Did you catch the article on how to safely buy discounted Home Depot gift cards off Craigslist? Well do a quick review and you’ll be ready for this next step. 
Here’s a case study of how to reduce rental property expenses by buying home improvement store coupons off eBay.
Combining Tactics to Forms a Powerful Strategy
I’m getting ready to move a new tenant into one of my apartment units and I know I need to buy a new set of mini blinds and some other relatively pricey items. Since I know I’m about to spend over $100, I decided to supercharged my expense reduction strategy by getting a Home Depot coupon off eBay. I chose eBay because you can typically get coupons using their “Buy It Now” feature.
I bought three coupons for $0.99. The coupons allow the holder to get $5 off purchases of $50 or more. Since there was no restriction on how many coupons could be used per visit, I divided my items into groups of $50 at the check out stand. This allowed me to get $5 subtracted from each group of $50.
My total purchase would have cost $118.07 but using the following strategy I only spent $80.42. That’s a 32% discount!!!!
Here’s How You Can Do The Same:
1. Go to eBay.com and to search for “Home Depot Coupons”. There will be a number of various coupon types to choose from. Each will have pros and cons – so you may need to do some math to figure out which coupon is best for your situation.
2. Select “buy it now” coupons. I bought emailable coupons and the seller (who had very high ratings) sent them to me shortly after I placed the order. The coupon gave me the privilege of $5 off my next purchase of $50 or more. Offer valid 9/2/2013 through 9/23/2013.
3. After shopping for your Home Depot items, divided them into two groups of $50 and more so I could take advantage of two coupons instead of one for the total transaction.
4. Use a discounted gift card/store credit to pay for the items. I’m now a big proponent of always keeping a few month’s expense in the form of store credits that I purchased at a steep discount. There is no expiration date for store credits so why not be proactive – it handsomely pays.
Take Aways
1. Buying the coupons was super quick and easy. Unlike the auction method, this transaction is straight and to the point.
2. The coupons are essentially free since they are applied BEFORE sales tax is calculated. In my situation the cost of the coupon was covered by the amount of sales tax I avoided.
3. You should shop for coupons before making large purchases. Most coupons have expiration dates so you shouldn’t shop too far in advance.
UPDATE: $100 Expense Reduction Challenge
My 2013 goal is to reduce my rental expenses by $100 per month. As previously discussed, on average, I spend $133 at Home Depot each month. So this cost reduction strategy is saving me 25 to 32% of my cost which turns out to be $42.66 per month.
This brings my total monthly savings to $72.66. That’s $30 (from Aladdin Factor Tactic) and $42.66 from this Home Depot Gift Card-Coupon Strategy.
I didn’t know how I was going to get this far when I started but I’m almost at my $100 per month savings goal!!!!