Saving Money By Shopping Elsewhere

About 2 months ago I was talking with some friends online and we decided to get together, so after some chatting the decision came that they would come over to my place in about 2 hours. So I decided I would go to the grocery store and pick up a few snacks etc. and also I needed to shave and was out of shaving gel so I decided to just buy it at the grocery store which is only a 3 minute drive from my place. So when I arrived at Independent I found that they were in the middle of doing a major cleanup (at least that’s what I think they were doing), one section the shelves would be empty and a few employees were there cleaning them etc. so as a result the only shaving gel I could get was Exact, I usually buy Gillette shaving gel. I was in a hurry so I bought the Exact shaving gel and the snacks and went home. I was absolutely surprised when I shaved with this new gel that it was actually better then the Gillette I normally buy and it was almost $1 cheaper at that. I now have been using Exact shaving gel ever since. So I started to look at other products that I normally just skip buy and decided to once and a while skip buying the brand I usually buy and try out once of those other brands.

Here’s my opinions on some of those products, Exact antiseptic mouthwash, horrible taste, burns and I really don’t think it does anything for bad breath. Equate denture cleaner, I like it, does a better job then Polident. NoName bbq chips, not bad about the same as any name brand chips I’ve bought Lays etc. but the NoName bags have more inside and are a bit cheaper.

Not only have I been trying out different name brands with surprising results in most cases but I’ve been checking out stores that I normally would just skip by such as Liquidation World, sometimes I’ll see a product with a listed price that is the same or even more then what it would cost at Walmart or Zellers etc. in most cases the products are a bit cheaper, not by much most of the time but still you save 10% here, 20% there and it starts to really add up.

Saving money has become more and more important for me, as I get older I start to worry about my retirement, I think everybody worries a bit here. So far I’m on the right track but just too many things can happen to change that, the recent recession being a really good example of that, I wasn’t hit all that hard with my invenstments but it wasn’t uncommon to hear some folks on the media talk about how they lost 30% or more overnight, scary. I also have no faith in government, I really do not believe they have the best interest in the people they are supposed to represent. And for companies, most are government by greed and have little or no care about anything else, so even though some are making record profits have no trouble downsizing or even moving their entire operation in another country.
Now I live in Sudbury, Ontario, the best way to explain this city is it’s not small and even thought it did have a small city feel to it, well that’s now long gone but at the same time it’s not really a big city but growing, maybe too fast. Because of the growth and a city infrastructure that wanted the growth but did not have the resources to handle the growth we have had some problems. We now have less then 1% vacancy rate, finding an apartment to rent is difficult but worst it’s a landlords goldmind so the cost of renting has gone up. A nice apartment will set you back about $650 a month and that does not include utilities etc. Also the cost of groceries has gone up big time in some cases that cost of an item has tripled. What was once something I bought on a regular basis NoName 24 ice cream sandwiches was $5.99 now it’s $7.99 and I’ve been told by a friend it’s even gone up higher closer to $9 ouch. As a result even at $8 I stopped buying it, and it just goes on from there.
So I’ve taken an interest in seeing how much money I could save by shopping else where, instead of shopping at a regular grocery store like Independent, Food Basics etc. to try shopping at places like Walmart, Liquidation World even Dollarama and see not only how much money I can save but is it really a big deal if I switch from Lay’s chips to some other cheaper brand, which so far I have to say not only is it not a big deal but I’m finding the other brand products to be slightly better in some cases.
I also have another thought I’ve been hearing from some folks who shop at Cosco and buy their groceries there that they are saving a bundle, so I’ll have to take a look at that store as well.
Something else I’m also considering is once I get the hang of buying from other stores and other products (not brand names so much) that maybe what I’ll do is then compare what it would of cost me if I bought the same items at what used to be my main shopping stores and see just how much many I’m saving. My gut feeling right now is that I’m going to be saving far more then I can even imagine right now.