I’ve found that patience and planning helps me save a lot of money and I’ll show you how with two easy steps.
Planning Ahead
One of the really nice things about being able to buy things online is that you can build a cart as you think of things and have it ready for when you’re ready to purchase. You can do this in store as well, it’s just easier online.
This also means that you can wait for savings and plan ahead for things that you need.
I do this with staple items that we use up from time to time, such as gluten free flour, noodles, sugar, animal crackers, and more. I plan ahead enough to make sure we don’t run out of the items then place the order when a deal comes along.
I also do this with personal care items such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, and tissue. I have them in the back of my mind when we need them then when a good deal comes along I buy!
Target is especially great at having deals on items where if you spend a certain amount, you get a gift card or credit toward your next order for $5-$10. I tend to stock up when those come along. I did the same with diapers for my 3 boys when all 3 of them were in diapers at once!
I actually just did this yesterday with Vitacost.
Patience Paid Off
For weeks I had been building my cart at Vitacost, where we get our specialty food/gluten free food. Vitacost has a lot more than gluten free foods but that’s what we tend to buy from there because our local stores either don’t carry it or have it for a lot more money.
Anyway, I had been building my cart and it was getting to the point that if I didn’t order soon we’d run out of some of our kids’ favorite items.
Since we shop Vitacost often, I’m familiar with their deals and I know to wait for the 20% off sitewide coupon to buy as that’s their best coupon they offer. It was a Friday and they tend to not have new sales on Fridays so I waited until Monday in hopes that their best deal would come along.
The waiting paid off! On Monday morning I got an email from them that there was a 20% off sitewide coupon for all food and beverages.
I got all excited and ready to place my order with this coupon then realized, they likely had other coupons I could use on my cart as well.
I was also able to find a coupon for the Bob’s Red Mill items that were in my cart and even added a couple more that I knew I’d be needing in the next couple of months. Overall, by waiting, I saved $28 on my order. Well worth the wait!
Below I have an image of the deals part of their website and on the right I show how much I saved with two coupons I used including that site wide one I had been waiting for.
Save Even More with Rakuten
In addition to saving money by planning ahead and waiting for coupons, I saved even more by using Rakuten which you can see with the purple R with the green check mark in the upper right of my Vitacost cart.
For this order, I got 3% back which was about $3. Not a huge windfall but it adds up over time! If you want to know more about how I save money with Rakuten, check out my blog post all about it, including how you can get $30 the first time you use it!
Throughout my parenting journey with 3 kids on a single income, I have become an expert in living comfortably within our means without feeling restricted and I will help you do the same.
I'm a former school psychologist who left my career to stay home with my children, hence the one-income family and needing to adapt to that mentality while still living comfortably.