Learning By The Way

If you read my first post about online shopping, then you’ve already signed up for some websites that give you cash back for just using them as a shopping portal. Now, here is how my frugal self continues to save time and money.

Even when you are already getting cash back from a shopping portal, you can still use coupon codes. My favorite place to find up to date, accurate codes is Dealtaker. Invariably, if you search Google for a coupon, you will come up with a hundred websites that claim to have codes, but don’t. I’ve found it to be a waste of time, so I just check Dealtaker. If they don’t have it, I’m not going to waste 10 minutes searching for one that probably doesn’t exist. If you have time to kill, by all means give it try, occasionally you’ll find one.

If you are looking for a specific item, try PriceGrabber for the cheapest online price. They are pretty reliable. It might also be worth your while (especially for big ticket items) to post in the Slickdeals.net forums asking for the cheapest place to buy it. Someone there might know of a place that isn’t originally the cheapest, but has a great coupon for free shipping or percentage off that you can use to bring the cost down lower than usual.

And if you want to use multiple shopping portal websites, the easiest way to discover which one offers the greatest percentage cash back for the store you are shopping at is to search for the store at Evreward. There are also coupon codes available here, though I have found their lists to be not as complete as Dealtaker.

Example:
So, say I want to make an order from Overstock.com.
I go to Evreward, and find that Mr. Rebates shopping portal (which I use) gives 5% cash back.
I go to Mr. Rebates, click through to Overstock, and do my shopping.
I check Dealtaker for coupons, and find a 10% off code that works for me.
Now I have very easily saved 15% for just seconds of my time. (Of course, I get 3% cash back with the credit card I use, but that is just gravy along with the fact that Overstock is already deeply discounted from retail…).

Happy shopping all, and may the joy of Jesus the Savior and King never be lost amidst the hustle and bustle of the season.