Stretch Your Dollar by Comparing Prices

No doubt you will agree with me when I say that many people are financially struggling right now. The cost of living seems to far outlay wages and people are cutting corners to make ends meet. One thing that I have found to be extremely beneficial is something so simple, it can often be overlooked. Making this one basic move has helped me stretch my dollar further. Compare prices. It sounds obvious and too simple, but my speeding habits did a complete turn around after I started.

One of the biggest areas that I benefited from learning to compare prices is in grocery shopping each week. Rather than just running off to whatever store is closest or more convenient to me, I began to really search the ads and flyers to determine which stores would give me the best deals on the items I needed. I began each week by making a list of all of the grocery items I needed and then I only allowed myself to compare prices for those things. I didn’t let myself just go to the store and fill my cart with whatever caught my eye. No, I had a list and I took time to carefully compare prices. It was amazing the money I saved by purchasing items at stores with the lowest prices.

Learning to compare prices benefited me in other ways than just my grocery bill. Take going to the movie the nature for an example. I took time to compare prices of the different show times and I began to see movies only in the afternoon when the prices were more reasonable. While this only saves me a few dollars each time I visit the theater, it adds up when you compare prices for all the movies you see in a full year.

I’ll admit it, I love coffee. One month I decided to compare prices of buying a coffee at a local coffee shop with making my own cup of coffee at home. Not surprisingly, I can save a lot of money by just making my own coffee. I found that I can even let myself purchase some of the best beans that are sold and I still come up with money to spare when I compare prices with local coffee shops.

It is small changes like going to an afternoon movie or brewing my own cup of coffee that have really changed my budget. I had no idea the amount of money that could be saved simply by learning to always compare prices.