This guest post was written by Christian Gordun, CEO of Coupon Craze. Coupon Craze is a free, online consumer resource that allows shoppers to take advantage of double-digit savings by providing the most reliable and up-to-date database of free coupon codes.
No matter where you live in this world, the same topic is being repeated over and over again -the economy, the economy, oh, and did I mention, the economy? We are all impacted by this global event and now more than ever, we must watch what we spend. The first reaction most of us have is to cut back on budgets, but sometimes that’s not entirely practical.
We still need to buy things however, now we need to make sure we’re getting the best prices for them. One popular way to manage a budget is by comparison shopping. There are a few ways to do this, by visiting individual sites to check for the price of an item or by using a price comparison engine (such as PriceGrabber.com) to find the lowest offering. But, why stop there?
My friend recently had a baby boy and at nearly 11 pounds, the little guy is not so little! I wanted to get him and his wife a gift and, after some thought, decided on a car seat. So I did a bit of research and found that the Graco SafeSeat is best in class for heavier babies. With an MSRP of $149.99, the question now is not if I can get it cheaper but how much cheaper can I get it for. After some searching around, I found the item at a few places:
- Walmart: $129.98 but “Out of Stock” (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5459222)
- Amazon: $129.98 and “In Stock” (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LP7V42/)
I easily could have stopped there and had been satisfied. But since I am a savvy shopper, I spent some more time comparing prices and was able to save an extra $5 dollars at Babies R Us.
- Babies R Us: $124.98 and “In Stock” (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2899786)
Well, what if I told you that truly savvy shoppers have a secret in their shopping arsenal that most people don’t know about – coupons! Or, more specifically, online coupon codes available online at CouponCraze.com (http://www.couponcraze.com), a free online resource that allows savvy shoppers to enjoy double digit savings from over 8,000 merchants. There is a very good chance you have made a purchase online at one point or another. When you were checking out have you ever seen a bar asking for a coupon or discount code?
More than likely you passed it over because you didn’t know what it was or where to go to get the code to complete it. Let me show you what happened when I entered a code into the promotional code box during the checkout for the Graco SafeSeat gift.
I type the coupon code “926508” into the promotional code box. And… I just saved $12.50! The code gave me a 10% discount off my purchase so the price went from $124.98 to $112.48. In total, I have now saved $17.50 by finding the lowest priced item available and coupled it with an online coupon code.
Lastly, here are some things to remember when using online coupon codes. Not all merchants have coupon codes available all the time, therefore be sure to take advantage of them while they are being offered. Most coupon codes have an expiration date so there is no guarantee there will be another offer like it the following month or even week. Also, another tip is to know that not all merchants require the use of coupon codes to enter. For example, Overstock.com has specific links that must be clicked on to activate specific offers.
My last piece of advice is to always confirm that the expected coupon offer has been applied before finalizing a purchase. This is because coupons can never be applied after a purchase. I can’t stress enough how important it is to preview the summary page before finishing an order.
To find coupon code offers such as the one in the above example and from thousands of other merchant, visit CouponCraze.com (http://www.couponcraze.com) today.
Now that you’ve learned how to get great savings using coupon codes, I have a question for all the readers out there! What has your experience been when using online coupon codes? I know I still relish in the 50% savings I once got for a brand new Dell laptop.
What is the best deal you ever were able to pull off?
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{ 7 comments }
For Christmas, I received multiple Old Navy gift cards. This was great, as I love Old Navy clothing and their brand of jeans are the only jeans that fit nicely, but at $30/pair I only owned two pairs. I was ready to plunk down my gift cards and some extra cash to get 3 new pairs of jeans until shortly after Christmas when I received an email with a coupon code for 50% off Old Navy clearance items. Total score!
And, because it was post-Christmas, even the jeans I liked were marked down to $19.99 (Making them about $10 after the half off). I could have ended it there and purchased enough jeans to keep me in pants for several years, but I decided to shop the site. 2 pr of jeans, a fleece top, fleece pants, pajama pants, a skirt, 2 t-shirts, 2 long-sleeved tops, 2 tank tops, and two pairs of tights later, I headed to the check-out screen. My total was something around $150 or so. Popped in the 50% off code and I managed to get everything for less than the total amount of my gift cards! Complete score on pretty much an entire new wardrobe.
Would I have still spent over $70 without the gift cards? Probably. $10 Old Navy jeans are too good to pass over!
Rebecca´s last blog post..Frog!
Why wouldn’t you? If they are there, and you can save money, help yourself save a bit any way possible.
Another great deal is to get the Entertainment book.
I went to exchange a pair of boots I got online from avenue. they were originally 70.00. All the boots had gone on clearance for 50% off. So, i got refunded my 70.00, then picked up another pair for 35.00, then had a coupon from the Entertainment book for 50% off one item. so, i only paid 17.50 for the boots, then got the rest in credit. Which I used to pick up some items at clearance.
It ended up with all my shopping, the bill being 2.48. I walked away with a pair of boots, 3 sweaters, and two shirts .
I love the sentiment of this post, it brings up some great ideas!
I really want to urge the author though to reconsider his car seat choice in light of this article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2008798606_seats01.html
The safeseat was shown to be an unsafe choice in a test that was only recently released. I am sure you can find some great recommendations on http://www.car-seat.org/
Thanks for the great article!
I recently saved $400 (yes, FOUR hundred) dollars on new HP desktop computer using an online coupon code. That’s pretty dang exciting for a frugal girl like me!!
If it costs me more than $50 to buy something I almost always use a coupon. Here are some things Ive bought recently online with coupons:
Running shoes
Crocs
New hosting service (saved over $100!)
Wedding presents
Thanks for the link to this site. I’ll be sure to check it out for my next purchase.
Just some quick responses:
@Lisa: I agree a great tip on the coupon book.
I thought I would share with others what you are talking about. Its called the Entertainment book. The 2009 edition is currently 50% off if you go to their site here:
http://www.entertainment.com/discount
@Nicole: Thank you for the heads up on the car seat. Always great to see such a responsive community. I appreciate the information.
@Monica: All I can say is awesome! That $400 I am sure comes in handy for so many other things. Great job.
Have a great weekend everyone!