Walmart. A place we all know and love. A place many of us might have spent long nights in, waiting for our dads to pick out the right cut of steak or for our mom to finally get done talking with a long-lost friend she reunited with in Aisle 5. However, as we have gotten older our own taste might have changed. Those expensive snacks and fancy desserts we always begged our parents to buy are suddenly looking a lot more.. expensive - especially now that its our hard-earned money we are spending.
As our wallets are getting tighter and the Chick-fil-A lines getting longer, it may be the case that our innocence as a spender may be lessening too. Have you found yourself lingering in the clearance section for a little too long? Have you secretly been dumpster diving for extra coupons from the community trash bin? Has eating expiring meat become a little too tempting? Have you tried a billion different ramen variations, based on the singular other ingredient you can find in your ominously-empty (and moldy) Village shelves?
If you have experienced these or similar symptoms (which are totally not inspired by ones I experience daily) you may be on the brink of becoming a Friendly Neighborhood Scammer. That's right, a no- good, horrible person.. jk, being a "Scammer" is actually not that bad, at least in the way I mean it. It just means you like to think outside the box, or shopping cart in this case, in order to find a good AND legal way of saving money that other people might not think of.
Here's my insider scoop to the top 7 best ways to get a good deal this Christmas :)
1) Download the App.
Idk which grocery store you go to, but they all have something similar! A simple marketing tactic is some kind of "rewards program," app, coupon book, or email list that will give you exclusive insights and offers. They get you coming back for more, and you save more money because you know how to play their game.
2) Pick a fave.
Once you are in on the scoop, stick with it! Keep your go-to spot as the place where you try to spend as least money as possible. Then your conscience won't hurt as much if you spluge once in a blue moon on going out somewhere nice or buying boba, because you'll know you kept in your budget for basic groceries.
3) DONT GET ALL THE CREDIT CARDS
I know I said rewards programs are good, but be careful. Big corporations love college kids, and they know we're already in debt! Don't let the companies fool you. Every time a business looks up your credit, it is recorded, and thus opening a lot of cards isn't a good look. It is also easy to get yourself into even worse debt. Do your research, and maybe open one card if you can to get rewards and build credit, but be alert.
4) You can literally return anything. Yes, Anything.
If you are nice and have a decent reason, they'll do the return for you if they can. If you don't like it, don't use it, tried it out and doesn't work for you, or even if its broken or expired, give returning it a try. If it goes on sale or is cheaper online, they can price match it, or you can return it and buy it for the cheaper price. The worse they can say is no, which they probably won't. Just trust me on this one.
5) Just ask!
Ask for birthday discounts. Ask for student discounts. Ask for broken discounts if its defective. If your order isn't right, or you waited a long time for help, being honest, kind, and understanding, they may give you a gift card for your inconvenience. Don't be a Karen, but its no harm to mention something nicely, especially since the workers are at no loss and are being paid to help you if they can. No harm in asking.
6) Hot take: Self-checkout is a lie.
Self -checkout. False. Don't be deceived, those workers are checking you out like those Freshmen who you say hi to once and they think you are their soul mate. Everyone thinks it's supposed to be what, faster? More private? Contrary to popular belief, self-checkout is slow, awkward, and embarrassing. Picture it this way, the lines of people in the walkway, the workers calling you out when you don't move forward fast enough, not having space for your cart, items falling everywhere, and no room to bag anything. The worse part is having the workers loom over your back as you attempt to find the barcode on a huge pizza box, but then having to painfully call them over to help you delete a item that didn't scan for 5 minutes and then scanned 5 times too many. Oof. Self-checkout is you doing the job that you as the consumer are paying the cashiers to do, and, they are faster, more efficient, and trained! Customers are not. Embarrassing.
7) Don't actually scam!!
Seriously, don't try. Use these helpful hacks, and think outside the box to save money. But don't take it too far and do anything illegal. The workers will know the difference.