I know it is January now and lots of us might be getting those bills from the holidays or maybe just looking to clean up our finances for the New Year.
I wanted to post an article for you with some tips on how you can save money at Target!
I don’t know about you but I just love Target and darn if I don’t go in looking for coffee and wrapping paper and I somehow come out $150 later with 25 things I didn’t know I needed.
You may not know that Target offers tons of coupons. The coupons can be for home decor, clothing, groceries… all kinds of things! They make it really easy to redeem coupons- just print them or they will scan them right off your smart phone!
These aren’t the boring coupons you might normally think of for $.50 off toilet paper or whatever. You can get coupons for furniture, clothing, toys and lots and lots more!
So here are some great ways to save big bucks at Target! Please note that Target releases a sales circular every Sunday and it runs through the following Saturday. You can view it in your Sunday paper or online at Target.com. Often items might run out of stock so it is best to shop early in the week for the best selection.
Did you know Target has certain days it marks down each department? This is great news if you want to watch for certain things to drop from 30% off to 50% off to 70% off to (very rarely) 90% off.
It is also great so you know what departments to check in on as you happen to be shopping or help you plan when the best time is to shop!
Check out the Target clearance schedule here.
Target offers gift card promotions nearly every week. Most of the time these are featured in the weekly ads but here are some important things to know about the gift card offers:
1. Many offers are unadvertised- meaning you don’t see them in the weekly ad. Sometimes Target will run a gift card offer in a weekly ad but the actual gift card offer in store will run for weeks or even months. An example would be a $5 gift card back on 2 packages of Advil. That might be featured in the July 1st Target ad and when you look at the tags in store it actually runs from 7/1-9/15. Keep an eye out for these as you are shopping- the sale tag on the item will provide all the details you need.
2. What is advertised in the weekly ad may be better in store! Often Target will show one item as part of a gift card promotion in the weekly ad but if you actually go into the store you will see lots of other items included. Most of the time the deal is better then you think it will be! An example is a $5 gift card on two Dove haircare items. The weekly ad might show Dove at $5.00 (making each one $2.50 after the gift card) but if you check in store you might find the smaller $2.99 Dove Shampoo also included. So now you are paying $.49 for shampoo which is a great deal! It never hurts to check.
3. You can use coupons in conjunction with the gift card offers. There is a detailed list of coupons you can use below- all of these can be used on gift card offers. Sometimes you might actually make a profit when the sale price, gift card offer and coupons all align. An example of how you might profit:
Dove Shampoo is $3.00
Buy 2 and get a $5.00 gift card back
Use (2) $1.00 Dove Shampoo coupons you printed out
Use a $1.00 off Target coupon you printed out
You will pay $3.00 total after your coupons and you will get back a $5 gift card
Final price: $2.00 profit!
You can not use the gift card you receive on the same transaction but you can do a second transaction and use your gift card to buy more shampoo or whatever else you might need.
Price adjustments are not the same thing as price matching. Price adjustments can come in handy if you purchase an item and then the following week it goes on sale in the weekly ad.
If you have your receipt, take it to guest services and they will refund the difference. You do not need the item you purchased just your receipt. An example would be if you purchased a pair of C9 children’s sneakers for $25. The following week’s ad has the sneakers for $20. Take your receipt and they will give you $5 back. Should you find the sneakers on clearance the following week (and not on sale in the ad) you won’t qualify for the price adjustment. If you haven’t worn the shoes you can always return them and buy a new pair for the clearance price.
Price matching is totally different then price adjustments. Price matching is when an item is advertised in a competitor’s ad (such as Walmart) and Target will match the price they are advertising.
This is convenient when you want to do one stop shopping but here are some key points to remember:
1. You price match at guest services not at the register.
2. Price matching is done AFTER Target coupons are applied and before manufacturer coupons. So if Target has Pampers for $10 and Walmart is advertising Pampers for $9.00 and you have a $2.00 off Target coupon, you can’t price match. Why? Because Target’s price is $10 with a $2 off Target coupon= $8.00. That is actually lower then Walmart’s advertised price. If the $2.00 coupon was a manufacturer coupon and not a Target store coupon you can price match to the $9.00 price and use your $2 off on top of that to pay $7.00.
3. The items have to be identical (so you can’t price match Office Depot brand paper for Target brand paper).
There are some other exclusions and such that you want to check out on the official Target Price Matching policy here.
Target offers a “Redcard” that offers 5% off your total purchase in store or online. It also gets you free shipping on any online order which is a great perk.
You can either get a debit card that will come out of your checking account or a store credit card. Careful of crazy high interest rates on the credit cards! Get all the details about the Target RedCard here.
I don’t always trust the price marked on items at Target. Especially if it is on clearance. I regularly have a few things in my cart I might be interested in as I am shopping and then when I spot a price scanner I just double check the price is correct. Often things are actually cheaper then they may be marked- so it is always worth the extra second to actually use the price scanner.
You can use up to three coupons at Target on each item you purchase! Yup! That is right. Three different coupons on the exact same item as long as they are one of each of the following:
Manufacturer coupon (printed online at sources such as coupons.comor cut from the newspaper)
Target coupon (occasionally found in the newspaper or printed from Target.com under couponsor a Target mobile coupon)
Cartwheel coupon (also a Target coupon)
*Check the top of the coupon near the expiration date and it will say “manufacturer coupon or Target coupon” so you know for sure.
Here is a little more info about each kind of coupon:
*Manufacturer Coupons:You find these in the Sunday newspaper, on websites or Facebook pages directly for each company (such as Pampers, Starbucks, Colgate etc…) or from sources such as Coupons.com, SmartSource.com and RedPlum.com.
*Target Coupons:Occasionally Target will offer coupons in the Sunday paper- they will say Target coupon right at the top. For the most part though you can print them from Target.com. Some of the coupons listed at Target.com under coupons are manufacturer coupons. There is an easy way to tell the difference before you print them out here. For the printed Target coupons you can only use one per transaction.
*Target Mobile Coupons: You can request mobile coupons from Target. These come via text every few weeks and each coupon is opened on a smart phone with a bar code that can be scanned right at the register. You can use these mobile coupons OR a printed Target coupon in addition to a manufacturer coupon and Cartwheel coupon. To get mobile coupons text OFFERS to 827-438. To opt in for mobile coupons for baby products, text BABY1 to 827-438.
*Cartwheel Coupons: These coupons can either be pulled up on your Smart Phone (via the free app here) or you can save them at home and print from your computer.
In a nutshell, Cartwheel offers coupons on everything from clothing to groceries. You can save a significant amount- especially on larger purchases. I have seen coupons for 25% off TV stands for example and if you find a TV stand at $149- well that is $37 back in your pocket! Each Cartwheel coupon can be used on up to 4 items (so a coupon for Pampers can be used on up to 4 packs of Pampers). The Cartwheel coupons are typically a % off. So 20% off Pampers is an example. The value is calculated after any Target coupons and before manufacturer coupons. If Cheerios are $2.00 and you have a $.50 Target coupon, a $.50 manufacturer coupon and a 10% off Cartwheel coupon, the Cartwheel coupon value is calculated on $1.50 not $2.00 because it is AFTER the Target coupon is applied. Your price on that cereal would be $.85.
*Other Coupons: There are two other programs that offer rebates and coupons from Target. The first is Ibotta. Ibotta is essentially a rebate so you can use all the coupons you have for an item and then come home and submit for the Ibotta rebate on top of that. (Read about Ibotta here).
Shopkick is another company that offers Target Mobile Coupons. It is a free app and you can open it up in store on your smart phone and get Target mobile coupons to use. I like Shopkick because they often offer clothing coupons- like $3 off a women’s clothing purchase of $15 or more.
*I know couponing can be a pain in the you-know-what but you really can save a boatload at Target. If nothing else, you might at least start with Cartwheel and see what you save!
A few other little tips:
The Target store brands are a great value. Market Pantry canned foods, milk, bread etc… can often be cheaper then brand names with coupons.
If you forget to use your coupons or leave them at home, bring your coupons and receipt to guest services and they will often do a missed coupon credit for you. You need to do this quickly (like the next day not 2 weeks later).
Rainchecks– if you want an item that is out of stock see if you can get a rain check. These are printed at the register and you can use them the next time you shop to get the same price. (Double check the a because it will say no rainchecks on certain items).
Follow coupon blogs! Blogs such as my own, My Frugal Adventures.com, regularly highlight the best deals from the weekly ad, new coupons and other things that are notable at Target.
I post a lot of things so to isolate just the stuff from Target stores, simply look for the search bar on the sidebar, click categories andclick stores and then click Target. You can scroll down and see tons of new deals posted, the current weekly ad matchups and more!
Any other great tips you have found for saving money?
Here are a few other articles you might enjoy:
When Are Things on Sale?
Tips to Rock HomeGoods shopping
The Best and Worst Deals at Costco
