How To Save Money Shopping (+ Bonus Tip)

Even if you’ve minimized your daily expenditures, there still might be room to save money while shopping.

Fortunately, saving up on everyday purchases doesn’t require any special training or education. With the help of just a few tips, you can significantly lower your daily expenses and put that saved amount toward your savings account.

So here are a few ways to save money shopping regardless of your income level.

How Can I Save Money?

Saving money while shopping is an important part of any well-planned budget. While saving money doesn’t require any special education, there are some tips you need to consider on a daily basis.

8 Ways to Save Money Shopping

Let’s discover eight ways easy ways to save money while shopping for essentials.

1. Avoid Impulse Shopping

Have you ever bought something on a whim and discovered a few hours or days later that you didn’t even need it? That’s called impulse shopping, and it’s something everyone experiences every now and then.

The best way to avoid impulse shopping is to hold back from buying the item right away and sleep on it. Chances are, you won’t even remember that you wanted the item after a few days, or you might realize that it’s not important after mulling it over for a night.

The Monorail wishlist app could be a good way to avoid impulse shopping and overspending. Put any items you want on your wishlist and gradually put money towards your items. That way when you’re ready to buy, you’ll know if that item is still a priority.

2. Compare Prices and Use Price Matching

The next best thing you can do to save money on shopping is to compare prices at different stores. In most cases, you’ll find that one of the stores offers a better price or a discount on the item you’re going to buy. Or you may be able to find a good dupe while thrift store shopping.

What’s best, most stores have an online presence nowadays. So you can compare prices either using social media or store websites. Some stores even allow you to price match their competitors, meaning that if you see a lower price online, the store you visit may lower their price to make the sale.

3. Check for Promotions and Coupons

One of the most popular solutions for saving money while shopping is to use coupons.

While you may think that finding promotions and coupons is a time-consuming process, each coupon can actually accumulate over time, resulting in significant savings. Social platforms are implementing new social commerce options for users,making it easier than ever to find promotions and coupons.

In fact, you can use a simple Chrome extension like Honey that will automatically search for coupons for you. Or see what days your favorite stores like Target or Goodwill puts certain item categories on sale.

4. Leverage Cash-Back Opportunities

Cash-back apps like Ibotta and Dosh offer a certain percentage of cashback every time you purchase a qualifying product, either online or in-store.

What’s good, these apps enable you to get cash back even on grocery purchases. This is a huge plus since you can’t avoid shopping for groceries.

A few debit cards, like the Monorail debit card, can even give cash back rewards. And if you use the Monorail card to make a purchase, any cash back is auto-transferred back to your wishlist fund, so you can buy more.

5. Buy Discounted Gift Cards

There are many websites like Cardpool.com and Giftcards.com selling gift cards at discounted prices. People usually visit these sites to sell their unused gift cards.

For example, you could find a $100 Target gift card for $90 or $85 on one of these websites. So if you strategically buy discounted gift cards to stores like Target, Amazon, and Walmart, you can significantly trim your budget in the long run.

(But beware of anything that seems not-so-legit. While a lot of tips seem like no-brainers, always make sure to read the site’s reviews before participating!)

6. Negotiate Prices When Possible

While you probably can’t negotiate prices on some items, there are still a lot of negotiable situations – even in retail stores. For example, when an item has cosmetic damage, a company may be willing to give you a discount. It’s because selling a damaged item is quite challenging for any retailer.

And when you’re purchasing something from a private retailer, you can always try to negotiate a price as they’re usually less strict with their pricing.

7. Plan Your Purchases

If you need to purchase something urgently, chances are, you’ll pay a higher price. On the other hand, you can save big if you plan your purchase strategically.

For example, Black Friday sales are usually the best time to score expensive or popular items. Once a new model of an electronic device comes out, the price of the previous model usually decreases. It’s because the demand on the previous model drops while supply stays the same or even increases.

The same strategy applies to clothing purchases as well. Since stores offer end-of-season sales, it’s best to go shopping during that time. In some cases, you may not be able to use the pieces until the following year, but it’s worth it to save money. (Especially if you’re buying a ‘timeless’ item.)

8. Participate in Online Surveys for Gift Cards

Last but not least, you can get free groceries, clothes, and even electronics by participating in online surveys.

Survey sites like InboxDollars and SurveyJunkie offer surveys for money. Each survey on these sites takes a few minutes to complete and can earn you up to $3 per survey, depending on the complexity of the questionnaire.

You can then withdraw your earnings either through PayPal or redeem your funds for gift cards. Available gift cards are usually from popular retailers like Amazon, Target, Nike, Dunkin’ Donuts, and more.

Ready to Save Money Shopping?

All in all, there are many ways to save money while shopping – even on everyday, unavoidable purchases.

Remember always to avoid buying something on a whim and leverage any discounts, coupons, and cashback that may be available.

Bonus tip: To save while you shop and shop while you save, see how Monorail can help you create your wishlist to get started.

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