Bargain shopping is about exercising your intelligence and creativity to meet your material needs, rather than spending a stack of money.

Here’s the basic tips you need to know to get the best bargains.

Browse, browse, browse

To get great bargains you need to know what’s available, and where. How do you know this? By browsing a lot.

Whenever you have a few minutes and you’re near a shop, take a look inside. See what sort of things the store stocks, and what their prices are like. If the stock and prices are good, make a mental note that it’s a good place to go for that kind of item. Soon you’ll know exactly where to go get anything you need at a great price.

You can do the same thing with online shopping — browse and bookmark when you have time to look for the best deals, so you have a personal bargain shopping directory at your disposal when you need it.

Don’t impulse buy

You can only browse enough to know where the really great deals are, if you don’t purchase every single well-priced thing you spot. Before you buy something, make sure you really need it.

Tip: if you didn’t know you needed it ’til you saw it, you can probably live perfectly happily without it.

Keep an open mind

When you’re out browsing, take a look in places you might not normally consider. Some fantastic stores are hidden behind grubby shop fronts and in odd locations — they don’t need the flash to attract people in when the deals are great (and remember, the flashier the store, the more the goods have to be marked up to pay for it).

Also consider:

• secondhand items,
• things that people have dumped on the street,
• Freecycle,
• last year’s model
• items with minor damage.

These can all save you enormous amounts of be sources of fantastic bargains.

Know what’s desirable — and avoid it

Different things are desirable at different times, and in different places. If you buy outside these times and places, you’ll save a lot of money.

Two examples: flowers cost more on Valentine’s Day, and warm jackets are most expensive in the first cold snap each year. If you can anticipate your needs and buy ahead, or make do with what you’ve got and wait until after the peak demand time, you’ll get a much better deal.

Avoid ‘convenience’ options

Convenience is a strong selling point for retailers. If they convince you that buying everything from them is the easiest way to do things, they can charge you more for the privilege. If you can avoid these options, you’ll save a lot of money.

For example, we save a lot of money by shopping at six different specialty stores instead of buying everything at the supermarket. Most weeks, we visit the greengrocer, bakery, Italian deli, Asian grocery store, butcher and fishmonger to buy our food. Because we’re served quickly in each store, it takes the same amount of time and effort as walking miles in supermarket aisles and waiting at the checkout would… but we eat better and spend less because we do it.

Try all your options

Whenever you have an opportunity to try an alternative to something you use right now, give it a go. You never know when a better, cheaper option will become available.

For things like clothing this is easy: take things into the change room that you wouldn’t normally consider and see what happens. If they’re hideous, they can go back on the rack.

For other things, keep a look out for samples and testers. Friends’ places can also be a great place to try things — about a quarter of my beauty finds come directly from my best friend’s makeup bag!

Buy ‘exotic’ things where they’re normal

‘Exotic’ items often attract enormous markups — but what’s exotic to one person is completely standard to another. You can work this to your advantage by finding out who considers the ‘exotic’ items you like to be completely normal, and buying there.

Asian groceries are cheap in Chinatown. Great olives are cheapest in Italian or Greek areas. Longchamp and Petite Bateau cost less in France, whereas Thailand is great for silk.

You can probably think of a dozen more examples!

Read your local guides

In most areas, there are bargain shopping guides available. They can give you some good ideas about places you might want to check out.

Just be warned that ‘bargain’ shopping is a big industry now, and retailers know they can make good profits offering their stock at 10-20% off in a shabbier version of their regular stores.

Hold out for better deals — I regularly find beautiful clothes for 50-90% off retail and you can too.

Share your bargain shopping tips

The best resource a bargain hunter can have is great friends. Swapping your best tips with one another helps you all get great deals.

If none of your ‘real life’ friends are interested in bargain hunting, don’t despair. You’ll find lots of bargain shoppers to share tips with online… for example, right here at The Bargain Queen!

And if you find a really brilliant deal, make sure you tell me too!

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