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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Making Wise Spending Choices


I stopped by Kmart today armed with a few coupons that I thought might work well for my Kmart Super Doubles Round 2. (See Round 1 HERE.) My husband dropped me off and headed out to run a few errands. I grabbed a cart and started searching. I grabbed a couple of great deals and then some that were just good deals. In order to meet the $25 minimum purchase requirement, I even threw in some so-so deals.

When I stopped to add up everything before checking out, I realized that I was about to spend $20 out-of-pocket. Now, that $20 was going to get me $37-worth of merchandise. But I took a good hard look at what was in my cart. I realized that I didn't really need ANY of it!

Now that I have a healthy stockpile built up, I don't usually NEED to shop. Sure, I need to grab fresh produce and dairy items each week. But, other than that, I can usually create a meal plan using just what's on-hand. And we have enough personal care items to replace what we're currently using a couple of times over. Why would I want to get deals that added up to only 50% off when I know that within the next few weeks, I may be able to get some of those items free or almost-free? I would much rather keep my stockpile stocked with freebies than pay 50% to add to it.

So I was able to put back the double coupon items that I had chosen and walk out with just the shower curtain liner and the two throw pillows that I intended to buy. (By the way, Kmart has some really great housewares items in their clearance section right now.) I didn't spend the extra $20. For me, that was a wise choice.

Have you ever stopped yourself mid-shopping and realized that you were just shopping for the sake of shopping?

3 comments:

Anne - Mommy Has to Work said...

Great post! Sometimes it's just not worth it!

katy said...

Boy, can I relate to this. It may sound like a good deal but not if you don't need it. I need to tatoo that onto my hand.

Crystal The Coupon Momma said...

Yes I did that this weekend in CVS. I'm new to doing CVS and i wanted to use my $4/20 coupon so i got some thing and went out to my van and said i really don't need them and i take them back in lol.