Price Matching, Part 1

I love price matching. Like, really love it. Every time I do it, I feel this rush of excitement run through me. I compulsively check the Flipp app. I talk to my husband about saving $2.64 on peppers just as he's falling asleep. For the third time in one day. I keep track of how much I save from price matching in my grocery notebook. I show other people my savings tracker in said notebook.

(If you're new, here, Hi, I'm Kelsi, and I am an absolute nerd in every capacity).

I started price matching about a year ago, and it has saved me so much money. Sometimes, I see people put something in their cart and I have to stop myself from grabbing them and saying, "are you going to price match that? Because you can save 48 cents if you do." I tried, once, to tell a lady the $7 butter she was buying was on sale for $2.97 but she wasn't interested. I wanted to talk to everyone about price matching, but the people I see and talk to consistently (my husband, my parents and my kids) could only listen to me go on about the flyer price of milk for so long. Thus, this blog was born. I needed to preach the price match gospel to someone and just get it out of my system. I thought I'd have, maybe, like 13 people clicking over here, most of them my family. So, to anyone who's made it over here so far, thanks for humouring me. I hope you save millions of dollars.

When I first started thinking about price matching, I was so nervous. Like sweaty palm, heart racing nervous. I hadn't quite reached the ready point, but it was on my radar the day I went into Superstore for one item: iceberg lettuce. (This was pre grocery notebook, and planning and actually being somewhat organized, which is why I was at Superstore for iceberg lettuce only). Of course, Superstore was out of lettuce. Probably because it was in the flyer for less than a dollar, but whatever. I thought to myself, how much was lettuce normally, anyway? Isn't it like 65 cents? Lettuce is mostly water, isn't it? I'm sure iceberg lettuce is the cheapest thing in the whole grocery store. I left Superstore and drove home, stopping at the Sobeys across the street, thinking, "whatever, I'll just price match it, here."

2 things: Iceberg lettuce is not the cheapest thing in the whole grocery store. Also, Sobeys doesn't price match.

I got to the iceberg lettuce (these heads have definitely shrunk, btw) to find that the shelf price at Sobeys was almost three dollars. I grabbed it, anyway, still thinking I could take my maiden price matching voyage. I opened the flipp app on my phone, pulled up the flyer with $0.99 lettuce and walked to the till. I managed to croak out, "do you price match?" and the cashier actually laughed at me. "No. We do not."

I paid for my lettuce in shame, and vowed to get my shit together.

Once I realized how different the prices could be on the exact same thing, I was motivated to really get serious about price matching.

Four different flyers, 4 different prices. I wonder what the store price is at Sobeys if it goes down to $2.49 in the flyer?

I realized, that I didn't really know the price of any of the produce I was buying at the grocery store. My thinking while I was shopping was usually something like this: okay, peppers. The sign says 3.99/lb. Okay, that's not bad, right? $4 for a whole pound of peppers? How many peppers can you get in a pound? Like 5? Maybe 8? I'll grab 3. This doesn't feel like a pound, I don't think. This is probably half a pound, so 2 bucks. I can live with that. And then I'd move on and repeat this nonsense for everything else I was buying.

Pro tip: peppers are almost ALWAYS in the flyer somewhere.

I don't know about you, but my estimation skills are really bad. Especially in the grocery store while I'm trying to navigate a shopping list and keep three kids from going to battle against each other. I'd get to my car and realize 3 peppers cost me eight bucks! Once I stopped relying on myself to just inherently know what was a good price for peppers (or anything, for that matter), it got much easier.

A lot of people I speak to about price matching are hesitant to do it. I, too, was hesitant to do it. I live for being non confrontational. I don't want to hold up a line or make a fuss. I am the queen of "never mind, don't worry about it."My nerves were all over the place the first time I actually tried to price match for real at Superstore. But then I did it, and it was actually super easy and I saved a bunch of money on stuff I was going to buy anyway. I reasoned with myself, if you dropped a $5 bill, or even a loonie on the ground at the till, would you stop to find it? If you answered yes, you can probably find it in yourself to try price matching.

If you're worried about trying it, I can bet that one of these is the reason why:

I don't have time to go through all the flyers

You don't have to. I've mentioned if before, but I'm going to do it again: download the flipp app. You can search within this app for specific items, and the app will pull up all the flyers with that item in it. You can show this at the till at Superstore, Walmart, No Frills and Save On Foods.

I don't want to hold up the line

If you're organized, price matching should take you, maybe, an extra minute, Two, if the cashier needs to call a supervisor to match for them. Put all your price match stuff at the end, and have your ads ready to show the cashier. It might be your first time price matching, but it probably isn't theirs.

I don't want to make the person behind me angry

This has actually never happened to me, and sometimes I match like 10 items in the same transaction. If anything, the people behind you will be curious and want to know what app you're using to save all that money. You're price matching peanut butter, not shutting down the grocery store. The person behind you will survive the added 30 seconds in line.

What if they say no?

So what? At least you tried. You know how many times I've tried to price match and been turned down? 3. And 2 of those times, I said, "ok cool, I'll just leave this item then, thank you", paid for my stuff, put it in my car, and then came back inside, grabbed the same item, and matched it at the till next door. The amount of times you can successfully match is going to far outweigh the amount of times you get turned down.

I don't want to look like a cheapskate

There is absolutely no reason to be ashamed about trying to save your own hard earned money. You're not bartering with someone over a set price, you're employing a store policy to your advantage. If the company didn't want to deal with price matching, they wouldn't offer it as an option.

Price matching is an under-utilized tool that can save you money immediately. There's no waiting for your balance to hit $20, no accumulation of points, no loyalty program. Just an instant savings. Your own money still in your wallet, instead of at the grocery store.

Cha-chiiiiing. Do you know how many Chicken McNuggets I can get with $55.59? Me neither, but I bet its a lot.

I saved almost $60 from price matching in October. It was worth it, for me, to get past my anxiety about looking like a cheapskate or holding up the line. Imagine if you saved that much every month? I'd be on pace to save $667.08 this year. Each small item might not seem like a lot, but it all adds up.

What would you do with an extra $667 this year?