Don’t you just love to get a bargain? We do. It always feels cool to get a good deal. The fact is, you can basically go through much of your life never paying the full price for anything, which is pretty amazing. There are some items where you can get such good deals that you should never ever pay their full price and here are 10 of them.
Clothing
If you can wait and watch the clothing you would like, you should be able to get them cheaper. For example, almost all stores put their clothing on sale when their winter or summer seasons end. And this can be 60% off or even more. What you need to do is find what you want to buy and then watch it until it gets close to the end of the summer or winter. Do check to make sure that you can still find your size. And you can always shop for “gently used” clothing at thrift sops and consignment stores.
Major appliances
Again, the best time to buy major appliances is when the new models are introduced and last year’s models go on sale. This generally happens in and November. You can also watch for discounts on appliances that are scratched or dented. It’s often possible to get a really big discount when the appliance has a small flaw though no one would see it once it was installed in your house. Many stores will match prices so make sure you do some price comparisons before you go shopping and you should be able to negotiate a pretty sweet deal.
Furniture
The fact is that brand-new furniture is almost always more expensive than it really needs to be. You can easily get furniture that’s cheaper and without sacrificing quality. It’s all about knowing where to look – places like Craigslist, consignment shops and thrift stores are good bets. If you want something that hasn’t been used, you could save money by waiting until the furniture goes on sale, which is most often in January. The following video offers some other good tips for buying used furniture.
Need some office furniture? Again, you’d probably have better luck searching Craigslist for lightly used items and you should be able to find sales in-store in May.
Magazines and books
These are not very expensive but you should be able to always get them cheaper used rather than new at a bookstore. You can find just about any book you would want on Amazon as used and for a lot less than buying new. Or if you can handle digital editions you should be able to get books cheap or even free. You can always get both books and magazines free at your nearby library.
Video games
There’s no reason pay full price for a video game unless you absolutely must have it to play on launch day. Amazon has sales periodically and you should be able to find used games for consoles like Playstation at good discounts. It’s even easier to find PC games as you would know if you’ve seen the Steam Summer Sale where you can get games for pennies, play them for a few months and then just toss or resell them. There are also stores almost everywhere that sell used games.
Groceries
It’s simpler than you might think to save money on your food. And you don’t even have to be one of those crazy extreme coupon clippers. Practically every grocery store offers a loyalty card that will get you nice discounts and coupons whenever you shop. Make sure you get these at every one of the grocery stores where you shop. From there on out just plan your meals around the deals. Also, make sure you buy generic brands as they are usually of the same quality as brand name products but usually cost 40% or less.
Restaurants
It can get expensive to eat out but you don’t have to spend a lot of money. You could search the newspaper or coupon books for discounts and daily deal sites like Groupon and Restaurants.com are also good ways to get cheaper meals. Some restaurants even offer loyalty programs.
Cars
You probably know to never pay for a car the price that’s on it sticker. You can haggle and this will help but you also need to know which fees to avoid and what the dealer actually paid for the car. The best time to buy is in the fall when the new models just came out. You should also think about buying a used car since almost all cars lose thousands of dollars in value the minute they are driven off the car lot.
Tech stuff
Those amazing gadgets can be fun but are not cheap. However you can save a lot of money if you know what you’re doing. The easiest way is to buy refurbished. You should also skip any extended warranties and be sure to sell your old gadgets for as much as possible.
Vacations
If you do a little bit of research you can really cut the cost of a vacation. Of course, you already probably know things such as searching for hotels and airfares on sites like Hipmunk, Kayak or Expedia. But there are other things you could also do. Sites with daily deals such as Groupon can save you money at activities and restaurants when vacationing. In some cases you could volunteer on your trip and save a lot of money. This can actually be more enjoyable than you might think.