The Art of Spottin’ Deals

Another talent that I have picked up during my days of frugal living is the ability to “spot” a deal and take advantage of it.

I’ll give you a great example. I was walking thru my local hardware store today, searching for some supplies for a small plumbing repair job that I needed to do.

Well, on the way, I spotted a 10 pack of some household scrub pads for $1 apiece. It just so happened that they were the exact scrub pads that I use in my kitchen, they were just packaged under some other brand name.

Well, having bought these religiously in the past, I knew that I usually paid about 25 cents apiece. Obviously, this was a great deal. I snatched up three packs of them, added them to my other purchases and was on my way.

It then occurred to me that this talent goes a long way in impacting your finances. Obviously, this is a small example in the grand scheme of things, but I wouldn’t have been able to identify this as a deal were it not for several skills that I have picked up over the years.

First, you’ve got to know what you pay for stuff. I would imagine that most of us buy about 80% of the same stuff during our weekly trips to the grocery store. Meaning, we always get milk, we always get strawberries, we always get dish detergent. The question is: do you know what you actually pay for these items, or do you just blindly throw them into your cart?

Second, you’ve got to pay attention. When you’re out and about, pay attention to what’s going on around you. If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that just because there is a sign next to something saying it’s on sale, does not necessarily mean that it’s a great price. You’ve got to know yourself what is a great price and what isn’t. Who would have expected to find household scrub pads at a hardware store? Not me. But I did, and I got them for about 60% off what I normally pay.

Third, you’ve got to have your finances in order enough to be able to invest in things for the future like this in order to save more. If you only have enough each week to put food on the table for your family and that’s it, you really wouldn’t’ have enough money to do this type of stuff. Get your finances in order so you can revamp the way you shop.

Again, this is a very minor example, but what if it were something that normally cost me $30 and I found it for $10? And what if it were something that I buy every week? The annual savings would be over $1000 annually. You probably won’t find an example like this, but if you look at it like that, you’ll realize the impact it can have.

Other items that this technique seems to apply to for me are batteries (they’re always on sale, but are they at a great price?), deodorant, laundry detergent, etc.
Know what you pay for stuff, pay attention whenever you’re at a store, and have the ability to buy extra of an item when you find it at a killer price.

As always, your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated. Think I’m crazy for writing about scrub pads? Found a good deal of your own you’d like to share? Let us know about it below.

Tagged as: finding bargains, finding cheap stuff