‘Tis the season for online shopping (well, for me at least). Working from home has made me #alittlebitagoraphobic! 😉

I wanted to do a quick post to share an online shopping tip that REALLY helped me recently.

As in … it saved me more than a hundred bucks, buying EXACTLY the same items on a different website.

You see, our daughter is desperate for a pretend grocery store for Christmas. (It’s pricey so my dad and stepmom graciously agreed to go in with us, just like we’re doing with our son’s Nintendo Switch.)

If I had just hopped on the site where I first found the item (and its accessories) and bought everything there, I would have paid $374.67 for everything after tax.

• $259.95 (toy grocery store)
• $39.95 (grocery store accessories)
• $12.95 (grocery store cans)
• $12.95 (grocery store boxes)
• Before tax: $325.80
• After tax: $374.67

Instead? I used a handy little trick that saved me soooo much money.

I paid $266.18 after tax.

$108.49 less, you guys!

Here’s the trick …

1. When you know which item you want to buy, GOOGLE IT.

Type in the specific name of the product if possible. In my case, I typed “Melissa & Doug grocery store.”

2. Click “Shopping.”

3. Instantly see which site offers the best price!

I was shocked when I saw that Well.ca — a site I had NEVER used before, never even heard of, honestly — was selling the identical toy for $181.99. Almost $78 cheaper than Indigo, which is where I often shop for toys.

I added it to my cart immediately, feeling SO much better about the purchase all of a sudden.

And because Well.ca had ALL of their Melissa & Doug products on sale, I was able to scoop up three additional sets (grocery store accessories, pretend grocery cans, and pretend grocery boxes) all for almost exactly the same price I would have paid JUST FOR THE ONE big item on Indigo.

Much LESS, actually, because this total includes tax (and shipping was free).

For comparison …

It’s no longer on sale on Well.ca, BUT it’s actually $3 cheaper right NOW on Amazon.ca. (And no, I’m not even mad about it. I’m relieved to have mine sitting upstairs in our closet, and I still saved a ton of money on it.)

So the next time you need something online, take the extra minute to do a quick Google search of the item and click “Shopping” to see different price options.

You can even click a drop-down to sort them from low to high.

I just tested this by searching “Kindi Kid” (another gift our daughter wants) and sure enough, it shows that the identical doll is $5 cheaper on ToysRUs.ca than it is on Walmart.ca.

Happy online shopping! I hope this helps!

xo