.  She got free shipping, and she got a free bathrobe and slippers, that we in turn gave as a Christmas present.  Plus because she bought online she did not have to pay tax (this varies by store).

Mary and I grew up without ever having to see our parents struggle, and growing up like this, we never worried about price, and to an extent we didn’t understand the value of money.  In college if we wanted Starbucks, we would go and pay $4.00 whenever we “needed” one.  If we wanted to order take-out, or go out to dinner, or when Mary “needed” to shop (we did live in Los Angeles) it was no issue, because our parents were paying for it in the end.  Sure we both had jobs, I had internships all the way through school (most of which were paid), and Mary babysat for extra money, but we knew we always had a safety net in our parents.  

Now that we are truly independent (sans cell phones because it’s cheaper than paying $250 to break contract), in anticipation of our house payment, we have already begun to make sacrifices, and are living more frugal than we ever have. 

After tracking our spending for a few months we made some drastic changes to the way we live, and continued what we were already doing well… below are some examples. 

We carpool.  Sure we have two cars, but we both work at the same place so why not?  After all, we currently live more than 30 miles away from work, so it really does save us a great deal of money and we alternate by week which car we take to regulate mileage. 

We changed our routes.  We were taking about $4.00 worth of Toll Roads to and from work, costing us over $120 per month in tolls alone!  And even this route was taking us an hour to get to work.  We changed routes when an HOV lane opened on our non-toll route, and now it only takes us 30 minutes to get to work without tolls! 

We cut our Satellite package.  We were paying about $65/month for TV.  Now we are paying about $40/month, and we don’t miss the extras!  This expense will go away with the new house because cable will be included in our HOA dues. 

We Take Lunch to Work.  This alone has probably saved us at least $300/month.  It seems absurd, but when you add it up ($10 per person per day) it definitely is an expense!  Even if we are lazy and take a Lean Cuisine, it saves us money, because the frozen meal is only $2.50, vs. $5-10 for lunch. 

We Stay Fit and Eat Healthy.  This may seem minimal to most people, but we consider it an investment in our future and it’s been proven that when you are in shape you spend less on medical bills.  For instance, when I was on the high school swim team, it improved my breathing and my lung capacity by over 200%.  I used to have severe asthma, now my asthma is under control and much better.  Now there is a company gym available to us for only $10/month, and we will have a community gym in the new neighborhood that is paid for by the HOA dues. 

We Cook Our Own Meals.  Mary is a fantastic cook, and I dabble, but since cutting down how much we go out to eat we have saved well over $200/month.  And most importantly we have found that experimenting to see what we can accomplish in the kitchen is much more fun than a night in a restaurant.  We even bake our own bread once a week.  We haven’t starting inviting people over yet, but I have a feeling it would be a great double date to have another couple helping in the kitchen! 

We Shop at the Dollar Store.  I’ve been made fun of for this, but in all sincerity, try it out.  Mary and I buy all of our cleaning supplies, toiletries, and paper products at the dollar store.  And while we don’t often need these supplies, we have probably saved over 50% on each visit, and we get the exact same stuff we would have gotten elsewhere! 

I haggle.  Mary frequently will jab me or apologize to the other person out of embarrassment; but it works.  It doesn’t work all the time, not even most of the time, but every once and a while someone will hook me up! I never push someone for a better price or a discount (large purchases excluded), but I always ask.  Frequently enough the cashier will give me 10% off.  After my brother saw me haggling he decided to try it, and he ended up getting 10% off an already discounted grill because he asked the Cashier! 

These are just a few examples, and as you can see we’ve already cut our spending by over $500 per month.  I’d also like to hear about what some of you do to save money, so please leave some suggestions in the comments!

-Daniel