Personal Finance | Frugal Places We Shop

We live in New York City and as such we probably have access to some of the most luxurious shopping in the world. Luckily for our bank accounts we don’t really visit them.

Here are some of the frugal places we go to shop:

Target - Target’s great! They have a little bit of everything at decent prices. They also send out lots of coupons! The store can get hectic at times but they do a pretty good job at keeping the store organized and clean. I recommend their Target brand which I find no different than the name brands.

Century 21 - This is something of a new discovery for us since it’s a bit out of the way. We had always heard of it but didn’t take advantage of the store until recently. For those who don’t know Century 21 is a department store selling items at discount prices a la TJ Maxx or Filene’s Basement. I find the selection at Century 21 is much better though. They have many higher end products at less than retail prices. I believe one of the ways they can do this is by selling last season’s lines and such. I was recently able to get a Calvin Klein dress shirt for $24.99. This would normally sell at Macy’s for $45.00 (I know I can get even cheaper shirts but I like CK’s quality and fit). They also manage to keep the store pretty organized for a discount store (some other stores are a mess).

BJ’s Wholesale - Our wholesale store of choice. We have the option of going to Costco but it’s easier for us to get to BJ’s and we’ve been happy shopping there. This is the place to go when you need not just four rolls of toilet paper but 24! They pretty much sell most of their items in bulk there. We’ll pick up anything from toiletries, cleaners, food (I love our 2.5 pound bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee!!), diapers, wipes, etc… I even bought my wireless router there (almost half off an advertised price I saw elsewhere)! You have to be careful though to make sure you go in with a plan and grocery list. It’s easy, at least for me, to get lost among all the items and end up buying lots of stuff you don’t need or will never finish using. Also there’s a membership fee of about $40 to join for a year so you have to be able to justify your savings vs. the fee. The cleanliness and order of the store depends on which location you go to. One we go to (when we don’t have time for the longer drive) is a mad house sometimes. The other we shop it is much better and less crowded (it’s usually worth the drive).

Trader Joe’s - We love this place! This is a super market where you can find most of the basics as well as health/organic food. All this at great prices! We did our food shopping at Whole Foods once and what we spent was ridiculously high. Not the case at Trader Joe’s. Many of the items are from distributors that are less well known or from the Trader Joe brand. The food is all good though. We always manage to find some new item to try out! The people there are friendly, they give out food samples and coffee samples, and hand out balloons to the kids. The only drawback is it’s a bit out of the way for us and they aren’t as large as some of the bigger name supermarkets so they don’t carry as many items.

Children’s Place - We get some clothes here for the kids. The secret of this place is to shop at one of the outlet stores and only buy those items on sale! There’s a lot of great bargains here.

There you have it. Five places we frequent for good deals. As with any store you still need to know the value of the product you’re buying and you should go with a specific plan and list to prevent over shopping.

Where do you go for good deals? Know any I didn’t mention in the NYC area? Let me know in the comments (if I get enough places I’ll post them in a follow up)!

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2 Responses to “Frugal Places We Shop”

1. Dawn (15 comments) on December 14th, 2007 2:01 am

   I’m a Target girl myself…
   I am not much of a shopper, but when I do shop, that store is one of my favorites. We’re actually getting one built in our community in 2008.

   Have you heard of Kohls? We have one of those. They have really nice clothing, which they’re constantly having sales on. A lot of my family and friends swear by that place…when it comes to finding bargains on nice clothing.

   I hear so much about Trader Joes…
   I wish we had one of those!

2. Free From Broke (113 comments) on December 14th, 2007 3:08 pm

   Trader Joe’s is awesome. Hope you get one near you soon. We have a Kohl’s by us but the store is a bit of a mess inside. It’s easier for us to do our shopping elsewhere.

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