Affordable shopping

In order to save money, it is advisable to regularly check the sale-offers of different shops. Negotiation for a sales discount is unconventional in Germany, except where big purchases are concerned.

Here is an – of course incomplete – selection of cheap shopping opportunities.

TV-Sets, radios, bikes, crockery and other household necessities	Second-hand and sometimes new goods can be be purchased on fleamarkets for often little money. On every third Saturday of the month there is a big fleamarket with many private stalls around the Bochum townhall (Rathaus). Every weekend there is a fleamarket with predominantly commercial traders around the FH (University of Applied Sciences) Bochum. Even bigger is the market at Dortmund University on Saturdays (take the S1/S2 from Bochum main station to „Dortmund-Universität“). The internet auction house Ebay works like an online-fleamarket, many products are cheaper there than they are in shops. Ebay has a search database that allows for a selective search for offers on sale nearby.
Groceries	The cheapest places for groceries are discounters like Aldi, Penny, Lidl, Kaufland and Plus
Fresh food and vegetables	Most cheaply bought at discounters, value for money can also be had in turkish vegetable shops
Bread and pastries	Backfabrik (Unicenter), Brödis and Brotzeit (both Kortumstr.) or other self-service bakeries
Clothes	C & A, H & M; especially cheap are KIK, Tchibo, Aldi and Takko second-hand clothes: "Second hand"-shops or fleamarkets
Shoes	Deichmann, Reno or Siemes Schuh Center
Personal hygiene products	Discounter, Kodi, drugstores dm (drogerie markt). Schlecker or Rossmann
Stationary	Staples, Kodi
Computer	the cheapest opportunity are small computer stores (see list)
Furniture	If clichés are to be believed, all students buy their furniture at IKEA (S1/S21 to "Dortmund-Kley") Unrivaledly the cheapest furniture and household goods can be bought in in the so called rag halls ("Trödelhallen"), for example in Schmidstr., Rottstr. or Helenenstr. Their advertisements can be found in the free ad-paper Stadtspiegel.
Telephone	If you have a conventional telephon landline, you can use cheap providers through a Call-by-Call system (www.billiger-telefonieren.de). Cheap phone calls to other countries can be made in Call Shops (there is one in the Uni-Center next to the Sparkasse) or with special phone cards (sold in Call Shops and at Kiosks.)
Cinema	On Tuesday tickets are 4,- € bis 5,- € depending on the cinema, usually they are 7,- € bis 9,- €.