Photo courtesy of Mike Mozart.
I’m so excited to have Jason, from dealspotr.com to guest post today. He’s a master at making purchases at deep discounts and runs a popular website for current deals.
How to Get Huge Discounts on Household Products at Target
When it comes to household products, Target has a huge selection, as well as really great prices. It’s a favorite among couponers and bargain hunters alike because of its coupon-friendly policies and aggressive discounts. While their base prices are already pretty solid, you have to be strategic to get the full benefits Target has to offer.
The Cartwheel App
One great way to save money on household products at Target is by using the Cartwheel app. It has mobile coupons on thousands of items and is available for free download on iPhone and Android devices.
Cartwheel is super easy to use. While you’re shopping, you can search for an item, browse by category, or even scan a barcode to see if the product you want has a coupon available. This is great because you can see coupons whether you have a specific brand in mind or not. The best part about Cartwheel is that the coupons can combine with sales, manufacturer coupons and store credit. You can also go through and look at what discounts you’ve used.
Stack Savings
It’s always a good idea to read the weekly circular from the newspaper to see what household products are available with steep discounts. If you don’t have access to the newspaper, the flier is also available in the Cartwheel app and on the website. This should always be the starting point because you can see what’s already on sale. The real savings start, though, when you stack coupons on top of sales.
Target accepts the vast majority of manufacturer coupons, and manufacturer coupons are generally the best kinds of coupons there are. This is, of course, because manufacturer coupons are made to get you to try something and get hooked. This is especially the case with household products, as they want you to build up a loyalty.
In order to save a ton on household products, you’ve gotta stack them up! At Target, you can combine one manufacturer coupon with one Target coupon and one Cartwheel coupon. Using all of those together on one sale item is how you get a $10 package of detergent for $1.
Gift Card Offers
Target has great store credit offers on a fairly regular basis. They’re often $5 or $10 gift cards offered with purchase of a certain product — say, buy four 32-ounce containers of mouthwash, get a $5 gift card. Sometimes there are larger gift cards offered with more expensive products, all the way up to $20 for items like coffeemakers or cookware.
These deals are great to keep an eye out for in case they’re available for a product you generally buy anyway. There are some restrictions on these cards, like they usually can’t be used on the same day you buy them. The savings can really add up, though.
It can be a good idea, when there are great sales on household products, to stock up way in advance. Especially since household products last significantly longer than food, you can buy in bulk when they’re at their cheapest.
Target sometimes features BOGO offers — sometimes buy one get one free, and sometimes buy one get one half off. These sales are a really good time to pounce, especially if you also have a manufacturer coupon. Sometimes the sales do exclude manufacturer coupons, though, so be sure to read the fine print.
Hit the Holidays
Black Friday is a great time to get good deals on things like electronics and other big-ticket items, but there are incredible deals in other departments as well. Some stores even put every single item on sale. So when you head to Target for your Black Friday shopping, be sure to look around the whole store and be ready to pounce on items when you find a great deal. Go ahead and buy it in bulk so it’ll last you for awhile and you won’t have to buy it at regular price.
Target is great about having huge clearance sales, especially immediately following holidays. During their post-Christmas clearance, which starts around the beginning of January, you can find Christmas items at discounts as high as 90 percent off. This applies to things like Christmas decorations, of course, but it can also mean things like … paper plates, for instance. If you don’t mind using Christmas-themed paper plates all year, you can get a huge discount by buying in bulk. There are also great clearance events after Easter and Valentine’s Day. Especially with the post-Valentine’s Day sale, you can pick up a pack of Valentine’s Day cards for next year at a fraction of the price.
The Redcard Debit Card
Though it sometimes seems like there’s a Target store every few blocks, that’s not always the case. If you don’t live near a store, be sure to check out the promo codes online. There are really great coupons available and they’re always worth checking out before you place an online order. There are often free shipping offers available as well.
Another thing you might want to consider, if you’re looking for a great deal at Target, is signing up for a Red card debit card. This debit card links to your bank account and works just like your normal debit card but it saves you 5 percent on every purchase, which adds up to a ton of savings overall if you shop at Target a lot, plus free shipping online all the time.
{Note from Rosemarie: I was really reluctant to jump on board with the Red card when I first heard about it because I’d never heard of a store debit and it sounded too good to be true, but I’ve been a happy customer for 2 years now and can’t believe I ever lived without it.}
You can grab your own Red card debit card for Target here and save 5% on all Target purchases!
Which do you prefer? Target or Walmart?
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Hi Rosemarie. In one of your emails on this very topic you also mentioned that get any additional 5% off of items through Subscribe and Save. Yet I don’t see anywhere on Target’s website about creating a subscription for orders. I’ve done this through Amazon. But if I can save even more through the extra 10% through Target, I want to give it a try.
Sorry, more to add to my comment. I wanted to know which items you purchase where. I am so exhausted after hauling around 3 toddlers to my local grocery store and costco each week for three just to get better savings. It’s driving me crazy! So I want to try Walmarts order online grocery pickup so I don’t have to get kids out of the car. Then if I can have everything else just shipped to my home through Target/Amazon, then it saves me ton of time and sanity.
You’ve mentioned you also order things through epantry. But what do you purchase where? I assume you get your groceries at Aldi (I’m in Utah so we don’t have Aldi here), then other household supplies at Target, then cleaning/personal care from epantry?
I would just love if you broke it down for me. Thanks so much!