How to shop around for discounts and promo codes

You might call me cheap, stingy, thrifty, a tight-wad or a penny-pincher but I do most of my shopping online and I hate paying full price for anything. Comparing 10 different stores online is far easier than driving to 10 different stores nearby; which is what causes online prices to be lower than in-store prices. Whenever I’m looking for something that I want to buy, I will usually check the prices at a minimum of 5 different websites prior to actually making the purchase. I usually (a) always find a cheaper price than what is available to me locally and (b) receive free shipping on my goods. When you add the benefit of not paying sales taxes on most purchases (shakes his fist at New York) – the deals become even better. My problem is that even though I’ve found a cheap price somewhere, I’m getting free shipping and I’m not paying sales tax on the item – I still feel the need to receive some sort of deal. Most times I don’t care if it’s $5 off or a 30% discount – I just don’t want to pay what everyone else could buy it at. Finding the codes that get you a discount is often the most time consuming effort in the purchasing process, so I’m going to show you how I get it done.

Searching for additional savings

By the time that you read this article the product, prices and discounts may be different.

If you’re looking for a specific product – I suggest that you start at the manufacturer’s website. Visit the main website for the item that you want to buy and gather some detailed information. If it’s software you want, grab the latest version number – If it’s a leaf blower, grab the model number that you’re interested in. This will help you be more specific during your searches and you might even find a different discount when you use the model number rather than the product name. Normally, I will never buy anything directly from the manufacturer – but it’s a great place to start your research.

In this example we’re going to buy from my favorite print shop – OvernightPrints.com. Let’s say we need to buy 1,000 double sided business cards, which would cost us $49.95. In this example, we’ve already snooped around and it turns out that $49.95 is the best price available. So now that we know what we’re buying and who we’re going to buy it from – we will look for some type of discount from that store, preferably for that product.

Since I love Google, we’re going to start there. Do a quick search for discounts by using the company, the product and the words “discount code.” If you don’t like discount code, you can search for discounts, promos, coupons, deals and so on. Most of the time, my favorite discount website, RetailMeNot.com will show up in the rankings. Go to any of the sites that are listed and check out their special offers or promotional codes that you can enter when finalizing the checkout process. For this example Retail Me Not has a lot of codes for Overnight Prints, we just have to figure out which code will get us better savings. With the current listed codes for business cards from Overnight Prints, it appears that we could save 10% or $10. Since we’re talking about $49.95 we would opt for the $10 discount since 10% would only be $4.99.

Companies also offer special promotions from time to time – you may want to email them or sign up for their newsletter to find out when things will be on sale. While we’re on the subject – sign up for my newsletter to have my updates and articles delivered directly to your inbox.

A quick touch on Security

Most people that I speak with are too scared to get that big online deal because they think that their credit card will get stolen. Identity theft does happen but shying away from the internet isn’t going to protect you from it.

If you’re worried about your online dealings, I suggest that you sign up with PayPal and download their plugin. PayPal’s plugin allows you to generate a MasterCard number that can be used once or multiple times. Just imagine an endless supply of disposable credit cards! Even if your single-use credit card number was compromised during an online purchase, the criminals wouldn’t be able to charge it again.

I also recommend that you use a program called, “Roboform” to assist you with storing your personal information such as names/logins, addresses, phone numbers, passwords, credit cards, and banking numbers. Whenever you need to fill a form on any website, Roboform will automatically fill in all of the information with a simple mouse click. This not only helps you remember all of your important logins and such, but it protects you from hidden programs on your computer that record and send out logs of everything that you’ve typed on your keyboard.

Final Ramblings

If the advice above isn’t working or you’re planning on making a big online purchase and want to make sure that you’re getting the best deal – feel free to contact me and I’ll try my hardest to find some savings for you.