I’m of the generation where online shopping was a new thing. We used to have to go to the shops to see what was available and what was new. Now you just need a device connected to the Internet. You don’t even need a computer to do online shopping now everything is available right there on your phone!
With this new phenonium, you did have to watch what you spent. Being able to shop whilst watching Eastenders did get me into a bit of trouble. Shopping become so easy and it was easy to lose track of the amount of spending is done.
There are two things that changed my spending habits. The first was saving for our Disney Wedding. I now love to save and if there is no money in my savings account I start to feel out of sorts. The second big event that changed my spending habits were becoming a family. Our income dramatically changed when I was on maternity leave. We had to learn to live off half of the income we were used to. I’m pleased to say we were able to do this and we also saved to go back to Florida during this time too. That is an achievement that I am very proud of.
Saving Money With the Online Grocery Shop
I always find that if we physically go to the shop to do our food shopping we always buy things that we do not need. Doing our food shopping online means we’re not picking up the things we don’t require. This hopefully also makes our food shopping a little bit healthier. To save even more money I normally get my food shop from two different places. This does take time and also requires planning. As there is a minimum spend required for the deliveries this works better if you plan a week’s worth of meals in advance. I make our shopping list and place the order with one supermarket. I will then cross-reference my order with a different supermarket. As each supermarket has different deals at different times I can normally cut the shopping bill by at least £10 if not more.
If you are new to online food shopping you can normally find money off deals for your very first shop. This will help reduce the cost of your bill. As there are quite a few supermarkets that do online shopping you could probably reduce your bill by quite a lot in the first month by signing up to the different companies and placing an order.
Register For Mailing Lists
If you have your eye on something from a certain brand or shop see if they offer a discount for signing up to their mailing list. You can sometimes get 10 to 20% off your first purchase. If you’re very lucky there might even be a 30% off deal. Being on the mailing list also means you will know about the brands latest deals and sales.
Shop The Online Sales
It might mean getting up early to log on, or buying stuff to put away but you can often find some great deals in the online sales. I tend to buy Christmas presents in the August sales and put them away. I also buy the next age up in children’s clothes to put away for them to grow into.
Search for Voucher Deals
If you are looking for a certain item do an internet search to see if there are discount vouchers around for the product. Sometimes you might be lucky and find a voucher that will help you save some money on your purchase. Home Depot coupons are perfect if you are looking to make improvements to your home.
Search For your Product Online
It sounds simple enough but just searching for your desired item in a search engine should give you a list of where it is available and the price it is listed for. Always make sure the website you decide to buy your item from is secure. A green padlock next to the web address will indicate if it is a secure site. We also always try to use a credit card for all online purchases as this gives you another level of cover. We have experienced having money taken from our card but the product we ordered never arrived. Thankfully we were given a full refund from our credit card company.
There are now websites and apps available that can search for vouchers and compare prices for you. Sello is an example of a company that offers this service.
Always Use Cashback Sites
Getting cashback on your purchases is a fantastic bonus. I always check on cashback sites if I can earn money against my purchases. Any cashback I receive I then take that off of the cost of the item. These sites are really simple to use you just need to visit the sites first and click-through to your desired website from there.
DISCLOSURE – This is a collaborative post.
