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Whether you’re grocery shopping or trying to save on your utilities, there are always things you can do to save a little money. Trae Bodge, smart shopping expert and founder of TrueTrae, joined TheStreet to share five shopping tips that will help keep some money in your pocket.
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Full video transcript below:
Conway Gates: So today I wanted to talk to you about some shopping tips. We still live in an inflationary world. So what are some of your top tips. The first thing you should do is consider doing it yourself, so talk to me about that.
Bring podge: So this is the one that is somewhat unpopular. So what I mean by doing it yourself is that you’re probably paying someone to do something that you can do yourself, and that could be something as simple as going to your favorite barista and drinking matcha tea every day or buying your lunch from a restaurant. The office instead of bringing it in, or something like getting a weekly manicure or washing your car every month. These are things that, if you are physically able, you can do yourself. And if you do it yourself instead of paying someone else, you can save that money. This is what I recommend if you are trying to get your money together temporarily.
Conway Gates: The second tip is to check your monthly bills to make savings.
Bring podge: And so I think a lot of us get stuck with our monthly bills and feel like we have to pay them just because they come every month. But you should really look at them and see if there is room to maneuver. So, for example, your cell phone service, you might pay a few hundred dollars for your family’s cell phone service and you could look at a smaller company. You can also cut the cable cord or change your Wi-Fi provider by doing these three things. I’ve saved my family $200 a month and then I can take that, save it, and put it toward a rainy day, college, or retirement.
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Conway Gates: Tip 3: Look for groceries outside the grocery store.
Bring podge: Yeah and so the grocery store is great. It’s an essential item, but it can be expensive. There are ways to save if you deviate from this path. So, if you’re looking for groceries online, for example, you can search for deals with coupon sites. So, for example, Coupon Cabin has deals at Instacart, FreshDirect, and D’Artagnan. So this is a good way to save just by shopping online. I would also recommend the wholesale club, especially if you have a large family, you can buy things in bulk and you can just by doing this. And then there are services like there’s a great app called Marty where you can get kind of an inventory of grocers or businesses when they change their packaging. You can save there too. There’s one company called Flash Food and they partner with grocery stores all over the country and sell through items that are surplus or close to their best by date. You can place your order on the app, go to your grocery store, and pick up your Flash Food order, saving up to 50% that way. So, there are a lot of different ways you can save on your groceries, especially since they are so expensive right now.
Conway Gates: So your fourth tip is to shop smarter, and that includes a lot of different things. So walk with me through it.
Bring podge: Yeah, so we’re really used to looking for deals, shopping at the right timing, for example, it might be Maytag month. And a lot of people don’t know that you can save up to 30% on major appliances just by shopping during this month and then throughout the year, start looking for three-day weekend opportunities. Look for those seasonal opportunities. For example, when we enter summer, you may want to buy swimwear. Now, this is not the best time to buy swimwear, the end of summer is a good time to buy swimwear because they will all be licensed. So look for those timed sales and then the big sales as well like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. If you are strategic in this way, you can save a lot. And then I would also say use these coupon sites, use Coupon Cabin, Rakuten, Retailmenot, all of these coupon sites will help you save. If you get into the habit of using it every day, every time you shop, you can save money significantly.
Conway Gates: And the last point is about remembering to save, which I found funny because you’re a shopping expert, but you didn’t talk about saving. But you say that’s part of your strategy and being a good shopper.
Bring podge: Yes, while you’re using all those techniques we just talked about, you might forget to take that extra money you saved and put it somewhere smart. So high-yield savings accounts for me are the place to be, where Bread Financial, for example, is an online bank. You can sign up in a few minutes with a minimum deposit of $100, and then you can earn a 5.15% annual return on that money you’re working so hard to save versus whether you have that money in your bank account, sitting there as a temptation, or if you put it under your mattress or in Jar at home, this is not for you. So, if you’re saving, you want to make sure the money is working for you too.
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