5 Tips and Tricks on How to Shop Smarter

While it can be hard to stick to a budget, this pursuit is not an impossible one. There are many ways to shave off some cents or otherwise squeeze your dollar so it goes farther. This guide is just going to cover five of the best options, albeit in no particular order.

1. Use Cashback Systems

Programs like Amazon Cashback or certain banks have a cashback program. While there are various stipulations to purchases made and some types of service and merchandise may have variable percentages involved, the result is that a portion of the money that you spent on the relevant purchases will be added back into your bank account. Most of these programs are either handled through a dedicated bank card or a customer loyalty program.

2. Rebates

Rather than serving as a cashback program, rebates are another means of giving you back some money on purchases. The most common form of the rebate is a mail-in variety and requires you to mail off certain pieces of information to a relevant address. Unless the particular rebate is an instant variety, it usually takes a few weeks for you to receive the amount specified on the rebate. A rebate is processed either through a manufacturer, especially in the case of an appliance or high-end electronics or a clearinghouse contracted out by a manufacturer.

3. Employee Discount

This is likely to be one of the most obvious options any cost-conscious individual will consider. While not all companies provide an employee discount, others may be so intertwined with other businesses that an employee of one such venue might have benefits that extend to other places not even connected to the same interest. For example, a major clothier closely connected to a major city might extend or modify its employee discount so that it can apply to any other tourist or heritage site found within that same city.

4. Go Couponing

This ancient method of saving money is still a valid form of keeping a few dollars in your pocket than you otherwise would. While you might balk at spending half an hour clipping out individual coupons, it is worth mentioning that even coupon apps have been updated for the digital age. Several grocery stores have even advanced their customer loyalty cards to incorporate a digital couponing feature. In most cases, these modern coupons processes involve going to the store's website, sign in to your account, and skimming over all of the deals that you care about. Once you have saved all of your preferred coupons, you can sign out and they will automatically be applied when you swipe your card to check out your groceries.

Even if you do not have a customer loyalty card, there are plenty of coupon websites that will give you an entire grid of manufacturer coupons to print out for physical use or save to a mobile device for digital scanning. It is also worth mentioning that you should also look into seeing what stores will allow you to combine store coupons with manufacturer's coupons. The key to saving money through coupons is to maximize your potential discount, finding where there is an overlap in savings and exploiting it to your advantage.

5. Use Discount Browser Extensions/Apps

This option is strictly for shopping online but is no less valuable to the cost-conscious. Several applications are keyed to hundreds, if not thousands of stores. Simply activate the app while you are perusing a website it interacts with and you can get real-time notifications on the state of an item's price over time, to see if it is at an all-time low or on the rise. Additionally, some of these apps have a feature that can be activated when you are ready to check out. With a single click, you can have the app filter through every possible known discount code to see which, if any will apply to your particular purchase.

If you were ever in the market to save some scratch, you have hopefully learned at least one avenue you had not considered. Whether you are shopping while at home or out buying things in the physical world, there are plenty of ways to cut costs without ever having to sacrifice any quality.