Over the last few years, the Internet has exploded with opportunities for consumers to spend and save money. In these difficult economic times, it’s important to take advantage of these money saving opportunities. Remember, cheap is the new chic. Every savvy recessionista needs to keep a few tools at hand to find the best deals. Just remember, in your zeal to take advantage of online sales, make sure to keep a level head and only purchase what you need.
Coupon Sites
In this day and age, you should never have to pay full price anything. There are coupons for beverages, household good, food, personal care, entertainment, healthcare and pet care. Many websites like Coupons.com offer printable coupons for you to use in the store, or some offer exclusive online deals. A good rule of thumb when you’re searching for coupons is to go to a search engine and type in the name of the product with “coupons” or “promotional code” afterwards. The search engine will pull up all the results related to that keyword phrase. Before printing out the coupon or using it online, check the date to make sure the discounts are still valid. Sometimes search engines cache old coupon pages and you might be too late to get that deal. Also if you’re buying online, make sure that the cost of shipping doesn’t outweigh the savings you receive with the coupon.
Deal Forums
Search for hot deals on forums such as www.FatWallet.com. Fellow recessionistas search the web for the best deals and post them on the forum. You can find information on free stuff, online auctions, contests and sweepstakes, coupons, and hot deals. If you’re too busy to monitor FastWallet.com, it offers Topic Alerts. This feature will notify you via email whenever a post is made related to the item that you’re looking for. All you have to do is go to the Topic Alerts section, fill in your information and then deal alerts will be sent to you, saving you time and money.
Shopping Search Engines
Coupon sites and deal forums are great if you know exactly what you’re look for. But what if you don’t? Recessionistas don’t despair! You just need to visit a comparison shopping search engine. Google, Yahoo and MSN all have shopping sections to their search engine. Just go to the shopping engine, enter in the item you’re looking for and the search engine will pull up results. Google Product Search shows pictures and product reviews next to the items to make selection easier. Once you find what you’re looking for, you can click on “Compare Prices” to find the best deal.
Daily Deal Sites
Some online websites, like Amazon.com, offers daily deals within their website. These sale items are usually discounted at extremely low prices, offering recessionistas a great place to find quality products. There are even websites, like Woot.com, that only sell one item a day and if you don’t buy it that day then you miss the sale. Of course, the prices must be low to attract a large score of buyers. However, both of these types of sites are dangerous on the budget because it’s encouraging impulse buying. You might visit the deal of the day site and think, “Wow, that’s a great price. I don’t need it but it’s a great price!” Then you end up buying something that you don’t need, and that’s a bad idea. If you’re going to take advantage of these types of sites, make sure to look at the deals with a level head and don’t buy anything that you don’t need…no matter how good the deal is.
Online Auctions
Online auction websites, like eBay.com, are garage sales on steroids! Recessionistas come together to buy and sell products from the convenience of their homes. All you have to do is enter what product you’re looking for and the website will pull up the latest auctions. You tell the site how much you want to pay and if you’re willing to pay the highest for the product, you win. However, be very careful when using online auction sites. Sometimes bidding will start low and then as it gets closer to the auction’s closing time, you’ll find yourself in a bidding war over the item you want. Make sure you understand how much you’re willing to pay and don’t allow your ego to talk you into paying too much for what you want. Also, watch out for outrageous shipping and handling charges. Sometimes auctioneers will discount the price but make up for the discount by charging a higher than normal shipping and handling charge.
Online Classifieds
Remember the days when you would flip through the newspaper, looking at the classifieds? Well with the advent of Craigslist and other online classified sites, there’s no need to pick up a newspaper. Modern recessionistas just look at online classifieds. Go to Craigslist. Select the city in which you live, type in the item you’re looking for and read over the classifieds. Buyer Beware: out of all the places to find great deals, this one offers the least amount of anonymity. There isn’t any buyer’s protection. Oftentimes you have to contact the person directly to pick up the item and complete the sale.
Lastly, consider joining an online community, like Twitter, and following a few recessionistas that are tracking hot deals. These coupon clipping, deal watching ladies tweet the latest sales from their Twitter accounts. Or if Twitter isn’t for you, consider collecting a few RSS feeds from the shopping savvy. Just go to Google Blog Search and type in “hot deals”. It will pull up the most recent blog posts and you can choose which ones to subscribe to. Good luck and happy deal hunting.
For more information on how to shop smart and save money, read Shopping and Saving at Consolidated Credit’s website.