Save at least 200 dollars for 1000 dollars of shopping– that is 20% of
total money spent. With common sense and little prudence you can save hundreds of dollars on your holiday shopping bills. From my past experiences, I have chosen
five best practices that will give you
maximum savings. Peruse them, put them into action and email me your numbers on savings. Comparison Shopping: Gone are
days when there was no easy way to compare
price of a product at different stores other than visiting
stores. In this new era of cyber-shopping, there are numerous options to compare
price of a product at different locations of
globe. With very little effort, internet would find
best and right price, at
right store for you to save big bucks.
A few days back, I was shopping for a Mini DV camcorder in
price range of $500 to $700. An ardent internet shopper, I researched on brands, their prices and decided to buy a JVC GRD200 Mini DV camcorder. It is (may be “it was”) my belief that Amazon.com delivers
best products at
lowest prices (It does sell
best products, but not at
cheapest prices – at least in this case). As always, I was poised to buy
product from Amazon.
The comparison on
price of this product (via www.shopping.com) revealed that
product was sold as low as $299.00. With further research I understood that
price was indeed 299 US dollars. Delaying no more, I bought
camcorder from this seller instead of my first option – to save only $400.
As I look back, it still perplexes me how I saved $400 on a single buy. Does it not surprise you when you cut down 400 dollars on a single item? Perhaps
most important thing I did was comparing
prices for this product on www.shopping.com. It paid!
Cognizant Shopping: As a customer, your goal is to buy
best product at
cheapest price. Right?
You agree with me that it is not an intelligent idea to buy a product for 10 dollars when it is sold at 3 dollars less at
near by store. Neither do you accord it a savvy-shopping, to buy a product for 50 dollars when its price can be reduced by 10 dollars via
special store discount/coupon for
product.
Many of us do not realize
power of coupons. They hold tremendous potential for huge savings. Depending on how you use them, a coupon for 10 dollars for every 50 dollars would save 40 dollars over a period of month, assuming shopping once a week. Extrapolating, it is a 200 dollars savings over a 1000 dollar shopping-money. A typical Christmas shopping would amount to these numbers easily.
Although
example seems to be ideal, it resonates
ideas of retails stores like JC Penny or Sears, whose holiday-shopping-placards read “$10 off for every $50 shopping – JC Penny”, “$35 off for every $250 spent on electronics – Sears”. Get into
habit of using
coupons whenever possible to appreciate
savings accumulating into your pockets.
Selective Shopping: Depending on which state you buy
product from and which store you buy it from, you may or may not be charged a sales tax. If
sale is exempted
sales tax, it is a savings of 6 percent to 9 percent of total sale amount. Each seller clearly indicates if a sales tax would be applied on
sale in
geographical location. Thus, a little cautiousness would translate to a savings as high as 9 percent.