Here to help
Behold, the buying calendar.
It’s the ultimate consumer tool. If you’re planning to spend money in 2018, you need to get organized. Why? Because businesses are.
They know when you’re likely to buy and are constantly trying to manipulate you with a barrage of ads and armies of highly trained sales associates who don’t take “no” for an answer. Read more “Plan your 2018 purchases now, while you still can. Here’s how.”
What should you leave at home when you go shopping this summer? Jennifer Boaro prefers this strategy: Put your credit cards into a cup of water. Then store it in the freezer. Read more “Leave this at home when you go shopping (or you’ll regret it)”
Cindy Mesaros has the perfect antidote to compulsive shopping. Read more “Take this shopping: Proven strategies for spending less during sale season”
Pay attention to the last digit of the price tag. It could tell you if you’re getting a bargain, or paying full price.
Read more “Rather be shopping? You’ve gotta know the code”
When Ben Blout invoked a big-box store’s “low price promise” after discovering a lower price on his merchandise, he learned something customers rediscover every holiday shopping season: some restrictions apply.
Make that lots of restrictions.
“They told me they won’t match any printed advertisement that is not valid for at least one week,” says Blout. “Specifically, their price match excludes timed events like early bird specials and door busters.”
Fine print is a problem any time of the year, of course. But most consumers get foiled by it around the holidays, in part because more people are shopping, and in part because of the extra offers with the extra restrictions.
Read more “The unauthorized guide to fine print, holiday edition”
