Being a mom has never been easy and doing it in an apprehensive economy makes it all that more difficult. It's a tough balancing act to get the kids everything they need, save a little money, and keep within the family budget, and that's before life throws one of its little unexpected surprises at you.
Here are some smart mom tips to save time and money between shuttling the kids around, taking care of the household chores, and running the 101 errands you have to do every day.
1. Shop online instead of hitting the malls and strip stores. Do some preparation ahead of time and you can save some real money. Signup for your favorite store's newsletter and they will e-mail you usually 48 hours of so before a sale and let you know what the best bargains and deals are going to be. Most offer online coupon codes, in-store coupons and other promotional money-saving tidbits. You probably wouldn't have learned about them unless you were signed up for the newsletter.
2. When you're shopping for more expensive items price comparisons can save you a bundle. There are several online price comparisons sites. You could do a Google search for "price compare product" and come up with half a dozen good possibilities. It can also pay-off to shop for the product at several different company online stores. Look around the page for discounts and coupon codes to save even more. Don't be in a hurry to buy because you can almost always find a cheaper price if you look hard and long enough.
3. If you do a lot of in-store shopping you should know that iPhone has a free app to scan product bar codes. All you have to do to use this little money-saving gem is point your iPhone camera at a product bar code. A few seconds later you'll get a description of the item and maybe as many as a couple pages of listings of online stores that are selling the same item at a cheaper price. Because you have the proof in your hand maybe you could even get a discount at the store that would match one of the online prices.
4. Many stores accept competitor coupons, expired coupons, and coupons that you can print off the Internet. You will not know unless you ask. its shopping wisely and it doesn't hurt. The worst thing that can happen is that you save some money.
If you can stretch the budget a little bit, all the better.
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