A frugal girl's online-shopping tutorial
Posted
Nov 21 2007, 01:07 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
If you're not among those frugal folks who've sworn off gift giving, you can save some hard-earned dollars by doing comparison shopping online. One Frugal Girl explains her step-by-step process. She checks comparison sites to find the best price for the item she wants. Then she searches online rewards sites like Ebates, FatWallet and UPromise for additional discounts. Third, she looks for coupon codes to further reduce the price, starting at RetailMeNot. (You also can find online coupons at MSN Shopping.) She recommends that you pay attention to detail: "Shipping alone, even on a small item, is usually in the range of $6 to $8. So, when comparing items, don't forget to take shipping and other discounts into consideration." Finally, she goes back to the rewards site that offered the best cash-back deal and makes the purchase.
She does all of this in 10 minutes. That doesn't include brick-and-mortar comparison shopping, which can end up being a good use of time. One Frugal Girl reports that she found a doll for her niece for $20 at a store. The cheapest online price? More than $35. She wrote, "I would've kicked myself if I overpaid this much for an item."
