Bargain Hunter?

Brandon likes to give me a hard time when it comes to my preferences.  He believes he could line up three versions of the same item that all cost three different prices and inevitably I would pick the most expensive item.  And, most times he is probably right.  It's not that I think I need expensive items, I just tend to gravitate towards them.  This is not something that should come as a surprise to him, though.  I even believe my parents warned him about that before we got married so he knew what he was getting in to.

Along with having expensive taste, I'm not the best bargain hunter because I get impatient.  I wish I was the type (or had the time) to scour the end-of-season sales to score good deals, but it always seems by the time I get to the sales everything is picked over.  So, in the past I just haven't wasted my time hunting and digging through sale racks.  That is until recently...

I mentioned yesterday that I scored a huge deal on the patio chairs that I had been eyeing all season.  Well, would you believe me if I told you I got four chairs for the price of one?  No?  Here is the proof!

If you do the math, I got these chairs for 70% off!!!  This is something for the record books, my friends.  Because I browse Crate and Barrel's website at least twice a week, I was able to catch the sale pretty early and made the purchase.  I think Brandon was shocked when I told him of the deal.  In fact, he might have been speechless.  And I have never been so excited to announce such a deal to him!

But, the bargain hunting didn't stop there.  Oh no.  I'm on a roll now.  This past weekend, we were killing some time before dinner so we stopped in Banana Republic.  Brandon was looking for sunglasses and I was looking for anything that was cute and fun (I had a little extra money burning a hole in my pocket).  Well, we browsed around and I found a top that I liked, but I wanted to try it on with a pair of grey pants to see what it would look like.  I didn't currently have a pair of grey pants that fit, but I had planned on purchasing some in the near future.  The kind sales clerk told me there were still a few pairs of grey pants on the sale rack and on that particular day they were offering an additional 25% off the sale prices.  Knowing my luck, there wouldn't be any pants my size, but sure enough there was one pair in my size!  Again, this never happens. 

To make a long story short, the shirt that I originally liked did not look as cute on me as it did on the hanger and neither did any of the other shirts I tried on, but I did walk out with those pants that we only paid $16 for!  Can you believe that?  I didn't see the original price of the pants, but I'm sure they were priced similarly to pants I've gotten before and I figure these pants were roughly 80% off.  I was proud.  Brandon was shocked (and proud) and we both left happy!

Moral of this story - I think I might be turning into a bargain hunter!

Bargain Hunter Wanted

Maybe it is the time of year with all of the sales at the stores or maybe it is because I keep hearing about all of these great deals that people are getting or all of the money someone saved by using coupons, but I've decided I want to learn how to be a bargain hunter.

I am not the type of person who can plan my grocery list based on the grocery store sales or travel around the city to different stores to find the best deals.  I just don't have the patience for that.  I also can't bring myself to face the dreaded Wal-Mart because I don't want to battle the masses of people who are there meandering through the aisles as if they are the only people in the store. 

I've tried clipping coupons before but find I clip them for things I don't really need and end up spending money on unnecessary items just so I can use a coupon.  Or even worse, I forget the take the coupons to the store.  Our grocery store did have a brilliant idea, though.  They decided to track what we buy at the grocery store, using our shopper's savings card that we scan before each purchase, and they send us coupons based on the stuff we buy regularly.  However, we only get them about once a quarter. 

The other thing I'm horrible about is on-the-spot deals.  Just like this weekend.  My mom and I were out shopping and I needed to get some face wash.  Well, my face wash costs $18, but if I spent $35 I had the choice of picking out a free half-size bottle of face wash or a mask.  So, I went ahead and got a spot remover just so I could get the free gift.  This might have been a deal if I was already planning on getting the spot remover, but in my instance, it was not a deal. 

I wish, more than anything, that I could actually learn the art of bargain hunting.  I know my husband probably wishes the same thing, too.  If there was a bargain hunting class, I would definitely sign up.  Or, if there was a person willing to give me private lessons I would love that even more!  I would also accept any tips or tricks anyone has to share.  In the mean time, I will just keep living vicariously through others.