Money-Saving Monday and Target

For my first Money-Saving Monday, I’m going to focus on one of my favorite stores – Target.  I do A LOT of shopping at Target.  It’s conveniently located, it’s an easy store to shop because of its wide aisles, and they sell almost everything I need.  From diapers to bananas to shoes, Target has it all.

Before I was married and had a family, I even worked at Target.  I was a manager, and worked in the “hard-lines” departments.  Those included health and beauty, home improvement, domestics, grocery, movies and music, and the toy department.  I learned a lot while working there, but I’ve learned even more about how to save money there since then.  I’m going to start with some basics, then show you my latest transaction as an example.

The easiest way to save money at Target is with a Red Card.  They have both a branded credit card, as well as a debit card.  Every time you make a purchase and use your Red Card, you automatically save 5%.  Even though 5% doesn’t seem like a lot, it definitely adds up.

Next is Cartwheel.  Cartwheel is a saving system specifically made for Target.  You can either download the app to your smart phone, or if you don’t have one, you can go to the Target website and print out your Bar code.  Cartwheel has different offers all the time with everything from saving 5% on Milk to saving 30% on All Laundry Detergent.  They have the products divided by categories, then you can also search by newest offer, highest discount, what’s “trending,” and what offers are about to expire.  You pick the offers you want, add them to Cartwheel, then present your Bar code to the cashier.  Each time you use Cartwheel, it keeps track of your savings.  This determines how many offers you can use at one time.  For example, I started off with 12 open spots for offers, and I now have 27 spots open.  I have saved $713.12 since I started using it in August of 2013.

In addition to having Cartwheel on your phone, you can also text OFFERS to TARGET (827438) and they will send you mobile coupons.  These can be used in addition to Cartwheel and paper coupons.

Speaking of coupons, I’m a huge fan of coupons.  Not everyone enjoys clipping them or printing them, but I do.  Any way I can save money is OK with me.  You can combine manufacturers coupons that you will find in your Sunday paper with Target coupons that you can find on their website.  You must download a coupon printer, but it’s fast and painless.  Sometimes, Target includes coupons in their ads too, so be on the lookout.

The best way to save money at Target is by combining coupons with items that are on sale. You can save the most money if you have a manufacturers coupon, a Target coupon, the item is on Cartwheel, and it is also on sale.  Now, all 4 of these things don’t happen too often, but when they do, you need to take advantage!  Plus, they also run gift card deals fairly often.  For example, if you buy 3 certain products, you will get a $10 gift card with purchase.  You are not allowed to use the gift card during that transaction, but don’t be afraid to split up your transactions, so that you can use it in the same trip.

This leads me to today’s transaction to give you some examples.  In Cartwheel, they have 5% off Huggies Diapers and 5% off Huggies Wipes.  If you bought two packs for $24.99 a piece, you would get a $10 gift card.  I had a manufacturer’s coupon for each pack, a Target coupon for each pack, and a manufacturer coupon for the wipes, and a mobile coupon for the wipes.  Plus, I saved another 5% with my Target card.

Now, I could have ended my transaction right here, and used the gift card for my next transaction.  However, I was running late on time, so I bought everything at the same time.

In addition to my diaper deal, I bought $40 worth of health/beauty/personal care products and got a $10 gift card.  This coupon was in their ad today.  Within that $40 worth of products, there was a buy 3 get 1 free on the shampoo. There was a $10 gift card with the purchase of another 3 items…I got 2 laundry detergents and a pack of paper towels.  All of these things were bought with coupons, in addition to being on sale.

So, my final total was $141.28 for 32 items. I did use a $10 gift card I received from my last transaction to bring it down to $131.28.  In addition, I got $25 worth of gift cards, plus a $10 off coupon printed from Huggies to use on my next purchase of anything at Target.  Always look at those coupons the cashiers hand you with your receipt!!!

I know I threw a lot of information at you, so I will talk about clearance at Target in my next post.  If you have any questions, please leave me a comment or send me a message.  I would be more than  happy to help you.