With a little help of your smartphone, score in-store savings based on your location. Marcy shares how taking two minutes to download a free mobile app can help find discounts near you.
You left the house to return borrowed (and somewhat chewed) library books and on your way to take your toddler to your sister’s house, you notice you are blocks from the mall. You think to yourself, “Run errand now or make time to do this later?”
In the interest of location, you opt for stopping now. With high hopes of running in and out without making a little somebody cranky, you quickly get in, grab what you wanted, and head to the register. You hesitate, “I wonder if this is the best deal.”
Realizing you just don’t have time, you pay for your purchase and get back on the road.
On busy days, sometimes it is rather difficult to think about looking for a coupon. But getting discounts no longer has to feel like a game of hide-and-seek.
A few weeks back at a girls’ night event, a friend squealed with excitement to share a new way to save money with me. It’s a free mobile app called GeoQpons. Since then, I downloaded this easy tool that finds coupons near where I am, where I am traveling, or alphabetically by store name simply from my cell phone screen. All I have to do is open the app, pull up the coupon, and show it to the cashier. And, I can even email the coupon for printing to friends and myself. We’ve gotten discounts on deli sandwiches and on a new kitchen faucet (ours suddenly broke).
The GeoQpons app is available for free download for Android and iPhone.
How do you find savings on the run?
– Marcy, Taking Clipping Out of Couponing
I struggle with the couponing thing, because I feel like coupons entice me to buy things I wouldn’t otherwise (i.e. junk food), and there are rarely, if ever, coupons for things I do buy (produce, meat, dairy, etc.). Any ideas for where to find coupons/deals on healthy foods?
Hi Jill:
You bring up one of the most frequent couponing frustrations. While you are correct, there are hardly (if ever) coupons on produce, meat, and dairy products), you can save money if you change your approach to healthy eating. I share a few ways to do this in my other articles – “Streamlining the Food Budget” (http://mamamoderne.com/2011/09/22/streamlining-the-food-budget/) and “Guilt Free Grocery Shopping.”
The reality is, couponing or saving money is not limited solely to food. The traditional method, and much of what we want to see on tv, only highlights this area of savings. There are actually hundreds (if not thousands of dollars) out there waiting to be saved on other purchases such as hygiene products, home improvements, eating out, and other things people normally buy. A few other helpful tips can be found in many of these articles that I wrote: http://mamamoderne.com/?s=marcy
Thanks for voicing this question! I’m sure many of us were wondering the same thing.
Marcy
Oops. Here’s the link to “Guilt Free Grocery Shopping”: http://mamamoderne.com/2011/02/03/guilt-free-grocery-shopping/
Thanks, Marcy–some great ideas! I especially like the idea of freezing a month of meals since I have a baby on the way!
Glad to hear!