A Mother’s Load of Deals

“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.”—Jonathan Swift

I’ll be honest with you, I’m a sucker for a great deal. Part of the reason may be that bargain hunting is basically a recreational sport in my family of origin. My mother did a good job teaching my sisters and me the value of a buck. I have early memories of playing in the aisles of Pic ‘N Save while my mom shopped. She always shopped the sales and rarely paid full price. In our family, it became a game to see who could find the best deal. Winner got bragging rights until the next best deal was found.

However, my mother’s lessons went far deeper than bargain hunting. From an early age, she taught us to divide any money we received among a savings, a spending and a tithing fund. I recall her firm “no” every time I begged, pleaded and whined for one of the many temptations at the checkout specifically designed to trigger the parental torture response in children. I resented these limits at the time, but now I realize that by setting boundaries for me then, she was teaching me how to set boundaries for myself later.

Now I find myself following in her footsteps and attempting to do the same with my daughter.  My heart leapt when I heard my daughter say for the first time, “I guess I want it, but I don’t need it.” If I can save her the heartache of trying to dig herself out from underneath a mountain of debt, then I will consider it a personal victory because it is a pain I am all too familiar with.  One of the hardest and most important financial lessons of my life was when my mom refused to pay off my credit card debt the year after I graduated from college. I was shocked when she did not bail me out, but to this day I am grateful that she did not rescue me. I learned the hard way that incessantly buying things that you do not need, even when on sale, does not add up to a deal. 

Keeping that in mind and considering yourself forewarned, I cannot resist sharing my favorite places to find deals online:

1. Best New Money-Saving Feature: Glendora Patch’s Frugal Family. Check out Glendora Patch's new weekly feature, Frugal Family, where you can find local, updated deals on anything your family may need. 

2.     Best Bang for Your Buck: Social networking coupon sites. These are not your grandmother’s coupons. Sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, Tippr, Goldstar and FamilyFinds! offer significant discounts on everything from hot air balloon rides to Brazilian waxing. Some of them, like Groupon, are only activated if a certain number are purchased. Always make sure to read the fine print.

3.     Best Way To Get Your Buck Back: Online coupon sites. Restaurant.com offers deals such as $10 for a $25 off coupon, but near the end of the month reduces their fees by up to 70 percent, bringing them into the $3 or less range. Also, I never purchase anything online without checking to see if they are on Fatwallet.com or Ebates.com first. These sites not only list coupon discount codes, but will cut you a rebate check for a small portion of your percentage (typically 1 percent -10 percent, but sometimes more).

4.     Best Personal Secret Source: Yelp. I have always used Yelp.com for its comprehensive reviews, but I discovered now they note if a retailer is offering a special discount. If you want to search for anything in Glendora, leave the “Search for” box blank and type “Glendora” in the “Near” box, or you can search for a specific business or category. In the search results, look under the business name, then under the “Category” line. If it says, “Special offer”, with a little orange tag icon, then click on the business and the offer will be detailed in a box under the contact info.

5.     Best Personalized Source: Retailer’s websites and Facebook pages. If you have a favorite establishment, check out their website or Facebook page. Often times, they will list special deals or email you coupons. Domenico’s Jr. emails a weekly Tuesday special, The Parlour Wine Bar & Bistro website lists current promotions, The Cake Mamas Facebook page announces their giveaways and special flavors of the month…you get the idea.

6.     Best Prices: Freecyle and Craigslist. This one won’t cost you anything! The “Free” section of www.craigslist.org and www.freecycle.org lists things that people are trying to get rid of.  Just select your area and browse the listings (for Glendora Freecycle, you have to join the Yahoo! group). You can also post what you want to give away and experience the delight of keeping it out of our landfills and giving someone else a bargain!