New Shopping Strategy Part 2

Some of the best advice I ever received for being a good home manager was to run my home like a business, but with a lot more love! After being raised in the business world in my family's business, attending business school, and working in the world of supply chain management for 5 years I find this advice very practical! I take the tools I used in supply purchasing and planning and apply them to my home management practices!

Last week I talked about the importance of a strategy, my new shopping strategy, and focused on groceries. But with no CVS in sight, Babies R Us and Target being much further away, and no double coupons I have had to rethink how we purchase toiletries, medicines, diapers, and other household things. So this week is part 2 focusing on my shopping strategy for all household and toiletry purchases.

When we lived in Southern CA, before I smartened up, I would just go to Target 4-6 times a year and buy what we needed. While this was certainly cheaper than the grocery store or drug store, I could do better, which I eventually worked hard on. At our last home in Southern CA we had exceedingly close 2 CVS drug stores, Babies R Us stores, and 2 Target stores, so popping in to each whenever there was a good sale on one or two things was no big deal, no extra time, and always on the way to somewhere. So I was a bit sloppy in my planning, I just popped in when there was a good sale! But it worked.

That will not be the case anymore!

Babies R Us and Target are far enough away to be their own special trip!

Time for a new plan. Here it is:

One thing I have learned is that if Costco has a coupon on something it makes it very hard to beat their price. So I am looking through their coupons carefully and buying what I can and what we need. Also, gone are the days of cheap and free toothpaste as our dentists have said we need certain things in our toothpaste...sigh.

I am watching the Walgreens flier to see what is available there, but to be honest it is not great yet as I am missing weeks of coupons. (Even though it is on the way to most things).

And we try to pick up at the grocery store whatever we see that we use and is a good price.

This is working great for everything but diapers and wipes!

When Jen commented about diapers last week too I figured it was worth talking about!

In Southern CA the best deal I could find on Pampers diapers was usually if I bought the big box at Babies R Us with a box of wipes and used their $7 off coupon and manufacturers coupons. Due to sensitive skin we stick to Pampers (we tried others, it was not fun). Recently we discovered Costco sensitive wipes which were a great price and we can use! This made the Babies R Us deal not so great any more. After some research I found the Diapers.com price to be the best for us, especially considering they take coupons (via mail), have ecoupons, and free shipping over $50. This ends up not only being a good price, but it saves me a trip (remember the 1 car thing) and saves me time. For me it is an all around good thing! Not to say that I will not keep my eyes pealed for a good deal, but my options are more limited, and the Target sales have been more limited too!

If you want to try Diapers.com, you can use my code KRIS3192 to get $10 off your first order of $49 or more, which is also where the free shipping starts. (I will get a credit too, I think $5)

These may not be the most rock bottom cheap methods of doing things but my strategies maintain an important balance of saving money, saving time, maintaining the quality my family wants, and meeting my family's needs. Those were the key factors in making our decisions for our shopping strategy, and also a big part of my stocking plan...but that is a conversation for next week!

Is this a series you are interested in? What would you like to see covered? (Clearly we take requests!)

Series:
Part 1: New Shopping Strategy