I like to shop locally but there are some
things that cannot be bought in Athgarvan.
A glittery toilet seat is one of them. It was time to update the bathroom so I went
online and with one small click of the mouse, purchased my big camp toilet
seat. It sparkles like a disco ball and makes every trip to the smallest room
in the house feel a little bit special.
Walking to school the next day I happened
to bump into a fellow mum on the run, Melissa. Unable to contain my excitement,
I showed her a picture of my latest purchase. Her eyes lit up, she used to sing
in a band and loves a bit of glamour. “You should have spoken to me, I’d have
got you fifty percent off that,” she said with a wink.
Two years ago Melissa lost her job as a cost
analyst for a large American company. Now that the family was relying on one
income, the mortgage, gas, electricity and insurance bills began to stack up. She
had to make drastic changes and examined the household budget for the first
time, with an accountant’s eye.
“I found that there were big price
differences online,” she told me. She made reductions on her energy providers
first, then got a better deal on her mortgage and insurance. After further examination, she discovered that
the biggest saving of all was to be made on grocery shopping,
Melissa says that anyone can cut hundreds a
year from their weekly shop. When she was employed, she used to spend €800 a
month on food; that has been reduced by more than half. “Now I sit down, go
online, run though all the supermarkets and see what’s on offer”. Her favourite
comparison website is reeprewards.ie.
With Newbridge just down the road she does
Tesco and Dunnes in one day. She does Aldi and Lidl in Kildare town on another.
The savings she makes each week are incredible. “Everything that I buy is half
price or less”. The best ever shop was when she spent just €40 for a weeks
grocery shopping using Tescos online. “The trick is to plan out a week of meals
and make a detailed list” she advised me, “The rewards are there for the
taking”.
“Aldi is best for regular weekly savings
and Thursday vegetable offers. Dunnes and Tescos put up good deals on
vegetables too”. She’s also become a bit of an expert on the psychology of
shopping. “Cheaper goods are always on the lower shelves and never shop when
you are hungry”.
The discount queen spends two hours in the
morning and the same in the evening online finding the deals. “I’m not working,
I have the time to sit down and investigate what’s out there. I am making it my
job to save our family money”. It was through her extensive research she
discovered ‘Beady Eye Bargains and Special Offers’ on Facebook. Sarah McHale, the
founder of ‘Beady Eye’ spends twelve hours a day searching for deals and
sharing them online.
Thirty thousand people are on the Beady Eye
page and there’s a reason. It’s the place for them to share the knowledge. Every special offer, ‘Buy One Get One Free’
deal, money saving hint and tip in Ireland is listed there. Special discount codes for online shopping are listed and
added to daily. “The bargains that are out there are unbelievable,” Melissa
told me. Why am I always the last to know about these things?
A few hours later I found myself standing
in Melissa’s kitchen with a mug of tea. On the kitchen table, she had laid on a
huge display of everything that she had bought online for her two children for Christmas
including dolls, watches, painting sets, beads, headphones and a cuddly toy. Late
Late Toy Show eat your heart out.
“I bought this off EBay for 1 cent
INCLUDING shipping!” she beamed, holding up a beautiful silver ‘Frozen’
necklace with a secret watch inside. “These
twelve Barbie dresses were €1.29 for the whole set” she carried on, rooting
through the pile. “These Minecraft toys are €9.99 each in the shops. I could
never afford them. I bought nine online
for €12”. That’s a saving of a whopping €78.
Christmas is a sneeze away and this year Melissa
began shopping early. “Stores will have sales or discounts in September to
increase their sales for the last quarter for the year. It is the best time to
shop for bargains”. Retailers such as Argos sell toys at 75% off. She began buying from EBay in September too.
“You have to allow 45 days for things to arrive”. She has most of her Christmas
shopping done while I’m still in Halloween mode.
Savvy Melissa had a few tips for this sloppy
shopper. “Register online with the companies that you want to purchase from”.
All the big players from Debenhams to Littlewoods, Smyths to Argos send out
offers directly to you on a weekly basis. “There might just be something that
you are looking for”.
“Sign up to Groupon, Living Social, Deal
Rush, Grab One, PigsBack and get daily emails. Make a list, only buy what you
need”. As I got up to leave, she showed me deals that are currently available
online. Lily O’Briens are offering 20% off, Lifestyle Sports 10%, New Look 20%
and MacCabes pharmacy the same.
“It’s like a treasure hunt! It’s so satisfying when you find something
that you’ve been searching for at a discounted price.” Her research has paid
off. Melissa has cut hundreds from bills, her groceries and saved a fortune on
her children’s Christmas presents. There is only one thing left to find that
will make her Christmas complete, a trip to Santa.
Santa’s probably the only thing that you
can’t buy on a discount site so she’s off to Donadea Forest Park to visit him
in the grotto instead. The Discount Diva
had better watch out. If Santa discovers how good she is at buying toys, he’ll
want her as head elf.
