Coupon Queen: When do you shop full price?

You seem to have gotten bargain shopping down to a science, and it is admirable that you are able to save so much money.

I am curious if you ever just throw caution to the wind and buy something, or is every purchase you make timed around a sale?”

Kelly L.

As much as I try to save money whenever possible and purchase what our household and family needs, there are certainly times we buy items that are not on sale.

My shopping lists each week feature both the deal-priced items I’m planning to buy with coupons, as well as the staples we purchase nearly every week – dairy items, meats and fresh vegetables and produce.

It’s not always easy to find coupons for these kinds of items, although they are sometimes available.

Instead, I take a per-pound-pricing approach to both meats and produce. Even without coupons, whole chickens at 59 cents per pound are a much better buy than the same chickens at $1.99 per pound.

That said, there are times I’m buying items that aren’t a bargain, or that I may not have a coupon for.

I’m not the kind of person who cannot allow herself to buy something if it’s not on sale – certainly, there are items that we either need or want to buy, and they’re not always available at the best possible prices.

Medical needs are one of the first categories that come to mind. If someone in the household is sick or injured, I’m not going to pinch pennies if we need to purchase something to ease someone’s pain or help them heal.

For example, when my son got braces on his teeth, his gums were sore. By the second day, he was quite uncomfortable, and we swung by the pharmacy to pick up some gum pain relief gel.

I honestly didn’t care what it cost – it wasn’t terribly expensive to begin with. Pressing medical issues are always considered to be needs.

That said, I do stock up on first aid items, cold remedies and over-the-counter medicines when I find deals on them. I watch prices on these items so that we always have a supply on hand at home to use when the need arises.

Another situation in which I tend to throw price-consciousness out the window is when I learn that a product I like is being discontinued or reformulated. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I spring into super-shopper mode! I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling frustrated when a favorite product is taken off the market. Most recently, I learned that the brand of hair color I’ve used for most of my adult life was reformulated into a completely different product: Same name, different ingredients.

As soon as the negative reviews of the “new and improved” hair color began to appear online, I gathered all of my hair color coupons and drove to multiple stores, stocking up on my favorite shades. Ultimately, I paid a little more per box than I would have in the presence of a better sale.

I tend to take a bigger-picture perspective to savings: When I am regularly saving money on the items our household uses and consumes the most, it frees up more room in our family’s budget for the surprise and impulse purchases that inevitably arise in life.

However, faced with the prospect of having to look for a hair color replacement sooner or later, I chose to shop now and worry about finding a new brand later – much later!

Any family with children already knows there are also times that you must buy items you weren’t expecting!

One of my children recently celebrated Chinese New Year in his class, and each of the children were assigned a different food to bring in for their party that week. I’d never dream of not participating in an event like this, simply because a food item wasn’t on sale.

I realize that some shoppers are so fixated on getting a deal, they are hesitant to buy things that are full price.

I tend to take a bigger-picture perspective to savings: When I am regularly saving money on the items our household uses and consumes the most, it frees up more room in our family’s budget for the surprise and impulse purchases that inevitably arise in life.