Guest Author - Lili Pintea-Reed
While it can be very expensive to get through the holidays -- you can save money by judicious shopping practices. Knowing where the Sales are, and buying only store special sale items can really help out. Often the local paper will have a coupon that matches these "featured items" so you can get additional savings with this early research!
Here are some easy suggestions to follow to help lower you holiday costs.
1) Read the local newspaper or go to you local store's WEB sites and look up the weekly sales. There will be --for certain--- some items on sale to lure you into the store. These are called "loss leaders" in the sale trades.Plan a shopping schedule which allows you time to go from each store with some gas efficiency. You don't want to loose your savings in gas expenses. Better yet --carpool with friends!
2)Go in resist all wishes buy some other items and buy just the 'Loss Leader" items. This might be bags of flour on sale, or holiday candy on discount. Use any coupons that you may have found when researching sales of the week.
3) Check any discount bins and store markdowns while you are there. Many stores mark down perishable items at the end of the week with the section managers to see when and if this store does this. These items can be frozen safely saved for later use.
4) Check the clearance racks. Many items can and do end up here. Check your coupons to see if you can get extra savings!
5) Leave the store without making any additional purchase. Remember the idea of a "great Sale" is to lure you to the store to spend more money! Resist at all costs!
If you follow this procedure you should be able to greatly reduce your holiday costs on grocery items. You should be able to purchase for holiday cooking at a substantially reduced rate. For instance,you could get your turkey or ham on sale and freeze it. You could stock up on discounted sugar and flour for baking needs. Perhaps nuts or chocolate bits will be on sale for you to store for later. If you can stock up ahead, you'll be able to save many $$$$$$ for other things.
