Shopping The Clearance Section

Be mindful that wherever you chose to shop, there is probably a clearance section. I strongly recommend making a list of the items that are on sale that week, matching coupons to the sales, and shopping accordingly. However, there are times, such as a clearance sale, or an emergency when you may need to buy something that’s not on your list. It’s ok. Breathe. Doing so does not make you a bad couponer. We all have to make adjustments and sometimes we must adjust our budget or purchasing list due to unforseen circumstances. Cut yourself some slack.

Now that’s been said, let’s get to work…

At Target they place large quantities of clearance items on isle end caps and periodically you will find the little blessed red clearance label on items mid-isle. You have to keep an eye out for them though. They can be hard to see if you are moving quickly.

Wal-Mart, however, tends to have clearance sections for each store area (pharmacy, baby, electronics, etc.) If you can locate these clearance sections, and check them each trip, you’ll find a treasure trove of goodies.

CVS and Walgreen’s place clearance tags on shelves mid-week. I have been seeing more and more of these lately which tells me their products are expiring soon, or newer versions/packaging is coming, so they are purging. For instance, Secret deodorant now is labeled with “Outlast” as a type of their product, so all other types have been on sale or clearance in both drug stores for a month or two.

Grocery stores tend to place their clearance items in shopping carts or on one centralized clearance rack. The downside to this is that their clearance items often get smashed and end up destroying the products’ packaging.

If you can find a clearance item and couple it with a coupon, you just might have a freebie on your hands! For this reason, I clip most of the coupons I get weekly. I never know when I might run across a clearance turned freebie item I can give away or donate.

Once you’ve shopped all the clearance shelves, then you’ll start shopping for the list of sale items you’ve matched with coupons.