Savvy shopping - stacking discounts

Stacking discounts is one of the best ways to save money and shop savvy. Most stores won't allow this, but there are some exceptions.

Kohl's for example sends out periodic discount coupons to cardholders. Typically these are for 10, 20, 25, or 30% off. Sometimes they include "Kohl's Cash" as an extra incentive ... such as receiving a $10 credit to spend in the store for every $50 spent.

What really starts slashing the prices is that these can be stacked with discounts, such as sales prices and even clearance prices.

I bought a pair of boots, originally marked $90. They had been marked down 90%, which made them only $9 -- a great bargain already. Paired with a 30% discount, that brought the price down to a mere $6.20. And ... if I can manage to spend exactly $50 on that trip (which I can usually work out with a discounted pair of socks or whatever is needed to bring my total up as needed) that gives me a store credit of 20% of the sales price, which is like another discount of about $1.25 to be applied to my next visit, making the total cost of the boots under $5!

By shopping the clearance section (and I found a wide range of sizes and styles, though often it was out of season clothing, except for underthings) I managed to spend just over $5 on $100 original cost. Imagine the wardrobe I was able to buy by spending just $100! I had boots, tennis shoes, jeans, lots of shirts, pajamas, underthings ... in all nearly $2,000 worth of clothing at original prices, all for just over $100 (including the discounts that would be applied to the next visit).

Even if you don't want to buy a season ahead (and many things were for the current season) you can still save a significant amount by stacking these discounts with regular sale prices, which are typically 15-50% off. That actually increases the value of your extra discounts, so the difference between sale vs. clearance is not as great, and sales items include the hot new styles of the current season.

If we find other stores that do this, we will share the details here, but for now, I know that Kohl's is a great place to stack your discounts and save a LOT of money, and THAT is savvy shopping!