I had grandiose images of price comparing and spotting the best deals, when Walmart gave me a $45 eGift card a few weeks back. They asked if I’d like to try out their new Home Free shipping offer that gives free shipping on orders $45+ of apparel and/or consumables. I imagined I’d check Walmart’s prices against Amazon, Soap.com, Alice.com and others, then point you to some of the very best deals I could find.
But, life happened. We were dangerously close to running out of toilet paper and my husband informed me that he was out of razor refills. *sigh* I completely overlooked getting him razors this summer, when they were near-free numerous times, because I thought we had enough on hand. Toilet paper, well, as my kids get older it seems that we flush it at light speed. That said, I set aside my grand plans of price comparing and opted to stock up on some family essentials – 24 rolls of toilet paper and 16 expensive-no-matter-where-you-buy-them-this-time-of-year razor refills.
Olivia (2.5) and Victoria (4.5) showing off their TP creation
Olivia and Victoria posing (and laughing!) with mom's buys
I’ve often used Walmart.com’s site-to-store shipping, which is free with no minimum purchase. Between that, Pick Up Today, FedEx Site-to-Store and this latest shipping offer, Home Free, more than 95% of the items at Walmart.com can reach you without a shipping fee.
Your turn: What kinds of consumables and apparel items have you purchased online from any online retailer?
Disclosure: Walmart provided me with a $45 eGift Card to try their service and tell you what I bought. All opinions are mine. This post also contains one or more referral links that may yield commissions for Pocket Your Dollars.com at no cost to you. See Pocket Your Dollars’ disclosure statement for more details.
About Carrie Rocha
so glad to know that you have a hard time keeping up with your household as well. i thought is was only me and my guilt. I upped my working to 32 hrs a weeks with a husband and 4 kids and have such a hard time keeping up with groceries and essentials much less coupons. thanks for the insight that even you do as well. :)
Ordered some tops from Kohls for my 13 year old, think she only liked one out of 5 but my 23 year old grabbed a couple and just ordered an ink cartridge, seemed to be the cheepest place to get it. I tried getting an old one filled cheep at Office Max but it wouldn't work so got my money back and am going for a new one.
one thing I find funny about Walmart's website is that prices vary considerably from the store. A week ago I went online to find a book and saw Walmart had the best price. So I headed over there, dragged the baby out of the car, druged into the store, only to find that the store price was $5 more!! It was a wasted trip. Came home, ordered on-line for instore delivery. I have to say I love the site to store option and would choose it over paying shipping. At least 3 times a week we are near Walmart so it doesn't require a special trip.
Marie – I've noticed that on their site, but also at Target.com. For whatever reason they typically offer better prices on their website than in the store. I don't think either Walmart or Target price adjusts when their website is lower than what you find in-store.
A few weeks I did the same thing at Walmart. I saw a Lego set online that was cheaper than Target's price so I went there and it was $5 more than the online price (so the same price as Target). I asked someone that was working in the electronics/games department to check the price for me and I mentioned that it was cheaper online and he said they would match the online price. He printed the online description/price for me and told me to show the cashier when I checked out. I don't know if this is an official policy or just at this store, but the cashier didn't have any problem adjusting the price. (This was at the Coon Rapids location.)
That's good information to know. I do not do a lot of store shopping online, with the exception of Amazon. You would think that since they will price match any ad that they woudl also have consistent pricing within their own web site and store pricing.
Carrie, adorable little girls you've got. It is nice to see that you are a real person that real life happens to.
So I am not the only one who "messes up" sometimes trying to get good deals :-)
As for the question: definitely Amazon, but any trusted site and online retailer that has great deals combined with coupons/codes and free shipping. I have been having some unlucky streaks lately: Target.com did not take off the coupon codes on some items,even though it looked like it did, but when you do the math, they did not take any money off. On the other hand, I caught check-out mistakes after I got home from Rite Aid – twice. My husband now is quetioning if it is worth the gas money to drive back there to complain. And he knows I won't let the mistakes go. Embarrassing, but I always go back. It happened twice when the cashiers had to enter coupons manually, and ended up hitting "purchase" button instead of "discount". So Carrie, and ladies, any ideas to avoid this? (I always watching like a hawk, and my $3 off coupon looked like was entered, I just didn't notice that it didn't have a little negative mark next to it….) When I go home, and go through the receipt, I notice. But from the other side of the counter, the computer screen seems to have very small letters and numbers… Anyway, I also wanted to comment, that I LOVE it how Carrie's kids use regular household items to play! My 3 little ones prefer to play with Tupperware to playing with "real" toys. Cute girls, too!
Can you combine coupons with walmart.com?
I always try to check the receipt right away. Usually sitting in the car. I live 25 miles from where I do most of my shopping so we don't go to town a whole lot with gas prices the way they are. I had to go back in the the local grocery store on Sunday when they forgot to scan my $4 coupon. I saw her pick it up but she must not have scanned it. I have had to go the service counter at our Cub a few times also.
I like to calculate everything and write down the transactions, RR I expect to get if at Wags, and the approximate subtotal and tax for everything. Then if it does not match up at the register, I go through what has rung up at what price. Unfortunately, if there are people waiting in line this is not feasible when it takes too long. At least if you don't have time to do it in line you can always take a second before you leave the door (I try to at least do that so if an item is missing it doesn't look like I just removed it).
I am totally curious how you feel about big/mega rolls of toilet paper and what your rock bottom price would be as the manufacturers claim they are twice the size of a double.
Got tired of changing the rolls all of the time! :)
I agree that having a good idea of what you expect the total to be is the best way to avoid errors at the register. I do a lot of mental math (something my annoyingly insisted on when we were kids but is an invaluable gift as an adult), including estimating, to come up with totals that are very close. I may not notice a 50 cent error, but I'm certainly going to notice a $5 mistake. On your shopping list indicate what the item should cost after sale and coupons and add all the figures up, and if you're buying taxable items, just multiply your taxable total by 1.07125 to get the taxable total. You need to set your "flex" point in your own mind, so if the total is X amount (50 cents, $1, whatever) off, you don't sweat it, especially if there are others in line. But if your calculated total is $53.29 and the cashier asks for $60, you should go through the totals even if there is someone in line behind you. I had a $10 discrepancy on a grocery total one night and when we went through the items discovered that for a buy 5 get $10 off at register, I'd grabbed 4 of the right product and one store brand that had been moved into the wrong space. By knowing ahead of time what my bill should be I avoided having regrets at home when I checked the register tape.