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Carpool to Save Money on Deals

November 15, 2013 by jlpenner 1 Comment

Have you every thought about a “deal buddy”.  I was thinking about it the other day.  I don’t really have one right now but I will soon and I am really excited about it.  My mom is retiring from teaching at the end of the school year and moving on to a more at home business, this means she is going to be my deal buddy.

So what do I mean by “deal buddy”?  Well, let me tell you about 1-3 mornings of my week:

1. Get up, get ready
2. Take daughter to preschool in the next city over
3. Stop at my favorite .99 Only across the street from her school for produce and sometimes other items
4. (generally 1 time a week) Go to Rite Aid next door for Rite Aide Deals
5. Stop at Health Food Store #1 about a mile from daughters school to see if they have any sales and markdowns on meat and bread
6. Stop at Health Food Store #2 back in the city I live in to see if they have markdowns on produce, dairy and gluten free bread
7. (optional) Stop at Dollar tree for $1 frozen fruit (sometimes they have organic)
8. (optional) Stop at Target for other groceries
9. (optional) Stop at Fresh and Easy for more groceries (they often have markdowns you can pair with 20% off coupons they email you once a month)

OK- I am tired just thinking about all that.. But because of our need to eat more whole foods, no gluten, no dairy (for one of my daughters) and and no corn I can’t use that many coupons- so legwork is required when I am keeping our monthly food budget under $150.

Also see: 3 1/2 frugal ways to save money at the pump

So in steps the deal buddy..  Not only does shopping at multiple stores take time, it also takes gas.  Gas is quickly approaching $4 a gallon here and I even saw it for that much at a station the other day.  So here is my plan.. after the summer she and I will take turns driving the rounds together once a week.  This way it cuts that driving cost in half for each of us.  Also, more eyes equals less missed deals.

If you are hitting multiple grocery stores you can even cut the research in half, one of you takes one store for ad match ups the other takes the other store.

Plus it’s fun having a partner.  In the end I can’t really think of a lot of downsides to doing this- I guess the only one might be that you can not be as spontaneous with your shopping- but that’s is not terrible either.

Have you ever tried having a “deal buddy”- how did it work out?  If you were to have a deal buddy, who would you choose?  Would you use it as an opportunity to show a friend the ropes of saving money?

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Comments

  1. Michelle says

    April 26, 2015 at 8:38 am

    I just hitch rides with my friends when we go places if public transportation is not an option that day.
    Reply

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