This was a great reminder from Amy today:
I love a good bargain. When I enter a store, any store, I delight in discovering All Things CLEARANCE.
When we lived in the city and I had access to All of The Stores, I was a bargain shopper extraordinaire, hitting all the sales. Frequently. I did lots of shopping, but spent very little money (on each individual item). That money spent, though? It added up, and I had not much more than lots of stuff to show for it. Some of it useful. Some of it even needed or highly desired. But a lot of it ended up being just clearanced stuff.
My fetish for the frugal find found me scoping garage sales every Saturday morning, and I’d also frequently browse through and order items from clearance catalogs. When the items arrived they might not be exactly what I’d hoped for, or wouldn’t fit just right, or *gasp* looked better on the catalog model than on me. But I wouldn’t send the order back, because paying for shipping would be more than my refund! My stuff collection grew…
Read the full post here.
Jennifer says
It’s not a bargain if you don’t need it AND you don’t have room in the budget for it.
Mimi says
I always stock up on other kids birthday party when my kids get invited. It saves me a boatload of money because why would you want to spend more than $2 bucks on someone else’s kids if they just going to toss that toy later?
Victoria says
Guilty! I am getting better, but I still mess up often in this area. Those red flagged end caps call my name.
Jessica says
Guilty (hangs head in shame).
I’m learning, though. I have quit playing the drugstore game, because there aren’t deals for the things we do use, and the “freebies” are not things we’d use, and I just don’t want to spend the time chasing deals that don’t benefit my family. I used to be heavily in to it such that the cashiers would ask about my kids and knew me by name.
I don’t shop as much at thrift stores, either. I have a list of what I need for each child’s clothes and when I satisfy those needs, I stop shopping.
Doing so has reduced time spent running around, gasoline use, wear and tear, and gives me more time to work on income-generating things like the freelance writing I do. I also have more time with my family and for my hobbies. There is also the benefit of less wastage in terms of having a closet full of products that fall out when you open the door, you can’t find what you need, things that expire, and so forth. My home is much more organized and less cluttered!
Bobbi says
This is hard for me to remember, but so important! I spent a lot of time this summer looking for things we need for our next baby (diapers, clothes, etc.) and things I wanted to stock up on so we could save some money later on, but our closets are pretty full now and I have a lot less time for scoping out deals. I’m sure there will be things we end up paying full price for, like a pkg. of diapers when we run out of that size or some sort of toiletry I didn’t realize we were low on, but we need to not buy stuff just because it is cheap/clearance if I’m not sure we will need/use it, especially clothing since this is our second girl! (o:
Staci says
only buy what you need or can consume. It’s simply that simple. You waste time–shopping, sorting, and storage.
Julie C says
All those freebies are not so free when the taxes on all of them add up–especially if you don’t need them.