Photo courtesy santus
The internet can be a great way to save money. There are numerous sites out there that allow you to find the cheapest price, get coupons, and buy used items. By doing a little homework, you can save big money. Once again, patience is a virtue. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to run right out and buy something. Take your time to make sure you really need it, make sure it’s in your budget, and find the right price.
There are many sites out there that will help you find the best place to buy from. MySimon and Nextag are a couple of big ones. You can search for the cheapest prices on a particular item, including what the shipping charges would be if you ordered it online. They also rate the various vendors to help prevent having a bad experience when purchasing. Amazon can also be a great place to comparison price check. They have prices from many participating vendors who carry new and used items. (affiliate link)
Another great site for both new and used items is the old standby, ebay. Ebay has multiple formats of buying including buy it now and auction style. You can often find barely used items at great prices by being patient and waiting for an auction to close. Just make sure you do price comparisons around the web, because as with any auction, sometimes people can get carried away, especially on newer electronic goods and actually pay more in an auction than they would be able to get it elsewhere on the web.
Craigslist.com is a great place to find local used items at good prices. You can select your region and find deals that are close to you. Many people also post services on here, and you may be able to find a good price on getting someone to finish that project you just haven’t had time for.
When it comes to finding coupons and discounts, the internet is a great place to turn. Many manufacturer websites and retail stores have coupons available for print and download right on their website. Coupons.com is a very popular site that carries the latest manufacturers coupons which you can print by installing their software and then printing coupons right from your printer.
Rather than spending a bunch of time searching all over the internet trying to find coupons and freebies, you might be better to follow someone who enjoys doing that and posts these deals to their own website. The Queen of Free is someone local to Indianapolis that regularly posts coupons and freebies on her blog. She also is on her own journey of debt freedom which she blogs about weekly. From her site you can also find links to other websites that regularly post the best deals.
New sites are springing up that have a daily deal that you can get in on. Usually the deals must be purchased that day and require a certain number of people to accept the deal before it becomes valid. I got a great deal on an annual membership to the state museum by using Groupon, one of the most popular of these services. An up and comer in this arena is Moolala. They are just getting started so they have not started posting deals, at least for my local area, but the team that launched it are not new to the internet and social media, so I have confidence they’ll be bringing some great deals very soon. The unique twist that they bring, is that you build a network of friends and you make money when people within your network purchase a deal. (affiliate links)
As with any deal though, you need to make sure you do your homework. First off, it’s not a deal if you didn’t need it in the first place. You also need to make sure it’s really a discount. Just because a store says it’s $50 off, doesn’t mean you can’t buy it even cheaper somewhere else. Always take your time and make smart decisions whenever you make a purchase. The bigger the purchase, the more important this becomes.
I hope you find these tips useful. What websites do you use to find deals that I haven’t listed here?