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Check Your Receipt

This year I decided to shop the deals on Halloween costumes instead of making them myself. While shopping, I was shocked again into realizing that there are no deals when it comes to buying branded cartoon character costumes. $24.99 for a 2T Batman costume - no way! Then I spotted a black vampire bat costume for $9.99, I held it up and the arms had webbed wings and my son shouted “Batman!” Sold! He’ll never know the difference.

Normally I scan my receipt in the checkout aisle to see if prices match the sales and the coupons posted properly. Only this time, I was rushed during this checkout and forgot to look over my receipt. Immediately after we arrived home, my kids dove into the costumes and we discovered the Batman bargain was too small. So I whipped out my receipt to go back to the store only to notice that I had been charged twice for the bargain Batman costume. It would not have been much of a bargain if I had not caught the overcharge!

I know Holiday shopping can get hectic and small things like checking a receipt can be forgotten in the rush to get home or get to the next errand. So, this season, make a point of watching the checkout clerk scan your items and check every receipt. This will save you the money if you are overcharged and valuable time in having to go back to the store!

Check Expiration Dates!

In a slow economy, this is something you need to do!

Recently I was driving home from a tennis match with a friend and she shared with me how she discovered that some food she had JUST bought had expiration dates that had passed! Normally I do not check expiration dates all that much since I expect the food offered in the store to be well within the expiration date. Then it happened to me! I bought milk, I did not look at the expiration date and 2 days later it went sour. I had indeed selected milk that had expired!

So, this is a reminder more than a tip. With our current economy, many business owners have seen a decline in traffic through their stores. This includes grocery stores, so it seems reasonable to think that some food items are sitting on shelves and in coolers longer than they used to. To save the aggravation of having to go back in the store to get a replacement which most stores are happy to do, start checking expiration dates on perishable as well as non-perishable items these days! Also, this will cut down on waste, at least that you have to deal with!

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