Want to avoid paying full price on things?
Spending money is an essential component of life in this world. You need shelter, clothing, energy, water, and food, all of which costs money. Aside from running away to live in a remote part of the world, you can’t escape from these financial responsibilities, but you can find ways to cut down your spending in many areas, including at home.
Using some savvy techniques you can find savings and discounts on just about everything you’ll regularly spend money on. Here are some of the best.
Look for Promotions
Businesses often run promotions to encourage you to spend money. Non-financially savvy people will see these and buy things they didn’t want or need just because it’s a “bargain”, but this doesn’t actually save them money since they weren’t planning to spend any in the first place.
However, if you planned to buy the product or service anyway, promotions can be a great way to keep some of your hard-earned cash back in your pocket.
Businesses in most sectors run offers, so you’ll nearly always be able to find one. This includes savings on groceries, early bird specials in restaurants, and last minute deals on hotel rooms. Even sports fans that enjoy betting on games can save money by using free bets from Fanduel and other sportsbooks.
Related to avoid paying full price: 9 Ways To Save Money During Lockdown
Find Coupons
Sometimes a discount isn’t available to everyone. Instead, retailers and manufacturers restrict access by requiring customers to have a coupon. Thankfully, they’re really easy to find, with magazines and local newspapers often publishing them.
You can also find entire websites dedicated to publishing the latest coupons and voucher codes for use with online retailers and traditional brick and mortar stores. So before you make any purchases, be sure to check for coupons that could help you save a lot.
Earn Cashback
Cashback is another way you can cut your spending. This is usually money you receive as a rebate after making a purchase, so you’ll have to cough up the full amount before getting some of it reimbursed.
There are two main ways to earn cashback. The first is through cashback sites who work with selected retailers that pay them a commission for each sale they generate. The cashback site then pays you a share of this commission.
Be sure to always visit the cashback site first before making your purchase though; otherwise, you won’t receive a rebate.
The second way to earn cashback is through a credit card that pays you a small rebate on your spending. The rates can vary a lot between each card issuer, but can be anywhere from 0.5% to 5+%. You may even get some higher rates during special promotions for particular retailers.
The key benefit to cashback credit cards is that they can earn you a rebate almost everywhere. Since most businesses now accept card payments, you can use them for most of your everyday spending as well as bigger purchases.
Compare Prices
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that different retailers charge different prices for the same product. You have, almost certainly, at some point in your life, checked the price of a particular product in more than one store.
The internet has made this much easier than travelling from shop to shop. Instead, you can compare the prices of a product in dozens of different stores all at once. Some popular price comparison services include Kelkoo, Google Shopping, and PriceRunner.
You can also compare prices on flights, accommodation, insurance, credit cards, mortgages, and much more through sites like Booking.com and MoneySuperMarket.
You aren’t limited to just comparing the prices between shops – you can also compare how a product’s price has fluctuated over time through services like CamelCamelCamel. This gives you the ability to see if today’s price is a good offer or whether you should wait for it to drop again.
Combine These Techniques to Avoid Paying Full Price
While each of these techniques will help you to save money on your spending, in many cases you can combine two or more of them together. In almost all cases you can use a cashback credit card and compare the prices of different retailers, as well as being able to earn cashback through other means or find a coupon.