What I've Learned (Time Savers)

Well it's been a month since I started so I think it's time for another installment of "What I have Learned". I have been using the techniques and methods used on the various sites intended to help all us frugally inept people learn to save. A few of the ones I visit more often are:Money Saving Mom, BeCentsAble , The New Frugal Mom, and Be Thrifty Like Us. Sometimes I am proud of myself, sometimes, not to much. After a 2 day shopping spree (see my Grocery challenge). I emerged with a great haul, but feeling like I wasted a lot of time, so I have decide to write about some things that have cost me quite a bit of time and money.

1. Never go someplace just for the FREE item, unless you are willing to buy it at full price or with just the coupon discount.

I went to Target for the Free Butt Paste travel pack (after $1 coupon), after 30 minutes wandering the store on both the "grocery" side (we have no Super Targets in CA) and the baby side, I was still unable to find them and ended up leaving the store empty handed. I went to Walmart in search for the Free Honey Bunches of Oats (after $2 coupon), after checking all the end caps and the cereal isle backwards and forwards, I was only able to find Regular Honey Bunches of Oats (the coupon was for chocolate) and at $2.96, so not free and not available at that. Fortunately, this time around I actually had a purpose to be there so it wasn't a complete waste of a trip. Not so with two trips to CVS and a couple more to Target. My Target trips included, but not limited to the Free Lipton To Go packets (after $1 coupon), that particular venture took me to two Targets before I found one that would do the deal. I did get $19 worth in the end and a $5 gift card from corporate for my troubles at the first Target, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Most of the time, however those trips ended up being a waste of gas and time. Which leads me to the next thing I have learned...

2. Call Ahead.

If the deal is too good to pass up and there is only one item you are looking for. Call the store and confirm the availability and or price. When I ran into a dead end with the first Target store I made sure to call the other store to confirm that the coupon was indeed accepted, and I even called corporate to make sure that I wasn't running into a running trend. Now I doubt that phone calls to that extent are necessary, but every one of those wasted trips could have been avoided had I taken the few minutes to call ahead. Of course that brings me to the next thing I have learned.

3. Write it all down.

The need for organization keeps popping up. Every day I scan my RSS feeds for my various sites and I get a list of places to visit and deals to keep in mind. I star the priority posts and I make a mental note of the things I should pay attention to and plan to return later. I clip my coupons and set them aside to make sure I have them when I go on my trips. Notice a running theme here? No matter how well I think I have it all planned out, I don't make notes as I am reading and so inevitably I miss something. If I wrote things down ahead of time (not just right before running out the door) I would be better prepared and not waste so much time running all over for that elusive bargain. I would have all my coupons carefully laid out and I would never get to the register (or in some cases the store) without having the particular coupons I needed ready and available! I can recall almost every trip has been afflicted with some hassle that could have been avoided. The next thing I have learned is a result of some of those problems that arose.

4. Always check the receipt.

This goes beyond the obvious checking of the price at the end, though that is, of course always very good advice. I have also discovered that during a complicated order, by which I mean request that involves the use of coupons or anything "made to order", not only should you check the receipt but you should also confirm that your order went through as expected. After filling an order incorrectly in the Albertsons deli, the person behind the counter fixed it by providing me with an item twice the price of the one I ordered. Had this exchange not taken so long, I would have double checked the slip on the deli meat and caught this mistake before getting home. If I had confirmed after a 3 times failed exchange at CVS that the cashier had re-scanned my card, I wouldn't have been short changed my ECBs for my 2 SoBes. AND had my husband checked the carry-out pizza order he would have noticed the lack of bread sticks (which were later delivered to us). Fortunately each of these events, after a phone call has been or will be rectified. The only one I have fully lost out on (as a result of my lack of organization) is the CVS ECBs because, as I mentioned above, I arrived at the store without the receipt and with the price of gas going home and coming back was in no way worth the single ECB.

So what am I going to do from now on?

• I'm going to keep a notepad and pen by my computer at all times and write down any deals I see or ideas I come up with based on information I see on my various blogs.
• I'm going to use that notepad to write down the # of the stores I plan to visit and highlight the items that are my main reason for going so I can call about the special items I am looking for (no more than 2 items per store for the call...I don't need to waste their time either).
• I'm going to see just how long it takes to get to each of the stores on my list and determine if the deals I am looking for are worth the cost in time and gas.
  
• I'm going to get one of those coupon accordion folders, or if I don't have one of those I will at least put each store's coupons in a sandwich baggie, it really doesn't matter as long as when I get to the counter I am not digging for them. People really hate that.
• If I can save time getting my coupons ready for the cashier, maybe I can afford the time to check the items being scanned and ensure that I never get short changed on my receipt or an item I didn't ask for. Well I can try to limit the amount of times that happens.

Tune in next time as I discover more things along the way.