1. Sales local, national, holiday Labor Day for tools etc.
2. Coupons mostly local small items like packaged foods, clothes, small appliances. Have you noticed there are not so many coupons for real food, produce, and lots for junk food that is seriously more expensive per pound, say chips v whole taters?
3. Alerts Amazon Deal of the Day; Camel,Camel,Camel is terrific. Google Alerts; RSS feeds
4. Bargaining Beds esp. in Sept.
5. Buy less so food is fresher. You get better food. Buy more like paper towels and benefit with volume discounts.
6. Be smart like using dish soap in different dilutions and bottles: spray, pump, pour
7. Don't shop till you drop ie. no QVS or the like
8. If with someone, set limits on spending without the other's input
9. If you get in a shopping trance like bird dogging a food processor, sleep on the purchase AND don't be afraid to send items back whether you opened them or not. Many online retailers are very good in this respect. The cost to return is small compared to a $650 blender that you just don't like the looks of or trust.
10. Do research on most everything you buy. Out of season onions v storage onions can be a 50% or more saving. I found a food processor that was $250 everywhere in red, $189 in black and the same item in white was $169.
11. Be Flexible. Last week I bought my first premium fry pan, a 10" Swiss Diamond. Being pleased with it, I began checking prices on an 8" pan.
Today, an ad from this company showed up. A 7" pan for $30. This was less than half the price of the 8" one and almost 30% less than other stores had the item for...Be flexible, Shop Smart, Save Big.
12. Instinct? Sometimes I just take a chance. Monday I saw a price online of $55 for a highly recommended knife set, 5 pieces, 4 knives. Hmm. I reread the Consumer Reports article several times, visited the company's website, pondered as I must about any purchase and jumped in. Three days later the set arrived. I checked and the price is now $76. SSSB...
13. Locally, say Ikea or the like, check store's website for "as is," slightly damaged or returned items.
14. Use http://www.allyou.com/weekly-circulars#/featured Grocery Deal Finder. Amazon Local: http://local.amazon.com/national?cid=site_nav_logo&ref_=site_nav_logo etc.
15. Use shopping bots.
