How Frugality Super Powers Doubled My Savings

[james.hendrickson]

For all you smart shoppers out there, this guy has a neat approach for doubling his coupon value.

------------------------------------------------------

How Frugality Super Powers Doubled My Savings
16 hours ago
by Brock @www.cleverdude.com

It doesn’t bother me when people poke fun at my frugal ways. I know for a fact that I get more for my money than most because of them. For example, my friends give me a hard time about always searching online for coupons on my phone. I also notice people shaking their heads as I use the calculator on my phone to add up all my purchases while shopping. I never enter the checkout lane unless I know how much my bill is going to be. These two habits combined give me frugality super powers and recently saved me some extra cash.

My wife and I were shopping at a party supply store for an event we are hosting. Before entering the checkout lane, I searched the internet for a coupon and found one:

$10 off a purchase of at least $50
$15 off a purchase of at least $75
$20 off a purchase of at least $100

“How much does our stuff add up to?” my wife asked.

“About $280,” I replied.

“Sweet, we’ll get $20 just like that!” she explained as she snapped her fingers.

“We’re going to get more than that,” I stated, “Go get another cart.”

I transferred just over $100 worth of items into the second card, and put some back on the shelves as well. I then found the same coupon on her phone and headed for the cash register. My wife and I both bought enough products to kick us over the $100 threshold to save $20.

By breaking our purchase into two separate transactions, we were able to save an extra $20.

People may make fun of my frugality super powers, but they definitely save me money. Searching online I found a coupon that I could use to save money. By adding up my purchase as I go through the store, I knew how much my items added up to, and recognized a way to put that coupon to full use. People may laugh at my methods, but nobody would laugh about having an extra $20 in their pocket.

Link: http://www.cleverdude.com/content/ho...ed-my-savings/

[PeggyHefferon]

We have done that, especially at JoAnn's.

But I don't get the point of putting stuff back, unless his intention was to make another trip later and use the coupon again. I am assuming if they were putting the stuff in the cart (and they are frugal), then they were doing so because they needed it for the party.

[disneysteve]

But I don't get the point of putting stuff back, unless his intention was to make another trip later and use the coupon again. I am assuming if they were putting the stuff in the cart (and they are frugal), then they were doing so because they needed it for the party.

Agreed. I thought the same thing. They must have picked those items for a reason. Why put them back?

[bjl584]

Seems like a lot of trouble for $20. I'm thinking if that guy put that much thought and effort into increasing his income as he does trying to save, then he'd probably be able to go shopping without worrying about the $20. Saving is good, but I do think that if it becomes an obsession it can hold you back.

[disneysteve]

Seems like a lot of trouble for $20.

Yes and no. I think it would have made more sense had they planned the trip in advance. The time to search for the coupons was before leaving for the store, not as they were getting into the checkout line.

Plenty of times, my wife and I have gone to a store to take advantage of a good sale or use some good discount coupons and we've purposely loaded 2 carts so that each of us could check out separately. I don't think we would have bothered to split everything up at the time of checkout.

[PeggyHefferon]

Seems like a lot of trouble for $20. I'm thinking if that guy put that much thought and effort into increasing his income as he does trying to save, then he'd probably be able to go shopping without worrying about the $20. Saving is good, but I do think that if it becomes an obsession it can hold you back.

With all due respect, this seems like an odd response from an admin of a SAVING advice forum. This forum isn't dedicated to growing your income.

What the OP posted about is exactly the type of stuff that people should think about.

[bjl584]

With all due respect, this seems like an odd response from an admin of a SAVING advice forum. This forum isn't dedicated to growing your income.

What the OP posted about is exactly the type of stuff that people should think about.

With all due respect, I don't think that my response was odd at all. The original post reminds me of an episode of "Extreme Cheapskates." The guy that reuses paper towels, or never turns on the furnace, or dumpster dives. At what point does an obsession with saving a few bucks become unhealthy? I'm all for saving, but I have no desire to be miserable or a masochist. I work hard at my career and at saving and investing. But, I want to enjoy my life a little bit and not have to worry about coordinating a trip to a store at the same level that NASA preplans a shuttle launch just to save $20.

[PeggyHefferon]

With all due respect, I don't think that my response was odd at all. The original post reminds me of an episode of "Extreme Cheapskates." The guy that reuses paper towels, or never turns on the furnace, or dumpster dives. At what point does an obsession with saving a few bucks become unhealthy? I'm all for saving, but I have no desire to be miserable or a masochist. I work hard at my career and at saving and investing. But, I want to enjoy my life a little bit and not have to worry about coordinating a trip to a store at the same level that NASA preplans a shuttle launch just to save $20.

Using a smartphone to search for a coupon is not rocket science or as involved as NASA shuttle launches.

I didn't realize this was savingadviceforhighpayingcareers.com

$20 is worthwhile to plenty of members and lurkers that you ridicule with comments like this.

[disneysteve]

Using a smartphone to search for a coupon is not rocket science

You're leaving out the part of the story. It's not getting the online coupon. That's fine. I do that all the time.

The "extreme" part was taking a fully loaded cart ready for checkout and going and getting a 2nd cart, splitting up the order so that there was as close to $100 worth of stuff in each cart so that 2 coupons could be used, and putting back $80 worth of merchandise to get the maximum value for the coupon. They went to buy needed supplies for an event so presumably that $80 worth of stuff was important, meaning they'll have to make another trip to get it later (perhaps using another coupon).

If money is really tight, by all means squeeze every last penny you can. If, however, things aren't that bad, you need to decide what is and is not more trouble than it's worth and that answer will vary from person to person and even situation to situation.

[PeggyHefferon]

I didn't leave out anything. It was me that brought up how it didn't make sense to put stuff back. And clearly it makes sense to be better prepared and search before entering the store.

Bill compared the story to extreme cheapskates, and ridiculed the savings aspect to the story. He certainly didn't give the impression that he thought it was worthwhile to even search for the coupon

[bjl584]

Using a smartphone to search for a coupon is not rocket science or as involved as NASA shuttle launches.

I didn't realize this was savingadviceforhighpayingcareers.com

$20 is worthwhile to plenty of members and lurkers that you ridicule with comments like this.

Splitting up an order while standing in a checkout lane is ridiculous. I'll all for shopping smart. But I don't advocate being a rude and obnoxious jerk. I certainly wouldn't want that guy in front of me in the checklane.

And, how can you save any money if you don't make enough to save in the first place? By all means, save. But, spend some time on the income side of the equation too. A higher income makes saving easier.

I doubt that anyone was offended by my opinion on this story. You have your opinion and I have mine. It's not offensive. It's just my take.

[disneysteve]

Peggy, I think you mean Brian, not Bill.

This story reminds me of a survey done years ago. I don't have the exact numbers but essentially, people were asked a series of questions about what they would do to save money. One question was if they would drive 5 miles out of their way to save $20 on a $30 item and the vast majority said yes. The same people were also asked if they'd drive 5 miles out of their way to save $20 on a $500 purchase and the vast majority said no.

The point is that we all assign different value to money depending on the situation.

[PeggyHefferon]

Splitting up an order while standing in a checkout lane is ridiculous. I'll all for shopping smart. But I don't advocate being a rude and obnoxious jerk. I certainly wouldn't want that guy in front of me in the checklane.

And, how can you save any money if you don't make enough to save in the first place? By all means, save. But, spend some time on the income side of the equation too. A higher income makes saving easier.

I doubt that anyone was offended by my opinion on this story. You have your opinion and I have mine. It's not offensive. It's just my take.

"Before entering the checkout lane, I searched the internet for a coupon and found one"

I guess you misread the article

[bjl584]

Peggy, I think you mean Brian, not Bill.

This story reminds me of a survey done years ago. I don't have the exact numbers but essentially, people were asked a series of questions about what they would do to save money. One question was if they would drive 5 miles out of their way to save $20 on a $30 item and the vast majority said yes. The same people were also asked if they'd drive 5 miles out of their way to save $20 on a $500 purchase and the vast majority said no.

The point is that we all assign different value to money depending on the situation.

This.

For someone in really bad financial shape, then maybe this sort of extreme mindset is useful or even somewhat necessary, but I personally just don't see it as practical

[PeggyHefferon]

This.

For someone in really bad financial shape, then maybe this sort of extreme mindset is useful or even somewhat necessary, but I personally just don't see it as practical

I really don't think any part of the story was extreme. Putting stuff back was a bit odd without further explanation. Certainly could have planned it better and searched for the coupon sooner, but I see people handing cashiers their phone with coupons all the time. Splitting the transaction into two was a smart way to save an extra $20.

There is a member on here that posts what he was able to save each week. I noticed some of the posts were as little as $2. Surely this member, and likely many others, would be happy with saving $40 on a store purchase by going to the extreme of using their phone to search for a coupon.

But of course they should all be focusing on earning more money and instead of visiting a forum about saving they should be posting on career websites.