There are a lot of bargain hunters out there, I just found out. Deals are all over the place, of course, but the better-than-average ones get snagged really quickly. As in, “throw the item into the shopping cart and run for the register” quickly!
My wife asked me to get some more powdered milk. We order this grocery online from Walmart.com. They offer Home Free delivery, which is free shipping on qualified purchases of over $45. That, and the price is a bit cheaper than it is in the store.
Stack the discounts!
We stand to knock another 5% off of this already low price. My rewards credit card gives me 1% off the bat. I can usually find discounted Walmart.com e-eift cards for 2% off of face value at, for example, Raise.com. If I go to the discount gift card site through a rebate portal like BeFrugal.com or MrRebates.com, then I can knock another 2% off of that! (I used BeFrugal.com for this purchase.)
By having a few things in place, it's perhaps a few minutes' work to save money and time with this part of our grocery purchase.
Great deals pop up all tie time
The first time I visited Raise.com today, there were about 30 e-gift cards available for Walmart.com, with discounts to face value ranging from 1.2% to 2.0%. There were only a couple available at the 2.0% discount. Those get picked up first, obviously!
When I went back a bit later, there was a physical Walmart gift card available. The discount was a lot better — 5.5% off!
I've had a good experience so far with Raise.com, so I put that physical gift card in my shopping cart, too. Why not? We shop at Walmart all the time, so buying a gift card for less than face value is essentially a cash discount for us.
Swiped out from under my nose
The step before I completed the checkout process, I got an error message. They couldn't fulfill my order because someone else had already bought the physical gift card.
The one with the nice discount.
Gone — within less than a minute. Aaargh!
I can see why Raise.com does it this way. They make their money when sales are made. They don't make money if people tie up the merchandise in their shopping carts, but don't buy. So, the item goes to the first person who actually makes the charge to their credit card. It might be in a bunch of shopping carts at the same time, but that by itself doesn't “hold” the item.
The takeaway from this is that if you see a deal that you know is a good one, act fast. It could be gone in sixty seconds. Literally.
I use the online shopping and coupon codes infrequently because I am shopping for two. I personally like Target and my instant 5% rebate credit card.