Saving On The Essentials
When planning a family budget, one must take into account the “little things” that you are always going to need…and therefore always running out of. Things such as soap, shampoo, toilet paper, laundry detergent, dish soap, and the like are necessities that always have to be considered.
To avoid running out of these essentials, buy the items in bulk as you are able to. Be sure and check the unit price if you are buying a large container of something to make sure it is really the better deal. This will save you extra trips to the store, and as a general rule, the more you buy the more you save.
Rather than spending top dollar at a grocery or convenience store, go to a dollar store for these items. Often you can buy the dollar store brand of a certain item for much less than the name brand. If you do insist on using a name brand, many dollar stores offer these as well. They are more expensive than the dollar store brand, however they are cheaper than a grocery store.
You also might consider making your own soaps and detergents. A simple laundry soap can be made from sodium carbonate (not to be confused with sodium BIcarbonate, or baking soda) sodium borate, or Borax and a gentle soap. One third of a bar of soap to one half cup each of the other two will create a very inexpensive and effective laundry detergent that costs less than half of what you would pay in a store.
With a few steps and some planning, you can avoid spending more than you have to on those “little things”.
By Angela Sangster, SaveMoneySpot 2010
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Discount Holiday Items
I was out shopping this morning, and I noticed that many of the Easter items were still on the shelves. I went right to them..because I know they are going to have up to 75% taken off of the original price! Sure, I won’t be able to use them until next year..but next year, they will be there, and I won’t be running around at the last minute, and paying full price.
This is something my family has done for as long as I can remember. Every year in the week after Christmas, my grandmother was snatching up Christmas decorations and holiday knickknacks, paying literally pennies for them.
Halloween is another good holiday to do this…check any of the stores the day after Halloween and you can find all the little creepies and crawlies you will need for next year’s Halloween party.
When the stores order these items for the holidays, they are often stuck with a surplus of holiday decor that they still need to sell. Since they are desperate to get rid of it, the prices are slashed up to 75% of what it cost originally. Not only will you get some of that pesky holiday shopping done and out of the way for the following year, you will be paying less than half of what you would have had to if you’d waited.
Now if I can only find a place to put a giant stuffed Easter rabbit and seventy five plastic eggs…….
By Angela Sangster Copyright SaveMoneySpot 2010.
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Cheaper Alternative to Local Wal*Mart
Recently my wife and I needed to purchase a portable crib bed for our baby daughter. We decided that we would look at what our local Wal*Mart had to choose from and get an idea of the price ranges. Later that night we started looking around online and making comparisons. After a few searches we ended up on Wal*Mart’s site and quickly noticed that the prices were quite different than they were in the stores!
Not only were the prices lower on a lot of models, they also had more to choose from. We decided upon one that was nearly identical to one we had looked at while in the local super center (actually it was a little better) and it was nearly $30 cheaper when you got it through the website! When you have a new baby in the house that kind of savings can really help out.
Since then we have bought several things from the Wal*Mart site. On items that retail for $40 or higher (just an estimate) you can nearly always save money. It’s a really cool way to send a gift too. Just tell the recipient to pick it up at “Wally world”.
If you are looking to buy something like a camera or other higher priced item and you are considering getting it at Wal*Mart you should check their website first. The downside is that you have to wait a week or so for your order to be delivered. It is delivered to a Wal*Mart of your choosing and can generally be picked up in the Lay-away department. So unless you need that printer, television, DVD player, etc quick check online first to see how much you can save.
Believe it or not I am not associated with Wal*Mart, nor are we being paid a dime to tell you this. This is just some straight up information to help folks get a little more for their money. I havent personally tried this with other stores but I am sure you could get similar savings there as well.
Written by D Slone, Copyright 2010 SaveMoneySpot.com
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