How to REALLY Save Money, a Practical Guide

It’s a tough economy out there. People are spending less because they have less to spend. But you don’t have to cut back to stretch your dollars. You just need to be a smart consumer.

This guide is made up of a bunch of mostly random tips on how I save money on stuff. It jumps from in-store shopping to online shopping, saving on monthly bills to changing your habits. It’s definitely not complete, and I’ll be adding to it as ideas come to me.

If you don’t see your favorite store listed here, it’s probably because I don’t have any experience shopping there. Sorry!

Sites that will save you money

There are only two. And you only really need one.

Slickdeals.NET & FatWallet.com

These are two of the most important web sites for saving money. Both are web forums, a virtual meeting place of deal mongers. Members share spur of the moment deals and their expertise on how good a deal really is.

You should register an account at one of the two sites. Both of them have keywords email alerts – Slickdeals calls them Deal Alerts, while FatWallet calls them Topic Alerts – that are really useful if you’re looking to buy something specific without a specific timeframe. Get in the habit of checking SD or FW before heading to a store or shopping online.

There are other deal sites, but these two are the biggest, and in the rare occasion that a deal is posted elsewhere, it winds up on these sites anyway.

Saving money at retail stores

Going into a retail store is a game. It’s you versus the store’s marketing department. And since you’re in their territory, they have the upper hand.

The only time I ever really set foot in a retail store is when I’m specifically looking for something. Groceries, tennis balls, pants, whatever. Otherwise, if you go into a store just to shop, there’s a good chance you’ll walk out of there with something.

Banana Republic, GAP, and Old Navy stores. Signing up for the newsletter gives you access to some very nice coupons/coupon codes (see online section), and some rare mystery coupons which are basically free money, good online and in-store.

Bed Bath and Beyond is a funny store. Not because half of the store is plastered in AS SEEN ON TV! signs, but because everything there is marked up like crazy. I guess this is because you’re supposed to use the 20% coupons that they send out everywhere. But there are two other coupons that get sent out, depending on where you live: $5 off $15 and $10 off $30 coupons. My area gets the $5 off ones, and I believe California gets the $10 ones (not sure about other areas, like the Midwest). Even if your total is under by a couple of cents, cashiers will still apply the coupon. You can usually buy a nice stack of BBBY coupons for cheap on eBay.

Best Buy. The only things worth buying at Best Buy are things on clearance and the very, very occasional sale item. For me, that list has included TVs, appliances, laptops, and computer peripherals (keyboards, mice). Everything else is full retail and/or overpriced (see: gold-plated USB cables). Also, your local post office has a packet of mover’s coupons that may include a 10% coupon – however, keep in mind that the store might not let you use it on clearance items.

Borders has 33 and 40% coupons out fairly often, and in addition to books, they can be used on LEGOs (rarely cheap), board games, and other odds and ends. If you don’t need brand new books, check out Amazon marketplace for used books, always at a huge discount.

Coupon clipping. The amount of money you save cutting coupons is proportional to the amount of work you put into it. At the very least you’ll need to have access to a newspaper, and time to spend clipping and cataloguing the coupons. Whether this is worth it is up to you.

Coupon clipping, targeted version. I’m too lazy to keep track of weekly coupons, but targeted coupon hunting is another thing entirely. If you have items that you buy regularly, check the product web site and search Google for coupons. I’ve never paid full price on almond milk, for example, thanks to the availability of coupons online. Blue Diamond has one on the web site that’s good for $0.55 off almond milk. That gets doubled to $1.10 off at my local grocery store.

I really like Costco. I find that I save much more than the $50 asking price a year, even though I tend not to buy that much stuff in bulk. Non-bulk groceries like fruits and roast beef are also surprisingly cheaper than what you’d find in the grocery store. However, the Executive membership (additional $50) is only worth the price of admission if you plan on spending more than $2500 a year ($208 a month), or if you plan on sharing the membership between friends/family.

eBay is not just for selling your junk. It’s also a great place to buy coupons and store gift cards. If people are selling Jesus-shaped Cheetos, you can bet they’re selling store coupons.

Express. Another email newsletter worth signing up for (if you like their stuff, that is). Express will mail you occasional discounts, usually a combination of percentage (25%) coupons along with good fixed discounts ($10 off $25, $10 off $20, $15 off $30, etc).

Goodwill sells nothing but donated goods, and because of that has some of the most eclectic stuff you’ll find anywhere. Certain days of the week are 50% off, but I think this depends on the actual store. Many Goodwill stores also partner with Target, meaning you can usually find Target furniture (or lamps, storage racks, etc), fully boxed, for way cheaper than the price at Target.

Got a Kohl’s nearby? Sign up for their email newsletter and you’ll get a $5 off $5 email coupon, and occasional (every few months) $10 off $10 cards mailed to your address. It’s one of the few email newsletters worth requesting just for the coupons.

Outlet malls are deceptive: they used to be clearinghouses for blemished and damaged goods sold at super cheap prices. Nowadays, many companies sell products manufactured for outlet sales. See: are outlet malls for suckers?. Save money by finding an outlet store that doesn’t pull this behavior, avoid the outlets entirely.

Sports Authority isn’t one of my favorite stores, but each month they release some variation of a 25% coupon: 25% off, $25 off $100, 25% off $100, etc. The list of exclusions is usually pretty fun reading.

Target. Most Target stores take Target coupons AND manufacturer coupons at the same time.

The Walmart vs. everyone else argument. Walmart gets a lot of lower-income consumers. Why? Because the regular prices there are lower than other retail stores, excluding members-only bulk shopping places like Costco. Walmart is cheaper than Target, cheaper than CVS, cheaper than the convenience store down the block. It’s cheaper because Walmart gets huge discounts from their suppliers, who in turn get the opportunity to sell more products to a bigger audience.

Here’s an example of some of the things I’ve purchased at Walmart, along with their prices at a couple of stores nearby.

Item	Walmart	Target	Bed Bath/Beyond	CVS
Old Spice Deodorant – Fresh, 3.25 oz	2.18	2.24	2.99	3.49
Band-aid – Clear Strips, 30 Count	1.74	2.74	1.99	2.33~
Opti-Free Contact Solution, 2 Pack	13.00	15.29	15.29	17.89
Colgate Total Clean Mint 7.8 oz	2.60*	3.54	3.89	5.19+

The takeaway here is that, if you need something and you need it now, go to Walmart. If you don’t like Walmart, well…can’t help you with that one.

Saving money at online stores

Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime normally costs $79 per year. However, students can get Amazon Prime free for a year, and moms/dads/caregivers can get Prime free for three months (extended by a month for each $25 spent). Sign up here:

• Amazon Student
• Amazon Mom

Banana Republic, GAP, and Old Navy. Sign up for the Banana Republic/GAP/Old Navy email newsletters to get some fat discounts. Banana, for example, releases at least one 40% coupon good for up to two items each month. GAP normally has 30% coupons. With that kind of discount, there’s no need to buy clothes for full retail.

Buying cables. There’s only one place you should ever buy cables: Monoprice. Okay, maybe two: Amazon also has cheap cables (through third party sellers, but make sure you check out the reviews first).

Comparing prices. The great thing about shopping on the internet, besides being able to order stuff in your boxers, is how easy it is to do quick price checks. When I find a product on a web site, I generally check three places to make sure that the price I’m about to pay is actually a good price. Those places are:

• Google’s “Shopping results” – Google the product name and it should be one of the first results
• Amazon
• eBay – check “completed listings” on the left side (this feature requires you to register)

These three sites will give you a good picture of how much an item is worth.

Coupon or promo codes. When you get to the section of an online store that allows you to enter a coupon or promotional code, make a habit of opening up a new tab and Googling “(store name) coupon codes”. You’ll be surprised at how often you find a discount code posted online that saves you an extra 5 or 10 percent.

Craigslist. It’s the go-to place for buying and selling stuff locally. Big, bulky items (think furniture, pool tables, pianos) get some of the deepest discounts, but the tradeoff is you need to be able to pick them up. The free section advertises random junk being thrown out by people, or stuff that has to go quickly because the owners are moving.

eBay, part 2. Auction items are sold at market price, which usually means it’s the lowest price around. Scared of buying stuff on eBay? Don’t be. Paypal is notorious for siding with buyers and screwing over sellers in auction transactions.

Email newsletters. Having subscribed to a number of these in my time, I can honestly say that most are garbage. The only newsletters worth subscribing to are the ones that dole out coupons. Most of the time, those are clothing stores.

Steepandcheap.com and sister sites (brociety, whiskeymilitia, chainlove, tramdock, and bonktown) have the lowest prices on sporting goods, like ski/snowboard stuff, climbing equipment, sunglasses, and sporty clothing. The problem: the sites are built on the Woot.com mentality of only selling one thing at a time. And the items are random.

Warehousedeals.com. is Amazon’s outlet store, selling open-box, refurbished, or returned products at a discount.

Woot.com. Woot pioneered the “one day, one deal model” and the “bag of crap”. They sell mainly uncommon consumer electronics at discounted prices, but have sister sites selling wine and t-shirts. T-shirts are reasonably priced ($10 shipped) and designed by site users (and most of the time, they’re pretty good).

Saving money on monthly bills

Cell Phone Service. The major cell phone carriers all have “premier” accounts, which are monthly service discounts for large companies and organizations, and usually include additional discounts on new phones. Organizations include schools/colleges/universities, hospitals, government agencies, etc. Chances are, if you’re a part of a club, company, or school, you’ve got access to a discount. Discounts range anywhere from 5-25%.

To sign up, you’ll have to enter your group email address. The carriers generally check the email address domain, meaning you might be able to finagle a discount at your school if you have an alumni forwarding email address.

• AT&T: AT&T Premier
• T-mobile: T-mobile Corporate Discounts
• Verizon: T-mobile Employee Discount Program
• Sprint: Sprint Corporate Discounts

Save on heating. The way to save money on your home heating bills is to make your home more energy efficient. That means putting up weatherstripping and sealing cracks in winter. For weatherstripping, try the 3M insulator kit or Frost King window insulation kit. You can find these at any hardware store.

You might also want to use a thermal leak detector to find spots where air is leaking through. For your front door, you can buy a draft dodger to block any air coming in from under the door. Bed Bath and Beyond sells these, as does Amazon.

Reduce or remove your cable plan. Two years ago, I had one of those ubiquitous “triple play” combos that included a phone line, cable TV, and internet. I ended up dropping the phone line (relying on a cell phone, saving $30), the digital cable box (plugged straight into the wall, saving $7 bucks a month), then the basic cable (saving $10 a month). I haven’t looked back.

This might be a little too extreme for most people, since I barely watch TV in the first place. But there are other options for replacing your cable TV:

• Hulu lets you watch the most recent episodes of lots of shows. The drawback is you can only watch the last five episodes. This is great if you can catch shows regularly, but not so great if you’re starting a series from scratch.
• And there’s Netflix. For $8.99 a month, you get one DVD delivered to your house, but more importantly, you get to stream Netflix content (TV shows and movies) through your PC or game console.

Saving money by changing your habits

Drive better. Slower acceleration saves fuel. If you’re one of those “lead foot” drivers that can’t change their ways, I would recommend buying a ScanGauge II. It’s a small device that shows almost-real-time (2 second delay) MPG/RPM/MPH gauges, and also has a nice bonus of being able to read/clear OBDII problem codes (Check Engine light). You can probably find it for around $120. Otherwise, a couple quick rules to follow are: learn to coast, keep your tires inflated, close the windows (if you’re going more than 35 mph), and don’t idle for more than 10 seconds.

My grocery store strategy. Since groceries are hard to get for cheap (without serious coupon clipping, that is), I usually buy the food items on sale and then find recipes online for those items. This strategy has two benefits: you’ll save money, and you’ll be a better cook. Win/win in my book.

Rent or buy used books, movies, and video games. You won’t notice the difference. Where to buy used: eBay, Amazon, Craigslist. Where to rent: the library.

Start freecycling. Freecycle is a site that connects users looking for or giving away items, with the ultimate goal of keeping usable stuff out of landfills. It’s kind of like Craigslist’s free section, but with less shady people.

Stop raiding the vending machine. Vending machines are like portable Best Buys. Actually, even worse, since the snacks are way, way above retail. What I do is just buy a big box of Nature Valley Fruit & Nut bars from Costco and just bring in a bunch to work.

Use the right credit card for your purchases. There are a couple of decent no-fee credit cards still out there:

• Chase Freedom: 5% on rotating categories (currently grocery stores, department stores, movies), 1% everything else
• Citi Forward: 5 ThankYou points (equates to 3.125% cashback or 3.575% gift card back) for books, movies, music, restaurants
• Costco American Express: 3% cashback on gas, 3% restaurants, 2% travel, 1% everything else
• Discover More: 5% on rotating categories (currently restaurants, department stores, clothing), 1% everything else

The Discover and Chase Freedom Cards (and possibly others) give you 5% back on certain categories but you have to sign up each quarter. It’s a really stupid rule.

• Discover 5% Signup
• Chase Freedom 5% Signup

The end.

Congratulations! You managed to read through my entire post. Give yourself a pat on the back. Here’s to being a more informed consumer.

If you’ve got a money-saving tip that belongs in this guide, feel free to sound off in the comments, and I’ll add it.