My husband, like most people, doesn't really understand the transformation that happens when I walk in to the store to shop. If you shop the way stores want you to shop, you lose. I play to win, and make no mistake, shopping is a game of strategy.
I shop in one of two ways. For the moment, I'm going to talk about strategic shopping.
When I walk in to the store, I have already viewed the ad online, looked for deals, matched some pretty good prices with my coupons, and have a stack of coupons sorted out and ready to go. I may have sub-stacks for a particular store, lets say they're running a Pillsbury deal and deal on General Mills Cereal. I'll have a Pillsbury stack, a GM stack, and a stack of assorted other good deals for that store. I call it my hot list. There are always unadvertised deals, and I bring my coupons along with me just in case I find some, but my hot list is my game plan. Some people write down what they intend to get. The stores near me where I can get the best deals also have the most restrictive coupon policies. If I can only double 20 coupons per day, and only use 3 identical coupons, a list isn't really necessary to keep me on track. At most my hot list has 50 coupons, and most of those are multiples, so really I have several copies of 15-25 coupons. That's not so many that I can't keep track, especially since I have them in my hand. I keep them together with a binder clip. I come with an extra binder clip, and as I put things in my cart I move the coupons from the hot list, or my binder, into the other clip so that when I get to the register everything is ready to go. I have a mesh pouch in my new binder, and I may start using that to hold coupons to give the cashier, but I haven't tried that yet.
Now, most weeks, I don't do a big strategic shop. I'll walk in to the drug store with my hot list of 2-5 items that are free this week just about every week, but as far as going to the grocery store I go every 2-4 weeks and do a big strategic shop. The notable exception to this is Super Doubles, but that's a whole other post.
If I haven't been in a store in a while, we do run out of milk so I'll head in for some. If there are other things we need, I'll check who has a good price on it, but I'm not going to waste a half a gallon of gas to save 10 cents on a gallon of milk and 20 cents on bread when that's really all we need. I actually enjoy my casual shopping trips because I don't have to put my game face on so much. I don't buy a lot of high priced stuff, but if I see a good deal I'll grab it. Most importantly, I don't have to worry about breaking my concentration searching the store for coupons. The stores closest to my home tend to have lower regular prices on a lot of things, and a fair number of better coupons than the higher priced stores. I can take the coupons I pick up in one store and use them in the other. In addition to grabbing bread and milk, I'll do a coupon safari. The more good coupons I find, the better my trip to the higher priced store will be later.
And yes, I do almost all of my strategic shopping at the higher priced stores. Why? Because they offer better sale prices. If you have the discipline and only grab the best deals at higher priced stores, you can save a ton. By putting your game face on, buying only the loss leaders and getting out you win. Loss leaders are the store's way of inticing you in the door. Once you're there, they are betting you're just going to buy all your normal groceries, and they'll make up the loss on the loss leader when you buy other regularly priced items. Don't let them win.
Now, if all you need to grab after you get the loss leaders is something small, it's up to you whether the gas to get somewhere that sells it for less is worth it. I have my own mental list of prices that, no matter the sale that inticed me in the door, I just will not pay more than. I don't care that I have a cart full of freebies, I'm not paying $5 for a gallon of milk, not when I can go a tenth of a mile out of my way on the ride home and pick it up for around $3.
Play to win. Be prepared. Have a plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment