How do You Shop for Deals?

Everyone loves a good deal, it's just part of human nature. Here at WhiteFence, we help you find the best deals on all of your home services, but that only covers a portion of your spending. That begs the question, how do you shop for deals on other things?

From milk to movies, it seems like these days there are ways to save on just about everything. Whether you're old school and cut coupons in the Sunday newspaper or if you prefer to do your shopping in bed and use coupon codes at online retailers, there are deals out there for however you shop.

As you might expect from a someone that works for an Internet company, I do a lot of my shopping online. When I'm looking to buy something, I usually hit it with a multi-stage attack.

I start with Google Product Search, which is an aggregator that checks prices from a variety of retailers, including brick-and-mortar stores and all the big online retailers. That gives me a pretty good idea of what the item is going for. I then head to SlickDeals, which is a site featuring a list of user-generated deals. The front page each day shows what the users chose as the best deals, though if you search for a specific product, you'll find there are many more deals out there.

Now that I've worked out who has the item for the lowest price, it's time to see if there are any coupon codes for that retailer. A coupon code is similar to a traditional coupon, but instead of presenting a piece of paper at the register, you just enter a code when checking out online. Many retailers send out coupon codes in e-mails, but that's not the only way you can get your hands on them.

Every time I buy something online, I check RetailMeNot to see if that company has any coupon codes running. The site features a collection of user-generated coupon codes that is updated frequently. Each code even has a score associated with it, showing how successful it has been with the site's users. Coupon codes can range from a percentage off the price of an item or order to free shipping. The site even features traditional printable coupons if you're going to be shopping in a actual store.

It may take a little time, but by checking these sites before I buy something, I usually end up saving about 15% off the retail cost. Add up what I save on all of those purchases up each year, and I probably save around a thousand dollars!

So, how do you shop for deals?

Comments

[Coupon Codes]

Putting 'coupons(s)' at the end of your search on the search engines is an excellent way of finding coupon deals. E.g. - online shoes coupons will get you a list of sites that have coupons on online shoes.