Everybody likes to save money, especially those of us into pinching pennies. If you’re like us, you’re always looking for new and interesting ways to stretch your dollars. We recently found a “new-to-us” way to save some grocery money when we learned of a couple of bakery outlets in our nearby city. This time around, we decided to stop at the Aunt Millie’s thrift store as it was the closest to another planned stop.
The store was very small, but still had a wide variety of breads and other items for sale. These ranged from fruit cakes to pita bread to condiments and even some pasta. Looking at the prices of the non-bread items, we were not impressed. In fact, we know that we could find those items or similar at much lower prices in several of the stores we normally visit. Being a bakery outlet, however, the prices on bread products were quite good.
Here’s what we got:
4 packages of 12 count whole wheat buns – $0.49 each $1.96
4 packages of 8 count onion buns – $1.00 each $4.00
5 loaves of Best Grains non-gmo 12 grain bread – $1.49 each $7.45
2 packages of 8 count whole wheat hot dog buns – $0.79 each $ 1.58
1 package of 5 count wheat pita bread – Free w/purchase
Total spent: $14.99
The regular prices for these items vary from store to store, so I did my best to average those prices. Based on those averages, we saved about $27.00, which definitely made a little bit of extra driving worthwhile; we are now stocked up on bread for weeks.
The moral of the story for us; plan to visit the outlet as least every 6 weeks and do our very best not to purchase bread in a regular store again.
As my grandpa used to say, “quarters makes dollars.”
Some Tips for Your Outlet Trip
Know what forms of payment they accept before you go
While most places in the sane world still accept cash, not all will accept checks (this outlet did) or even debit or credit cards. It would be a drag to find a bunch of great stuff for cheap and get surprised by having to choose between using your credit card (gasp!) or leaving it behind.
Don’t Make a Special Trip
This is just sound general frugal advice; whenever possible, plan your visit to an outlet (or anywhere) as a stop on an outing, not as a single destination. This will tend to save not only gas, but time as well, as you will reduce the total miles you drive and time you spend doing so. Even if you only save a few miles each time you do this, over the course of a year, that can add up to several gallons of gas, not to mention the time you’ll save.
Be Aware of “Regular” Prices
As we often experience, not everything at an outlet or discount store is necessarily a bargain. In fact, every once in a while, nothing is. If you’re not prepared to compare the outlet’s prices with what you see every day in the store(s) you normally shop, you could end up paying more for the same stuff you normally buy, just in a different location.