Dupes!
Okay, you know I believe in spending the money where you need to. If there’s a perfect thing that you can’t find anywhere else, buy it. Buy once, cry once. Don’t settle and change your mind later (only to spend more money).
BUT
What if I told you there are some items that you can find significantly cheaper elsewhere?
What if I told you how to find things cheaper in a matter of minutes?
You know who you are
So here’s the deal -
I’m going to start with teaching you how to get these results and I’m going to finish by giving you some examples.
We’ve all been there. You have googled and pinterested and asked Jeeves to find the perfect living room rug for your home. If you’re lucky, you’ve found the one. But you wonder… is this the best price? Does someone else have this on sale? Maybe.
Here’s what you do:
Find your item and keep it open in one tab. Rule #1; don’t close any tabs. You need them to compare pricing.
Copy the name of the item.
Open another tab & paste the name into your search engine (come on, we all know it’s Google).
Click “Shopping” button.
Now you hunt. This part can be tricky because you need to keep tabs on your… well, tabs. Sometimes the results will show a lower price, but in the case of rug shopping, it could be showing you a smaller size. You can type the size into your search, but I prefer to do it this way. Usually you only find it at a few places (maybe five different suppliers). All you have to do now is open their website, make your selections (select your color or size or fabric or whatever), and see your pricing.
IMPORTANT If it’s a retailer you’ve never heard of before and their website looks… sketchy. Cheap, in some way, lots of ads, things like that. Sometimes, it’s just not worth it. If they have a significantly better price, but you aren’t sure. You’re now going to want to search the name of that company and find them on the Better Business Bureau (or search “[company name] reviews”. And sometimes these sketchy retailers will show better pricing, but what you don’t know is that it’s backordered for months. And the BBB will show what customers complain about (no customer service, impossible to reach the company, doesn’t respond to complaints, charged more than advertised).
So, do your homework. In reality, this only takes a few minutes.
SECOND OPTION: Take a screenshot of the item you want and use the Google image search.
A note when returning things: When you have something that showed up in bad shape, you might be tempted to just sell it on Facebook Marketplace or try to do a return online. In my experience, any time you can interface with a real person, you get better results. For example, I have MANY times had things past their return dates on Amazon and by using their “chat with a live agent” feature, was able to get a return label emailed in just a few minutes. With Wayfair, they are always better to call. Be nice to those people. It’s not their fault and EVERYONE who calls customer service is rude to them. A joke and a few questions about what’s going on in their lives goes a long way (and is a lovely interaction for you both). Just be nice.
ON TO THE DUPES
A truly breathtaking ceiling light…
You can see the above light dupe in action in my Kittery Airbnb blog post. Check that out below.
Now for some beautiful nesting end tables. I personally have these in my home.
Not to brag… but I got them on Facebook Marketplace for $40!
I’ve ordered two of the below swivel chairs from Wayfair and they are wonderful!
Even better when you save $414.18 (almost enough to buy two).
Some fancy dining chairs…
You catch my drift?
As always, you should check local stores to see if they have a similar item.
If you have the money to spend, keep it local when possible.
Sometimes you may find an item locally that you want that’s cheaper online. Use this information to see if the store is willing to negotiate on price. Sometimes they will price match, other times they may just meet in the middle. It’s worth a shot.
Use this trick every time you buy something.
