Saving Money Part 2

Part 2:

Pay attention and be prepared. If you pay attention to your weekly sales flyers you will have a great advantage! Find a store that price matches and go there for all your shopping. With the competitor’s flyers, the store will match their sale prices. This saves you a trip! I price match at No Frills or Walmart, and will often be matching from 2-3 other stores in one trip. Remember that you can use coupons on these items as well. Take out all the coupons that you plan on using during your trip before you go to the store. This saves you fumbling at the till for that one that you "know is there somewhere!"

Should you buy in bulk? Buying in bulk can save you lots of money, but you have to use your math! That twelve pack of pasta sauce at Costco may seem like a good deal, but is it cheaper thqan buying twelve individual cans when they are on sale? As you start to pay attention to sale prices, you'll notice that not every bulk purchase is the better deal in the long run.

What is the unit price? It can be very hard to figure out the cheaper item to purchase when there are so many different sizes! When you are trying to find out which of two (or five!) items is the best one for you in terms of price, be on the look out for the unit price. The unit price will be the price per oz, ml, piece, etc. It will usually be located somewhere on the shelf price tag for the item (see the picture). The unit price is very helpful when you are looking at a bulk purchase as well. I was shopping for mayonaise a few weeks ago and since we always seem to run out (I know, I know! I need to stock up!), I wanted to buy the bigger size. However, the price per unit was about 75% MORE for the larger item! It was cheaper for me to get two normal sized jars, rather than the bigger bulk jar.