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6 Tips to Get the Most Value Out of a Trip to Ikea

Ikea is a great store for getting reasonably priced and reasonable-looking furniture for your home or office. It's easy to spend hours in its warehouse-like stores, wandering the aisles and envisioning the changes you might make to the various rooms in your home, and you can often find some nice bargains to boot.

As with any store, however, there are a few tips and tricks you can use to stretch your budget. Here are six sweet strategies to use during your future visits to Ikea to get the most value out of every dollar you spend.

[Read: Best Home Decor Sales for National Decorating Month.]

Sign up for Ikea's "Big Move" discount. Ikea's "Big Move" program is designed for people who are planning to move in the near future, ideally furnishing their new digs with Ikea items. The "Big Move" program offers a $25 discount on your next $250 in-store purchase, plus it comes with a lot of little planning tools that can help you if you're planning to move.

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[See: 12 Shopping Tricks to Keep You Under Budget.]

Join the "Ikea Family" membership program. The free Ikea customer rewards program is called "Ikea Family." It offers free in-store coffee and tea, 90-day price protection, a bunch of additional discounts that rotate on a monthly basis, entry into a $100 gift card giveaway each month at each store you visit and extra time at the child care service inside Ikea, among other perks. It's worth it for the free coffee alone, as you can grab a cup before you begin to wander the aisles. As always, it's a good idea to sign up with a membership program like this using an alternate email address that you created just for customer rewards programs, so they don't clog up your private email with unwanted offers.

If you have kids, go on Tuesdays. Not only does Ikea offer free child care for children ages 4 to 10 (and you get extra time with the Ikea Family program mentioned above), kids eat free in the Ikea restaurant with an accompanying adult. They even have free baby food. If you're going to wander Ikea for a few hours and have kids in tow, Tuesday is the day to go.

Visit the "As-Is" room. Most Ikea stores have an "As-Is" room where former floor items and returned items are priced to be sold in their current state. Often, the issues with these items are minor and quirky, but they usually come with a huge discount, so if you can work around the little issues, you can save a ton of money on those items. This room tends to be well stocked on Mondays and Tuesdays, as many people return items on the weekend, and it can take a day or two for them to wind up in the "As-Is" room.

[See: 10 Big Ways to Boost Your Budget -- Without Skimping on Your Daily Latte.]

If you're planning a large purchase, buy discounted gift cards. You can use online vendors such as Raise or RetailMeNot, which sell certified gift cards that offer a small discount for your dollar. They buy gift cards at below face value from individuals and various places, verify them, then resell them at a value a bit higher than they paid but still well below face value. You can easily save 5 percent to 10 percent on your Ikea purchase by simply stocking up on discounted Ikea gift cards and using them for your shopping.

Stock up on little things at great prices. While Ikea is mostly known for furniture, it's the store's little things that really make a difference. The Frakta shopping bags, usually just 99 cents, are large and incredibly sturdy canvas bags, perfect for hauling around large quantities of stuff and inexpensive enough that it's not a problem if they get beat up or lost. The Alkalisk batteries are $2.49 for a 10-pack of AA batteries and last nearly as long as similar batteries at quadruple the price. The Kalas children's dishes are wonderful if you have kids. They're super sturdy and cost only $2.50 for a six-pack. The Korken apothecary-style jars are a steal at $1.99 to $4.99, depending on size. They're perfect for storing small things, spices or refrigerated foodstuffs. Just keep your eyes open for the little things when you're there, and you'll be glad you did.

A trip to Ikea offers lots of opportunity to improve your home decor, but a smart trip to Ikea offers lots of savings opportunities, too. With just a bit of planning, you can cut a lot of dollars out of your next trip to Ikea. Good luck!



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