11 Clever Tricks To Save You Money At Lowe's

Lowe's is one of the most-visited hardware stores in America. Alongside The Home Depot (the clear leader of the industry in terms of market share), Lowe's captures between 25% and 30% of the home improvement market on a consistent quarterly basis. Standing well ahead of the pack and yet always deep in the shadow of its main competition, Lowe's consistently offers discounts, membership perks, and other cost saving opportunities to its customers in an effort to even the odds. Lowe's prices are frequently some of the lowest in a number of sub-categories (like its tool rentals), and plenty of great tricks and strategies are at play when shopping in the store or at its online retail site.

No matter what kind of project you're working on, considering a trip to Lowe's is a great way to get the gear you need at a price that won't break the bank. Even so, there's always a case to be made for shopping around. Alternatives like Home Depot can sometimes provide better value, while other competitors like Harbor Freight or Tractor Supply Co. (and even non-home improvement stores like Walmart with its clearance pricing or Target) can sometimes deliver an unbeatable deal on a key piece of gear. Beyond the simple conventional wisdom of comparison shopping, there are actually plenty of clever things you can do to reduce your expense when walking into a Lowe's, specifically. These are the tactics you simply need to keep in mind when interacting with the home improvement outlet.

Lowe's shoppers who frequently purchase things from the retailer through its online store will benefit greatly from signing up for the MyLowe's Reward program. Membership lowers the free shipping threshold from $45 to $35. This difference might not be all that dramatic, but for small purchases it can make a big difference in managing the budget for your project more effectively.

No matter what kind of purchasing you tend to do at Lowe's, shopping online allows you to browse the home improvement store's catalog comfortably and without getting lost in the cavernous maze of its shopping aisles. The reward program is a good place to begin, it won't deliver huge savings that radically change your budget, but every step in the right direction is meaningful and the reduced free shipping requirements can be a big help in many instances. Moreover, signing up for this online rewards program will net you coupons and other promotional offers from time to time. After a while, these can begin to stack up and deliver a heap of new savings when shopping at Lowe's.

Anyone who has worked on a building project at home will likely be familiar with the lumber aisles at Lowe's and other home improvement stores. These aisles are typically sheltered away around the fringes on one side of the store. The bulky nature of lumber necessitates this positioning, but so too does the reality that shoppers picking out boards for their unique needs frequently litter the aisle with rejects. It can be a tremendous hassle to pick out even just a few good boards at times, and many home improvement stores frequently stock less than desirable lumber as something of a rule rather than an exception.

What they also do on a routine basis is pull out the worst boards and separate them in what is known as a "cull pile." Cull lumber is the worst of the worst, but this doesn't mean it's entirely useless. Lowe's has been known to mark down cull selections by as much as 90%. Combining this knowledge with a routine practice among carpenters and hobbyists in purchasing larger boards than necessary and ripping them down to size to save money yields a unique and potentially potent advantage. Purchasing cull lumber might give you a board with incredible twist that isn't useful in its full dimension, but a portion of the board might serve your project perfectly. Cutting off the larger waste section to source your needs is generally cheaper than buying a full board at your target dimension from the standard pile. There's a little extra work to do with here, but if you can make it work for your needs then you can lock in huge savings on just about any project.

Once you've picked out the lumber you'll need for your building efforts, you might consider using another service that Lowe's offers to its customers. Instead of bringing the boards home as is, you can get one of the Lowe's staff members to cut them for you at no additional cost. For those with the requisite saws and other tools at home to tackle these jobs, cutting boards at the store might not yield a direct money saving outcome, however, that view isn't taking the whole picture into consideration.

By getting your boards cut at the store you'll be able to fit more lumber into a standard car. This makes performing DIY projects more accessible to a wider array of home improvers who might not have access to a truck or work van. Boards are also cut on a large, industrial tracksaw that produces perfect slices across the dimensions you require. This means that all you'll have to do is give your instructions to the operator, and you can be sure to take home perfectly straight cuts and exacting dimensions to be used right away in your build. All this adds up to a massive reduction in the amount of time you'll need to spend preparing these materials once you get them home. For those new to the world of DIY home improvement, you might even be able to get away with avoiding the need to invest in a saw for yourself, reducing your total expense in a different way.

Heading to Lowe's in order to rent tools is a great idea. Any tool that you might not have available but need is likely offered at your local Lowe's retailer. Heavy equipment like a concrete saw or jackhammer can be found here, as can standard cutting tools and like miter saws and other essentials like an impact driver or combi-drill. You can also rent trucks and other equipment from anywhere between a few hours to a few weeks at a time. Other home improvement stores provide these same kinds of services, but generally speaking you'll find the best prices for tool rental needs at Lowe's. Naturally, it's a good idea to shop around and investigate pricing as much as you can before heading off to the store to pick up an essential tool. However, data on these prices available online indicates that Lowe's beats out its competition, such as Home Depot by at least a few dollars on just about every tool, accessory, and piece of equipment you might need for a job. This makes it a great place to support additional requirements you might have when tackling a renovation or repair.

Shopping at Lowe's as an active-duty military service member or retired veteran gives you access to 10% off regular price purchases. Your military discount can be used whether you shop in store or online and is a great way to reduce the overall expense of buying just about anything you might need for your home management and improvement tasks. This is one of the most useful discounts that military service members can take advantage of, and it's one that you simply can't bypass if it's available to you as you search for great ways to improve your budgeting balance. Whether it's a tool rental or you need to buy supplies for a project, heading to Lowe's with the help of your military discount can add a substantial volume of additional spending power to the mix. This is a straightforward discount, but one that tens of millions of Americans will be able to access without any issue.

The Home Depot plant return policy is a major help to people engaged in renovation projects in the spaces around their home. Having a yearlong grace period to return dead plants gives you the ability to perform landscaping tasks without worrying about wasting money if you place something in the wrong spot (a Sun-loving perennial in a shady corner, for instance) or just pick poorly when selecting flowering bushes. Fortunately for Lowe's shoppers, the company matches this yearlong plant return offer.

This means that you won't have to trudge out to one store for plants and another to get the other gear you need for your projects. Given the fact that Lowe's is frequently the source for the best bargains across a range of home improvement categories, adding this plant return coverage into the mix provides solid peace of mind for shoppers and makes the whole process of sourcing gear more streamlined and simple. It's just one more thing that Lowe's offers to make it a quality option for home improvement needs. Swapping out dead plants or dying selections for new replacements without having to dig into your wallet can really make an impact, especially in cases where gardening just isn't your forte.

Much like a wide swath of other retailers, Lowe's offers a store credit card that can be a big help for shoppers seeking to purchase lots of material for a big renovation project or substantial appliances and other big ticket items. The Lowe's store credit card allows you to pay off purchases over six months terms with zero-interest financing. This is a big win for consumers who might not have the cash on hand to support a major renovation expense right away. Using a standard credit card would obviously incur interest charges from the first month that a balance is carried over, but with the Lowe's store card you can defer this addition for quite some time.

Deferral is the operative word here, though. This is to say that interest isn't zeroed out during the promotional period, but rather deferred until it expires. As is the case with just about every other store credit card, if you don't pay off the balance within this window you'll be on the hook to pay for the entire sum of interest and would have been assessed had the promotion not been in effect. This difference has caught plenty of shoppers flat footed, and it can be a big financial misstep if you don't manage the repayment process responsibly. However, understanding that the purchase absolutely must be paid off within this window allows you to split your payments across a decent amount of time. The result is a far more accessible shop that can get you what you need today and offer favorable funding terms. Beyond just the financing, a Lowe's store credit card offers a 5% discount on full price purchases, too.

Lowe's stores operate a tagging scheme that's somewhat similar to other retailers. Standard yellow tags show new lower prices that will stay in effect for up to 60 days while yellow clearance tags showcase an item's lowest price that the store plans to offer. Clearance prices remain in effect until the stock of an item is "cleared out." Knowing the difference can help you take advantage of pricing strategies if you're shopping for deals and discount offers.

Beyond special pricing on regular items, Lowe's also runs seasonal promotions that shrewd shoppers and cash in on it substantially. There's obviously things like Labor Day sales (and sales across September more broadly) and other price reductions that take place around holiday periods. But other buying opportunities come in the form of targeted shopping windows that take place after a season has passed. Every year as the calendar rolls to a close, stores across the country set out Halloween decorations, then Thanksgiving gear, and finally Christmas lights and other ornaments. Once the day in question has passed, however, these stores will need to liquidate any leftover stock they have on hand. As a result, there's a yearly dance that takes place in which items continue to see their prices reduced as the big day gets closer. Their prices then plummet afterwards, allowing shoppers targeting next year's setup to lock in superb value by buying well in advance.

Another great discount that can be found in Lowe's stores (and its outlet centers, offering even deeper discounts) involves appliances that have seen a bit of wear. Whether a returned item or something that was damaged in transit to the store, appliances that have been scuffed up, scratched, or dinged and dented can often be found for discounts up to 20% off the listed price.

The so-called "scratch and dent" policy offers allow you to buy new or lightly used appliances at a significant rate reduction. These units still work just as well as their un-marred counterparts, but because they have seen a bit of damage on the way to the store's sales floor, Lowe's will offer them to consumers at a bargain price. The 20% discount that you can potentially see when picking out scuffed up units allows you to increase your expectations in terms of functionality or brand, or it can act as a straight savings if the unit you had been hoping to buy happens to be found at a discounted rate. Scratch and dent offers are also good option for landlords looking to install critical appliances in a rental property without breaking the bank or skimping on quality.

One of Lowe's' most interesting discount opportunities comes in the form of its "mistint shelf." This is where store employees put paints that have been returned by customers because the shade isn't quite right. Incorrect mixes (that were set aside in order to remix the correct paint for a customer) are also placed on the mistint shelf. Paints found here are discounted at least 70% off the listed price. The result is a massive price cut on paint that remains perfectly usable for shoppers who need a limited volume of color. You're unlikely to find multiple cans of the exact same color here, meaning painting one or more rooms in the same mis-tinted shade isn't really an option, but tackling smaller projects is certainly in the cards.

It's worth noting that Lowe's employees have revealed in online forums that paints added to the mistint shelf are sometimes intentionally altered before being placed there. It's unclear if this is a store policy that is in place across Lowe's locations or an individual decision. Either way the result is obvious: If you have a room painted in "Garden Green," as an example, you can't necessarily expect a can labeled in the same shade to perfectly match your home's color. Otherwise, customers might be tempted to simply return cans in order to come back to pick them up at massive discounts later on.

Lowe's is one of many retailers that offer a price match program. Lowe's calls theirs the "Lowest Price Guarantee," and offers to match prices on identical items sold by local competitors or online retailers. In order to take advantage of this price matching opportunity, you'll need to show a Lowe's employee an advertised price for the same item. There are some stipulations to be aware of, though. If you find a lower price on Amazon, you'll need to be sure that it's sold by the ecommerce retailer and not by a third party seller on the platform. Similarly, markdowns as a result of clearance pricing or for refurbished or used gear aren't eligible (essentially because they often aren't the same thing as the most recent, new model of an item). As well, you won't be able to use more than one discount opportunity or coupon at the same time, so a price match and discount coupon can't be used together to reduce the price even farther.

With these features in mind, it's also worth noting that price matches also affect after sales services. If you find a lower price within 30 days of a purchase, you can head back to Lowe's and have the price changed (with a refund of the difference coming back to you). To use a price match offer online, you'll need to engage with the website's to chat feature or call the customer service line. Either approach will put you in touch with a Lowe's customer service agent who can alter the price for you before you check out and pay for your items.