America is a paradise for thrifty people. I was convinced from my own experience, which I hasten to share.
Sales and discounts

All kinds of sales and discounts are part of the American way of life. Moreover, sooner or later, literally everything on the shelves is sold at a reduced price, and this does not mean that the shelf life is coming to an end.

Often the discounts are so great that things can be bought for mere pennies. You ask: how to find out about it? There is no secret. Before going shopping, all you have to do is look at the websites of your favorite stores and see what they are selling and what discounts they offer on goods, as well as monitor information about promotions, sweepstakes and loyalty programs. By subscribing to the newsletter, in the future you can receive notifications about upcoming promotions by e-mail or phone.

Let’s take Target retail chain as an example. We go to their website and in the Top Deals section we immediately see what is on sale at a discount.

And in the Clearance section, you can see what the store offers for sale.

But if there is no opportunity to study the situation in advance (or simply too lazy), information about promotions and discount shelves can be found right in the store.

By the way, shopping is best in the middle of the week and at the end of the month.

Shopping in stores where “everything is for the dollar”

These are quite branched chain stores, in which many products from the category of cleaning and detergents, napkins, candles and other little things are sold at a bargain price.

For example: a pack of napkins (160 pieces) in Dollar Tree costs $ 1, and in Walmart – $ 1.5; Detergent Tide in the “Dollar Tree” sells for $ 1, and in the same Walmart or Target – for $ 2.5. I’m not talking about other stores – their prices are much higher than those mentioned.

Also, do not disdain second hand: there you can find materials for needlework, work clothes, rare things and other usefulness for a penny.

By transferring part of your purchases to such places, you can significantly save money.

Advertisements on the Internet

Among the helpers of the thrifty shopper are classified classified sites. The most popular is the free classifieds service Craigslist.org.

On this resource you can find a lot of interesting and useful things (work, community), buy something you need or get it for free. (Many people give away things they don’t need just so that they don’t take up space in the house.)

I’ll tell you how we bought a temporary desktop for a schoolchild. There was no new money at that moment, and my husband and I turned to the ad service. We looked at several offers and found an office computer desk in excellent condition for only $ 25. Agree, real savings – a new one would cost us about $ 120.

If you have accumulated unnecessary “values” (as, for example, we have a punching bag and an inoperative grill), you can get rid of them through online services and even earn a little: there will always be a person who simply needs these things. As a result, you will get a free pantry and a couple of extra dollars.

Online shopping

The way to make significant savings is to shop online. At the same time, fitting, assessment of quality, color, size and other characteristics can be in a real store, and direct purchase – online, when you are sure that everything fits and you like how it looks live.

An example of such a purchase is a pair of Keen men’s boots. Their price in an offline store is $ 170-180. Going to the corporate website, I bought these shoes for $ 100: the discount and a discount coupon found on the network allowed me to buy high-quality shoes for my son and save a lot.

The best sites for most shopping are amazon.com and ebay.com. Prices there are lower than in offline stores due to the scale and virtuality of trading platforms. However, it is not worth dwelling on them alone – quite often other online stores offer goods at a reduced price.

There is such a trick to everything: you register on the site of the desired store, add the item to the cart and … close the page. Most often, after a few days, a discount coupon or personal discount code will be sent to the mail indicated as the main one. Voila – now you can buy. Of course, it doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a try.

Mobile applications

Mobile applications will also help you save money:

PoachIt searches for goods in other stores by barcode and finds the lowest price;

Fast Mall – a guide to shopping centers;

Groupon offers coupons for the items you want.

This way I saved $ 20 last month.

Very often they provide an additional discount when purchasing using a mobile application. This, in particular, is done by Target. Her Target Cartwheel app works like a barcode scanner. We scan – and, if the item is on sale on that day, the application adds the item to the list. We show the generated barcode at the checkout. Discount – 5-10%: a trifle, but nice.

Cooking and buying food

Despite the temptation to stock up on pre-cut and packaged convenience foods or prepared foods at the supermarket, try preparing your own food. Believe me, it is much more economical. Cheaper meats, vegetables and fruits are not sold in large stores, but in local shops and farmers’ fairs. The goods there are cheaper than in chain supermarkets, and the quality is not worse: farmers value their reputation and are attentive to customers.

In order not to be unfounded, I will give the difference in price when buying eggs. So, a pack of 12 raw eggs costs an average of $ 1.5, while at the farmers’ market – from $ 1 per dozen. The price of cooked in any supermarket is $ 2.5 per package. Agree, there is a significant difference.

However, saving on food concerns not only purchases, but also trips to cafes during lunchtime. If you cook dinner at home and take it with you along with your morning coffee in a thermo mug, after a while you will feel that the weight of your wallet has slightly increased, as it is known: the dollar saves a cent.

Fuel

In America, you can only afford to do without a car in a big city with developed public transport. If you live in a small or medium town or on a farm, then a car is critically necessary for you. At the same time, the correctly chosen place of “feeding” of the “iron friend” will somewhat stabilize your budget.

As practice has shown, a difference of even 10 cents per gallon ultimately saves a substantial amount. For example, at a gas station near my house, fuel costs $ 2.76 per gallon, and after 3 miles it costs $ 2.66. Having driven a little further and refueling cheaper, I save $ 50-60 a month on fuel.

Leisure

Saving does not mean closing yourself off from the whole world and limiting yourself in everything. Yes, an unpleasant necessity, of course, but not a terrible one. Everything is transitory and replaceable. If you change bars and restaurants to parks, beaches, street concerts, free parties and promotional or discount film screenings, then the entertainment will remain, and the money will be intact.

Libraries

American libraries are unique! Upon entering any of them, the familiar image of a reading “botanist” is shattered to smithereens. The audience here is very diverse, of different ages, and in addition to books, you can take audio and video recordings (instead of buying or renting), puzzles, educational games for children, use the free wi-fi network to work, read the news, etc. An alternative option, when there is no time to go to the library, can be sites with a large database of books, audio and video recordings for free download. Examples of such resources are Internet Archive and ManyBooks.

Cashback credit cards

A very convenient thing is a cashback credit card. It differs from a regular credit card in that a certain percentage of the purchase price is returned to the buyer. Carefully study the offers of banks and choose the credit card with the highest percentage of return and the largest list of goods for which this return is carried out.

For those who are not very careful when handling money, I personally recommend paying in cash at the store. This will allow you to allocate a budget for a specific shopping trip (it is better to make a list in advance), compare prices and not go beyond the allotted amount. A credit card, on the other hand, creates a false sense of infinite resources, and the buyer does not follow prices so closely and makes unnecessary purchases more often.

Saving electricity

Here are some simple tips. Replace all bulbs in your home with LED bulbs. Use conditioner less frequently. (It is better to live with open windows, if possible.) For residents of northern states, I recommend installing ceiling fans in the rooms (they do not need a lot of energy), which, by mixing the air, make it slightly warmer and save on heating.

Another real way to save money is to contact the electricity supplier with a request to evenly distribute the payment for its services (for example, $ 50 per month). In summer, electricity is spent less, in winter more, but with the same payments, this will not be felt. Tested in practice!

Please help

Yes, do not be surprised, it is the request for help that often helps in the case when something cannot be simply taken and bought. Write what you need in social networks, and you will see: there will definitely be a person who will be happy to help you.