Finding bargains online 101
You’d think with all the coupon sites and comparison shopping sites out there, finding a good bargain would be a piece of cake.
Unfortunately, this is often not the case. The problem is that coupons expire fast, and many of the deals you find online are no longer valid.
And price comparison sites often only give you part of the picture, and when you add in the cost of shipping and handling, you often don’t get the major bargain you thought you were getting.
No doubt, online shopping, while convenient, can be a bit of a quagmire. I’m here to help. I’ve been buying things online for over 12 years, and this website will offer tips and useful advices on how to be a good online discount shopper.
It’s not hard to get great deals online, but it does take some perseverance, so stick with me, and let’s save some cash together.
Ebay or Amazon?
Up until a few years ago, I always headed to Ebay and almost without exception, I’d find the best deal for a product I’m searching for. These days, I hardly use Ebay anymore.
The place I go to most often now is Amazon. I don’t know what has changed, but Ebay sellers aren’t offering the killer deals they once did. But I do find quite a few awesome discounts on Amazon.
Now, in case you didn’t know, Amazon is not just for books or CDs. You can literally buy ANYTHING on Amazon these days. This includes electronics, computers, and even furniture. This is because 1) Amazon has branched out into selling many diverse products and 2) Amazon allows other stores to sell on their site using the Amazon interface. In a sense, Amazon has become a bit of a shopping portal rather than a simple retail site.
Perhaps the best features of Amazon is that it’s a shopping portal and price comparison site rolled into one. For any product, if there are multiple seller, you can view the prices being charged by each one. And this is not just for new products, but used ones as well.
Given all these strengths, Amazon is now one of the first sites I head to when shopping online. Sorry Ebay, you were good to me for a while, but you sorta lost me when you allowed to many sellers that sell cheap knock-off products to clog your shopping site. For me, it’s Amazon all the way, at least for the time being…
For another perspective on this, check out this article about Selling on Amazon and Ebay.
Which method of watching movies gives you the best deal?
Watching movies is one of America’s favorite pastimes. As a matter of fact, I have read recently that American’s spend something like 9 billion dollars a year on watching movies. But are there ways to enjoy this kind of entertainment more cheaply?
I often compare the different ways to watch movies, and what is the most cost-effective. I’ve tried everything from Hulu Plus to Netflix, and here is a list of what I believe are the cheapest ways to watch movies.
- Redbox
You can’t beat paying $1.20 for a movie. Redbox kiosks are pretty much everywhere, so they’re easy to locate, and you can return them at any Redbox location, making it convenient. The only downside is that you have to return the DVDs in 24 hours. - Netflix
Both the streaming service and DVD rental service give you the chance to watch a lot of movies for a monthly fee. The problem with the streaming service is that the selection mostly consists of older movies. - Hulu Plus
A great alternative to Netflix. Most people seem to have tried Netflix at least once. I encourage people to try Hulu as well since there is a Hulu Plus free trial available at this time (go to this link to get it). You may or may not like it better than Netflix, but the fact is, the two services are pretty similar. (They are even the same price). - Second run theaters
These theaters let you watch movies for as little as $2.00. The theaters, however, tend to be run down and dirty. But you still get the theater experience at a fraction of what it normally costs.
The most expensive way to watch movies, no doubt, is watching new releases at multiplexes. If you buy popcorn and a soda, expect to be paying $20 or more per person. But sometimes you just want to see the latest movie and enjoy the theater experience. So while it can be costly, it’s still worth it in my opinion.
To get a Netflix or Hulu Plus free trial, go to Quickfreetrials.com.
Getting better deals on jewelry
Jewelry is a luxury item that can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to millions of dollars. On the whole, I find that you get diminishing returns when you spend more money. The sweet spot seems to be several thousand dollars. But that’s still a ton of money, and it’s smart to try and save as much as possible.
Traditional wisdom would dictate that you should visit a store and inspect jewelry yourself before buying it. But I think buying online is smarter. Why? There are two reasons. 1) You can always return the product if you don’t like it, and 2) You can get better deals online.
Where you shop matters, and I would recommend Ross Simons myself. They have a great selection and overall, they have highly reasonable prices. What’s more, a quick search on the Internet will allow you to find plenty of Ross Simons coupons that will let you get an additional discount, usually around 25%. That can translate into some pretty big savings on an expensive piece of jewelry.
So the next time you need some jewelry, consider looking online. If you don’t like Ross Simons for some reason, there are plenty of other online jewelry stores you can hit up. I personally prefer to shop at the sites that offer an online coupon since I always want to know I’m getting a good deal.
If you’re interested in obtaining a Ross Simons coupon, you can head over to http://couponanything.com which is the site where I got my coupon.