Shopping Tips Online

I look forward to the weekly ads and coupons in my Sunday newspaper, but if you don’t get a Sunday paper, there are still ways to find coupons and the savings are no farther away then your computer! Most stores offer their weekly ads online. Just go to the store’s website and look for a weekly ad link. You can browse page by page and get a close up look at the sale items. Lots of times, I’ll forget and throw out my Target ad and find myself browsing online to see what they have on sale.

You can also check out various websites for printable coupons. Check out Wow-Coupons for tons of printable coupons. You also can find them on some of your favorite products’ websites. Try this site for some great Target coupons!

Target, Coupons, Newspaper, Sale Ad

I am a list person. I make grocery lists, even if it just contains a few items, because I have a tendency to forget even the simple stuff like milk if it’s not written down.

Now there is a new study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, that shows that making lists actually leads to more impulse buying. A Duke University study has shown that when we make lists based on memory, we tend to shop off the list, making less-than-great choices.

“We find that consumers who must generate options from memory are more likely to select fun, hedonistic, and sinful options over sensible options or ‘appropriate’ options,” Yuval Rottenstreich of Duke University said in a statement.

Here’s my take on this.

I have always told people that list-making is a good thing. It keeps us from forgetting, and is supposed to keep us from blowing the budget on unnecessary items. I will admit it, though. I do shop off the list frequently. I use both “memory-based” and “stimulus-based” decision-making – I buy both what I have on the list as well as things I see in the store. Is there anything wrong with that? Okay, if what you have on the list is milk, eggs and bread to feed your kids and you end up buying Kool-aid, cookies and potato chips instead, they may have a point. Like anything, I think it has more to do with the person making the list and their impulse control than the list-making itself.

Lists, Grocery Shopping, Making Grocery Lists