Spending money to save money

[mom-from-missouri]

I ues those when I get them. Like gold her on the farm! We always need to keep a couple heat lamps in stock, furnace filters, barnlights (the spotlight kind-only place we can't use cfls), garden hoses, power cords...

Also there are items we can use in the house that I can bulk up on-again, furnace filters, CFL lights, batteries. Things that won't go "out of date"

[segmond]

I find that people use this as an excuse to save money.
Oh wow, it's on sale! am saving money! 25% off, wooohooo!

If I don't need to buy it, it's not worth buying, UNLESS I had already planned on buying it a while before I see it, AND my buying date is close to it.

If I am planning on buying a $5,000 car in 2 months, and I happen to come across a rare deal, same car in excellent condition for $3,000 and I know it will be hard to see it in 2 months, then I will get it.

However, if I didn't plan to make any purchases, I wouldn't, I saw a very nice furniture for around $1,200. I want to change my furniture in a year from now, usually I have often seen such furnitures for around $2,000. However a year is too long a time to spend $1,200 just to save $800.

At the end of the day, I don't buy into the idea of "spending money to save money", It is a matter of if you SPENT money or SAVED money.

[MoneyTrev]

I don't do this or support doing this.

It's save save save until you hit a need. Then it's spend reasonable on the need and back to saving. Now, if you think you can continually spend money on that company, then sign up for membership. Then you can potentially get points to get things for free or for a discount.

The stores I go to usually don't have a coupon program like Lowes. Shopper's Drug Mart doesn't use coupons, Safeway gives you discount as long as you're their member and that's free and Real Canadian SuperStore just lets you have things for free once you spend over $$xxx.xx on something.

[disneysteve]

Since getting this coupon, and starting this thread, I've tried to see if there was actually a list of items that I needed, rather than just shopping to use the coupon. So far, I know I need heater filters. Also, the other day, I was pruning a tree and broke my last saw blade, so I need to replace that. And my wife just got a really cute craft project to make a snowman from a brick paver stone, so we want to pick up one of those. I checked the date I last replaced our outside lights and based on past experience, they are nearing the end of their lifespan, so I want to buy backups for those. That should get us pretty close to the $25. If I need anything else, there are a couple of lamps in the house I'd like to put CFLs in. I think getting all of that stuff, that I would buy anyway at full price, for 40% off is a good deal.

[MoneyTrev]

Since getting this coupon, and starting this thread, I've tried to see if there was actually a list of items that I needed, rather than just shopping to use the coupon. So far, I know I need heater filters. Also, the other day, I was pruning a tree and broke my last saw blade, so I need to replace that. And my wife just got a really cute craft project to make a snowman from a brick paver stone, so we want to pick up one of those. I checked the date I last replaced our outside lights and based on past experience, they are nearing the end of their lifespan, so I want to buy backups for those. That should get us pretty close to the $25. If I need anything else, there are a couple of lamps in the house I'd like to put CFLs in. I think getting all of that stuff, that I would buy anyway at full price, for 40% off is a good deal.

Wow, lucky you.

Rarely do people be in a position to use coupons to buy many things and save huge amounts of money.

[disneysteve]

I used the coupon today. I purchased 4 items: a 3-pack of heater filters; two 2-packs of CFL bulbs; a pack of felt pads for the legs of our kitchen chairs. The total for the 4 items was $27.92 and I got $10.00 off, so a discount of 35.8% on things that we needed to buy anyway. I think that was a good deal. Plus, yesterday, I got a 2nd identical coupon in the mail. It is good until the end of the month. I may or may not use that one - only if I can think of other things that we actually need to buy. It really isn't tough since they do sell everyday items like trash bags, cleaning supplies and such. I don't normally buy them there but I could if I'm getting a 30-40% discount.

[Aleta]

Steve: I buy items like the cleaners for my stove top there and also the special stove sponges unless someone can tell me of a different brand that will not ruin my stove top. I also buy stainless steel cleaners, garbage bags, mulch on sell. and even paint if you need to paint something. There are many items that you can buy that may be on sale there.