Today I have a guest post from my dear friend, Frances! She is a new mom to a beautiful baby girl and has used her knowledge of Target shopping, deals and discounts to save her family money and walk away with some awesome products! If you love Target as much as us, you’re definitely going to want to read this to the end! – Marissa
I have a Target problem.
I love everything at Target, and I want most things at Target. Therefore, it’s not unusual to catch me perusing the aisles of this glorious store three or more times a week. We are on a budget though, so I can’t buy everything I want, whenever I want. So how do I get the things I want at Target?
Through many years of experience (and many hours spent at the customer service desk), I’ve found some great strategies to help maximize my buying power at Target while sticking to a budget.
Here are the 7 skills I’ve learned to get the best prices at Target on the things I love. I hope some of these tips and tricks can help you too.
Cartwheel Everything
If you don’t have the Target app then stop what you’re doing and download it now. Here’s why: it’s free (requires just a sacrifice of your email address). And it will save you money with every visit from here on out.
With the Target app, you can scan any product in the store to see if there is a coupon or a sale going on for it. If there isn’t, they will show you related items that do have coupons with them. So if you aren’t attached to a specific brand of something, you could just buy the product that does have a cartwheel. At checkout just scan your QR code and the savings will come off when you go to pay!
Take Advantage of Price Match
If I need to buy something, but it’s full price, I have often found it at a cheaper price on Target.com! If you go into the store and show them the Target.com price, they will match it in store. They also price match to other stores, so you can always look that up too.
You’ll have to pop over to customer service for this, but one time I purchased The Lego Movie for half the price! And yes after that price match, I did walk out of the store singing “Everything is Awesome!”
Stack Price Match, Cartwheel, and Coupons
This is the method I used to purchase this crib and this car seat for our baby! I actually traded in an old car seat too, so I received an additional 20% off my new one on top of all my other methods of saving.
This helped me save almost $100, so be sure to do a little homework if you have major purchases to make. I affectionately refer to that particular purchase as my first mom win. And I consider that the day I joined the Target Moms club.
Make a Habit of Checking the Clearance End Caps
Target does amazing clearance sales. And they have such a fast turnover on products that you don’t have to be that patient to get something at a better price. My favorite clearance win happened at the end of July when Target had a sale on children’s items.
I found this baby bouncer on clearance for $32 (normally $65) and then when the cashier scanned it out front, it rang up as $16! Now that has only happened to me once, but it stoked the flame of love I have for those clearance end caps!
Ask for Sales to be Retroactively Applied
In some cases, you might buy an item and it goes on a crazy sale the next week. If you take your receipt to Target, they can give you the sale price retroactively on an item. When I purchased the crib and car seat, Target actually had an even better sale the next week where you save $40 if you spent $200. I took my receipt in to demonstrate that I had spent that much, even with my prior savings, so they gave me $40 cash!
We also recently bought this swing at full price with the hope that it would go on sale within the month. Our newborn was colicky, so I was too desperate to wait for it to be cheaper. I checked into price matching and looked on cartwheel, but found nothing to help with the purchase.
I bought it anyways because I felt it was worth the gamble for my sanity and for the inconsolable crying to cease! Sure enough, two weeks later it did go on sale! I took my receipt in and they refunded me the $32 difference! But even better than that, my baby slept like a champ in it. And that swing (plus maybe a little wine and a lot of chocolate) got us through those colicky months.
Buy Your Next Cell Phone at Target
Target often has a gift card deal if you purchase a phone in their Tech department. Plus, you can trade in your old phone and apply that gift card to your new phone. The best deals for this are on Black Friday.
One year we got two new iPhones at Target, and $500 in gift cards that we used to do almost all of our Christmas shopping that year. This might be one of my favorite things to buy at Target, and I always feel like a boss walking around with $500 to my favorite store on Earth.
Sign up for a Target Red Card
You may already know that a Red Card with Target wins you 5% off of your ENTIRE purchase, EVERY time you shop at Target. And if you’re not sure about using a credit card, you can sign up for the debit card version!
My husband and I have opted out of the Red Card despite how often we are at Target, only because we love our miles card, but you can always add this to your stack of ways to save, and you’ll win even more than me at Target!
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Let me know in the comments! How have you saved money while shopping at Target?