Shopping with an attitude

Let's face it, frugal shopping can be difficult but it's not because the retailers are out to rob you of your money. Stores of all types operate on one simple premise; It's their job to convert product display space into profit. Store layouts, merchandise displays and product placement are all used in well researched configurations to make the most from limited retail space. As frugal shoppers, it's our individual responsibility to see through the merchandise promotion blitz and to guard our own spending by fending off the impulse purchase of items we never intended to buy when we first entered the store.

The expertise of retailers in moving product is the major cause for my "shopping with an attitude" theory. I realize that stores are providing me a service by offering products for sale, but that doesn't mean that I should be surrendering my wallet to them at the door. My shopping attitude theory is summed up in the following words: "It's my money and I'll decide how much of it you get." It's a simple condition of mental focus which should be taken along with you into every store you enter and it's partially rooted in the following frugal shopping principles: