One thing my grandmother taught me was how to shop, but she failed to mention how to save. It’s not her fault. Saving has changed from the way our mothers and grandmothers used to do it. Today, frugal moms are combining traditional methods with technology. Saving still takes planning and research, but it can also be as quick as opening an app on your phone too. Take a look at our five ways to curve overspending below:
1. Plan your shopping trips. Planning your shopping trips a few days in advance is a great way to avoid overspending and become more organized. A minimum of two days in advance is a great starting point but having a “shopping day” is even better. Setting aside specific days in your calendar for shopping will help you avoid impulse purchases, dining out, and rush shopping.
2. Don’t just plan your grocery shopping. Plan all shopping trips and know where you will be going in advance. This will allow you ample time to gather store coupons and sales information before you go.
3. Make Lists before you shop. Avoid buying what you don’t need by making a list and sticking to it. That means you should also reconsider making clearance purchases that are not on your list. Don’t deviate from the plan unless the savings is greater than 50% off AND it is something you truly will need within a reasonable amount of time. (Example: Buying a 20 inch bike to save for your 9 month old is not a great idea; BUT buying a 20 inch bike that is on sale for 80% off and donating to charity before you take it home is fantastic!)
4. Gather coupons. While planning your store trips, grab your coupons! Did you know Groupon recently launched a free coupons platform called Groupon Coupons? No matter where you shop, Groupon Coupons can help you save money because they have a mix of promo codes for online use and mobile/printable coupons for in-store redemption. That means if you are planning on shopping for new shoes for your daughter, you can quickly grab the coupon before you go! (And if you find yourself in a store you weren’t planning on going to, you can still grab a coupon by using the Groupon Coupons mobile app for iPhone and Android!)
5. Remember to use your coupons! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clipped and prepared only to leave my efforts at home or forget all about them at checkout. Try shopping with a shopping kit; keep your list, coupons, recycled bags, and payment methods in one place. For me, this means I carry a larger diaper bag with me on shopping days. Everything is easily stored together in an organized manner.
New to coupons or looking for a better way to find just the ones you need? Groupon Coupons offers anyone the opportunity to save in an easy way. You don’t even need to signup for an account to do it. Groupon Coupons is a service from Groupon that offers more than 55,000 online and in-store coupons from thousands of top retailers, including Sears, Walgreens, and Nordstrom. Many coupons on Groupon Coupons are exclusive – you won’t find them anywhere else – thanks to Groupon’s partnerships with top national retailers.
I had the opportunity to use Groupon Coupons today for my upcoming shopping trip preparations and it was super easy. First, I searched the database for the store(s) I will be shopping at. I like that this search feature is available in alphabetical order.
Another way to search for coupons is to “Browse by Category”. The following screen shot is my search results for “Pet Supplies”. Once I clicked on the pet supplies category several popular stores showed up in the results. I chose “Calendars.com” because Mom Does Reviews has worked with them recently and I wanted to see what they had to offer for my sweetie, Izzy.
As you can see by the next screen shot photo, Calendars.com currently has twenty-four coupons available. Seven are codes, seventeen are sales, and because they are on online store only, they didn’t offer any printable coupons.
My next search was for “grocery coupons” and I selected Target since they are well known for their printable coupons. Groupon Coupons located eighty-one coupons from Target. Twenty-three of them were in-store/printable coupons.
Stop by Groupon Coupons to see all of the great options they have available. During my browsing, they were happy to show me 69,073 free coupons that were available at 8,854 stores. That is a LOT of coupons! I can’t imagine that many deals in one place!
