The magic words....

 If you're like any other typical person out there, you know what magical words I'm talking about. Words like, 'sale, clearance, sale on clearance, 50% off, 75% off!'. Yes, those heavenly words that inevitably draw us into our favorite stores and get us to whip out those debit (or even credit) cards without any hesitation. I mean, how can you possibly resist the opportunity to get the item you've been wanting, for a fraction of the original cost? Most of the time, you can't. It's thoughts like those that the stores are masters at making sure you cannot resist. Having worked in the clothing and sporting goods realm of retail for some time, my eyes were opened to most of the tricks these big stores play to get us to spend as much money as possible at their establishments. In return, I've learned some tricks of my own to resist their marketing schemes and save money.

One of the biggest things I learned; you can almost always find that same item that is in the store, and on sale, for even less online. One example, my wedding shoes. I'm a pretty picky person when it comes to fashion, not quite a label snob, but pretty darn close. This meant that my wedding shoes had to be perfect and I wasn't going to settle for any shoes that were a knock off, or a discount brand. Not a chance. So when I stumbled upon the absolute perfect pair of shoes by Iron Fist for the wedding and saw them on sale, I almost threw my credit card at the sales associate that instant. Even though they were completely out of my price range I was willing to pay whatever the price tag said for perfection. What stopped me? Two nagging voices in my head; God and my Mother. God was telling me, 'What have I taught you about buying items within your means?' My Mother was telling me, ' What have I taught you about being patient and finding a better deal elsewhere that's in your price range?' After about 15 minutes of an inner battle with these voices, I put the shoes down and walked away seemingly defeated. Ultimately, I'm glad I did. After about two hours of searching on the Internet, I found the exact shoes I saw at the mall online, and for $20 cheaper! With free shipping of course. You see, these stores are counting on your impulsive buying to take over and spend hundreds of dollars at their store. They know that as soon as they put one of those magic words in the title, customers will do exactly what I did and whip out that debit card without a second thought.

Second thing; you can almost always find it at an outlet store for less. One recent example is my new addition to the purse collection I have, a brand new Kate Spade purse. How much was it? $67.85. How did I get it? By going to the outlet mall knowing that this is the month all the major stores are looking to get rid of their 'last season' items. I don't think many people realise that outlet malls are on the same exact sale cycle as their regular priced sister stores. Which means all of those items in there are most likely now double discounted. Which brings me back to the Kate Spade purse, it was originally $190, the outlet marked it down to around $170. The mark down wasn't a big difference, which again, that's what they don't want you to notice. Like most of the other stores they had a 'mid year' sale, AKA 'last season' sale. Everything in the store was 75% off, which is what made the purse so cheap. At least, cheap for a designer label purse.

These two lessons I've learned have really helped me save some big money when purchasing items. I know that many of you out there may not have the time to scour for a better deal online for two hours, or have the luxury of time to drive to an outlet mall for better deals. That's okay! Although I would suggest looking at the typical re-sale websites like Ebay or Poshmark before you give up completely. Sometimes that 15 minute search can save you some major bucks on an item you didn't think could be found elsewhere. Another thing to keep in mind; no matter how badly you may want that item, if it's out of your budget JUST SAY NO. I know it may go against your nature, but honestly it's worth it. Don't even put it on credit, UNLESS you can afford to pay it off the instant you get home. Otherwise, you will ultimately end up paying for two items instead of one with all the interest they charge you. I learned that hard lesson multiple times over the years.

With all of that said, I hope you can pull some useful tips out of this post readers! See you next time!