Comparison Shopping

Okay, I know this is not a life-altering frugal strategy, but comparison shopping and price matching is a staple of our Low Falutin' life style.  I submit two cases for your perusal. 

Case 1:  I was desperately in need of a new computer.  My only computer was a netbook that I had on short-term lease (not frugal).  I was leasing because when my last computer died, I didn't have the money to buy one outright.  Bad planning on my part, but we heavily rely on the internet in our family.  Anyway, the buy out on the netbook was ridiculous, so I started comparison shopping.  I found a desktop emachine with 320GB Hard Drive, and 2GB Ram online at Walmart.com for $278. 

I didn't want to wait for it to be shipped, that would have left me with no portal to the outside world...unthinkable.  So, I called my local Walmart and asked if they had it in stock.  They did, but it retailed for $318.  The manager said that the in-store price was sometimes different than the online one.  I asked him that since Walmart price matched other stores, couldn't he just price match their online one.  He paused for a minute and then said okay.  That question was a savings of $40.  I don't think this is their standard policy, but the point is that it never hurts to ask.

Case 2:  I have one room in my apartment that is carpeted.  It is in big need of a steam cleaning.  The rug doctor at the local grocery store rents for $54.  That is a little steep for a one time cleaning, so I started pricing cleaners to buy.  I found one that I liked at Kmart.com for $79 plus shipping.  I had seen the same one in the store for $89.  Next, I tried Target.com.  Same price...$79 plus shipping.  Next, I tried Old Faithful aka Amazon.com.  I found the same model for $64 with free shipping.  Guess what came on the UPS truck while I was writing this post...

Yeah!  I save fifteen dollars and got free shipping.

Full Disclosure

Okay, I do have one High Falutin' weakness:

yummy

Nothing Like Brand New

From my first post, you may have gotten the idea that I only wear gently used clothing.  Not so my fellow Low Faluter.  I love the feeling of stepping out in brand new clothes.  What woman doesn't.  I do, however, try to confine my new clothes shopping to sales.  Take for example my new pair of maternity pants.  They are super cute:

I mean look at these pockets!

Even better, look at that price!  It says $5.98.  I'm okay with that.

I Love a Sale!

I am a huge proponent of Low-Falutin'.  As opposed to High-Falutin' where you brag about how much you spent on whatever unnecessary item you just bought, Low Falutin' is basically a philosophy of living the best possible life on the least amount of money.  Yard sales, coupons, drug store gaming, home cooking, and your basic run-of-the-mill creative home economics are all part of the fun.  So, this is where I am going to be bragging, not about how much money I spent, but about what great deals I've found or money-saving ideas I've come across.  For instance, the outfit I'm wearing in the picture below cost me $1 at a garage sale yesterday.  Why in the world would I spend good money buying maternity clothes that I'll only be able to wear for three months, when I can bounce around in duds this cheap?

This is me being frugal and multiplying at the same time. 

                                   

I'm a big fan of the Economides.  They wrote the book America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money.  They say you should buy in bulk when a designated item hits your buy price.  My husband makes a killer pasta sauce with Italian sausage.  We have it about once a week, usually on Friday night.  Italian sausage costs $3.49 a pound regularly.  I've actually seen it for $4.29.  That is just too much to spend on something we eat every week.  So we wait for it to hit our buy price.  If it hits $1.99 a pound, we will buy one pound.  If it hits $.99, we stock up.  It was on sale for $.99 a pound tonight at Stop and Shop.  So, we bought 20 pounds.  That may seem excessive to some, but we have the main ingredient for one of our favorite dishes...for the next twenty weeks.  We spent $19.80 for $69.80 worth of meat.  I do the same for hamburger meat, boneless chicken thighs, turkeys, corned beef and more.  This system guarantees that we are always eating at the lowest price.  We want to take it to the next level and buy more at a time, but we are waiting to find a deep freezer at a good price.  I'll keep you posted.