I have a love/hate relationship with The Home Depot. On one hand, they carry an awesome selection of home improvement products, tools, and supplies at competitive prices. On the other hand, it can be hard to get answers to your questions as each department only has two employees at any given time, and one of them is usually a clueless kid. I know because I was that clueless kid not long ago, mismatching paint until my orange apron had every color of the rainbow strewn across it.

But anyways, my blogging buddy Lori, at More With Less Today.com, recently wrote about some killer ways to save money at The Home Depot and I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of my favorite tips, plus throw in a couple of my own.

Go save some money on your next Home Depot purchase peeps. Here are a few of the great tips in no particular order…

1. Get a Price Match

If you find a lower price at a local competitor, (think Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Sears) Home Depot will happily match the lower price.

Item must be identical and in-stock at both locations.

From the Home Depot website, “Excludes special orders, bid pricing, volume discounts, open-box merchandise, labor and installation, sales tax, rebate and free offers, typographical errors and online purchases. Online purchases are subject to price match only.”

See Also: Want a Home Depot Price Match? Here’s Exactly How to Make It Happen

2. Get Price Protection

If you buy something from Home Depot, and they lower the price within 30 days, just bring your receipt back in and get the difference.

Lori gives this great tip, “If you make a big ticket purchase, add a reminder to your calendar and check the price for the next 30 days.”

3. Buy a Discounted Gift Card

A little known way to save money at the warehouse store is to buy a Home Depot gift card for less than the face value at a website like Raise.com or GiftCardGranny.com.

This works especially well if you’re doing a big home improvement project and know you’ll be making some large purchases because the bigger the gift card, the bigger the savings.

For example, you can save 8-9% on gift cards with a balance over $100. Easy money.

4. Score a Rebate

Check out the very easy to search Rebate Center on the Home Depot website before you make ANY significant purchases.

Worried about not redeeming the rebate, Lori gives this great tip, “Address the envelope for the rebate and add the stamp right away. Once I add the stamp, I am committed to send in the rebate!”

Love it, this totally works for me as well.

I recently did this with a rebate on Behr paint that I bought to paint my daughter’s bedroom.

5. Pay Attention to the Cents

This one comes from my article on Cracking the Price Tag Code.  Pay attention to the cents on the Home Depot price tag.

If the item has an ending price of .06, it means the product is on clearance and will be lowered again in 6 weeks.

If the price ends in .03, it’s a final markdown and will be removed from the warehouse in 3 weeks if not sold.

By looking for items ending in .06 or .03 you’re guaranteed to get a low price.

6. Buy Paint on a Holiday Weekend

Having worked in the paint department, I am quite familiar with the times of the year when Behr paint goes on sale.

The dates to remember are any long holiday weekend, especially between the months of April and October.

So think Memorial Day, Father’s Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

Paint will be $5 off per gallon and $25 off for a 5 gallon bucket.

Sometimes you’ll have to mail-in a rebate to get the discount and sometimes you’ll get it when you checkout.

If you’re planning a big paint purchase you can save a good chunk of change by timing your purchase to coincide with one of these holiday weekends.

7. Look For Damaged Packaging

This tip involves looking for damaged boxes or packaging when shopping at The Home Depot and politely asking for a discount.

I did this recently on a damaged kitchen sink box when doing an interview with Inside Edition.

The box had a slight tear in one of the corners and I asked for a 15% discount and they offered to take 10% off for me.

Managers want to get rid of anything even slightly damaged so use this to your advantage and save some money.

Be sure to click below to read all of Lori’s great Home Depot money-saving tips:

How to Shop at Home Depot Like a Money Saving Pro | More With Less Today.com

By Kyle James