If You Can't Pay Cash for it, You Can't Afford it
Like so many Americans, I have gotten my dumb ass in trouble with credit card debt way too many times in the past. My latest ignorance was getting sucked into those "buy now, pay forever" sites where you can order anything you want and pay only a "low monthly fee" that just creeps higher and higher.
I forgot what my mama taught me. If you can't pay cash for it, you can't afford it. It's true. She was right. If you want something badly enough, save for it. Don't "charge it" and wind up paying up to twice as much as you would if you'd just had the self-discipline to wait until you could save up the cash to buy it outright.
Just a little lesson in personal responsibility. Check back here for more in the future.
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Walmart spends billions to convince you that you can't get lower prices anywhere else, so you'll pay whatever prices they dictate. Shop around a little and you'll find this is total BS. For a variety of personal reasons, I decided to quit Walmart. I started going to my local Dollar Tree and Family Dollar instead. I had quit their pharmacy years ago in favor of an independently owned local pharmacy and got much better, faster, friendlier service and, surprisingly, lower costs.
Dollar Tree is a haven for the scavenger hunter in us all and offers many surprising finds such as home decor, cleaning essentials and more, much cheaper than Wally-World. For crafting supplies, you can't do better. Forget Hobby Lobby! You do have to pay attention to things like canned goods which can be found much cheaper at Family Dollar. I do not recommend their online shopping because of outrageous shipping fees and huge minimum quantities. It's worth the trip to the store near you. They're everywhere.
Now, more on Family Dollar. Love it! When I first quit Walmart, I was concerned that my extremely limited food and home essentials budget wouldn't stretch as far because some of their basic prices are higher than Walmart. That's where their coupon program comes into play. Simply download their free app and from there or their website, clip coupons to your "wallet." They always have awesome coupons on name brand products like food and cleaning essentials, usually making them significantly cheaper than Walmart.
Nearly every Saturday they offer a $5 off a total purchase of $25 or more coupon that really stacks up those savings. All you have to do is enter the phone number associated with your account at checkout and coupons are automatically applied. Easy peasy. Unfortunately, their online shopping has the same problem as Dollar tree with shipping charges that make it not worth it. But the in store shopping experience is so much fun! My local store is never crowded and stressful like Walmart and the staff is so friendly and helpful. And no self-checkouts! BONUS!
And Family Dollar's store brand products, Homeline for paper goods and cleaning supplies, and Chestnut Hill for food items are absolutely top quality. Store brand products are made in the exact same facilities as the big name brand products and offer huge savings. Charmin? No thanks. I love their Homeline toilet paper. Does the job and costs me about 1/3 of the price. So far all of the Chestnut Hill products I've tried have been absolutely delicious. Not the peanut butter, though, unfortunately. Just my opinion. You might like it. Worth saving a few bucks a pop.
Coupon offerings are updated often. I just visit the website before my shopping trip and clip, clip, clip. Then I save, save, save. Love it! And I'm actually eating better and spending less than when I did my shopping at Walmart. Don't miss them at all.
Now, Amazon. I don't like them. I did some side hustles that paid in Amazon gift cards and Amazon screwed me out of $21 worth of gift cards I had earned with, basically, a "sorry about your luck." That might not sound like much money, but when your monthly budget runs as tight as mine, that's a chunk of change. So, I found a much better alternative and have saved so much money it's not even funny. Temu.com. Absolutely blows Amazon out of the water.
Temu.com has just about everything you could possibly ever need, and lots of things you never knew you did until you find them there. I've gotten jewelry making supplies much cheaper than I could find them on Amazon, some gorgeous clothing pieces and some very nice home decor items. They have a great selection of makeup, jewelry, skincare products, handbags, accessories. I could go on and on. You have to check it out. Shipping for now is free which is an added bonus.
A few words of caution, when ordering clothing, look closely at the sizing information given. I thought since a majority of their items are made in China (where do you think the crap you buy on Amazon or at Walmart comes from?) they would run really small. Nope. They sometimes run large and if you take the time to read the sizing information given, they're usually dead on. Pull up Google to translate centimeters to inches when ordering home decor and other items because sometimes they sound larger than they wind up being since they sometimes only give measurements in centimeters and not inches. Beware of the electronic items at this point. I got a digital camera that was advertised as 16 megapixels and it is definitely not 16 megapixels. But, it was about 10 bucks, so I got what I paid for.
As a special thank you for reading this entire long ass article, or skipping to the end, you can use my coupon code to get 30% off your first Temu.com order: fav40311. And, yes, if you order through my link and use my code, I may receive a small commission, but you won't pay a penny more. Thanks for reading!
