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Online Shopping Means Saving

I do a ton of my shopping online.  It saves me time running from store to store and most importantly, it saves money.  Today I’ll share three of my favorite tips and tricks for saving money by shopping online.

First things first – absolutely do not buy anything without first checking in with a cash back service.  My favorite is Ebates – it’s easy, covers almost all online stores and offers cash rebates from 1% up to 10%+.  Just visit the site, search for the store where you’ll be shopping and click through to get your cash back.  There are others like Bing and Mr. Rebates, but I’ve never once had a problem getting my cash back from Ebates.  And it works with any coupon codes you may have, unlike Bing.  Since I’ve started using the service, I’ve saved nearly $75 on purchases I would have made anyway.  Awesome!  Sign up here and get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase (and I’ll get $5 as well, for sharing this great tip with you!)

Another important tip – do not ever leave that little coupon code box blank at checkout!  It’s so easy to take a minute for a quick online search for a coupon code.  Googling works, but can lead to mixed results and too much info to wade through.  My favorite coupon code clearinghouse is RetailMeNot.com.  It features user-submitted coupon codes to 50,000 online stores.  Each code is given a percentage of success rate that lets you evaluate how reliable the code might be and an average savings for that store.  I often have to try a couple of codes, but it’s a great feeling when you find one that works and well worth the few minutes you spent searching.

RetailMeNot.com also has a handy extension for Firefox users that will pop up any available coupon codes at the top of your browser when you visit a site.  It doesn’t get any easier than that!

Lastly, for bigger purchases, I usually spend time researching prices and deals online for a few weeks before deciding where to buy.  I always visit Slickdeals.net, a forum of fellow deal seekers that post their best finds.  A quick search of the forum yields any current offers as well as deals going back several weeks.  It gives you a quick idea of how much the item has been going for recently, and whether it’s a good idea to wait for another big promotion or buy it now.  And rest assured, there always will be another big promotion right around the corner.  Stores tend to repeat themselves.

Have an awesome money-saving tip for shopping online that I didn’t mention?  Share it in the comments!

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