Save Money by Asking for Rainchecks

Common Sense With Money had a great post this past week titled Save Money by Asking for Rainchecks:

There has been many times when I have headed out to the store armed with coupons on hand only to come home empty handed. The store was already out of the item I was going to buy. The next time the item was in stock it was not on sale so the deal was not so good anymore. Most people already know about rainchecks. There are a couple of things I want to point out in regards to them:

1. You can use a raincheck to your advantage in these inflationary times. At the beginning of the year Target had diapers on sale for $8 a pack. Diaper companies had announced at the end of last year that diaper prices would be going up at the beginning of this year. So I figured that would be the last time diapers would be found at that price at Target. I waited until the last couple of days of the sale and went to the store to ask for a raincheck. Now even when diaper prices have gone up, I can be guaranteed the price per pack as offered on that sale for a certain period of time.

2. You can use a raincheck to get an even better deal if you use coupons. Many times a sale comes up and maybe you don't have any or enough coupons for that item. You can use a raincheck to "delay" the sale for you and to give you time to order enough coupons and get a better deal.

3. You can also use a raincheck as a cashflow management tool and delay spending your money all at once. This is particularly important if you want to stockpile on an item.

Of course, the ability of getting a raincheck depends on whether the store is out of the item of not, but if the sale is too good to pass chances are they probably are. So, don't miss out on a good sale just because the item is not on the shelves. Finally, don't forget to check when your raincheck expires and use it before then.