Frugal Babe

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Never Shop Online Without Looking For Coupons

September 30, 2010 By Frugal Babe

It’s rare for me to shop online (or anywhere else for that matter – I am not a shopper!) but it does happen.  And I’ve learned that it’s always worth the extra 30 seconds or so to search for a coupon before I click on the buy button.  Last week, I had to order checks.  Yep, old-fashioned paper checks.  We use about one check every two months these days, but on the rare occasion when we do need one, there isn’t another alternative.  I could order them from our credit union for 50 cents a check (yikes!) but I decided it made more sense to order them online and get a box full – even if it will take us twenty years to use up that box.

Before I ordered them, I went to Coupon Cactus and found a coupon for $2 off a box of checks from Checks In The Mail.  It literally took me about 30 seconds to go to the site, find the code, and get back over to the check site and enter my code.  I will happily spend 30 seconds to save $2, and I’ve found that just about everything I buy online has some sort of coupon available.

In general, I don’t tend to use the sort of paper coupons that come in the Sunday newspaper.  I don’t buy many of those products anyway, and I’m more likely to forget about a coupon in my purse than I am to use it.  But online coupons – like Walmart coupons, for example – are a different story.  They’re constantly being updated, there’s nothing to print or carry around, and you can search for exactly what you need.  I never buy anything online anymore without checking first to see if there’s a coupon available, and most of the time, I end up saving at least a couple dollars.  If you haven’t already started using sites like Coupon Cactus, check it out next time you’re shopping online.

Filed Under: our frugal stories 9 Comments

Comments

  1. Regina says

    September 30, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    I haven’t heard of Coupon Cactus–I’ll have to check it out next time we make an online purchase. We always check retailmenot.com for coupons, too. We’ve gotten many wonderful discounts thanks to that site. :)

    Reply
  2. Kim says

    September 30, 2010 at 7:12 pm

    The best online coupon source I’ve found is: http://www.retailmenot.com/

    Reply
  3. Money Beagle says

    October 1, 2010 at 6:21 am

    I pretty much always go and Google ‘site name coupon’ and see what comes up. Great advice and it’s very easy.

    Also, go to Slickdeals.net and type in the name of their site. If there are any recent deals to be had, you’ll usually find them discussed there.

    Reply
  4. John Cooper says

    October 1, 2010 at 6:39 am

    Are you at all concerned about the privacy implications of using these services? Would you disclose your browsing history to strangers in exchange for $2? From the Coupon Cactus privacy statement:

    You authorize, by use of the website, the collection of, but not limited to, IP address, browser type, time of visits, web pages viewed, time expended, usage habits, sites visited just before and after our website, and possibly other non-personally identifiable information. In addition, we do not associate your non-personally identifiable information with your personally identifiable information. We may use or disclose non-personally identifiable information for a variety of reasons including but not limited to improving our services or working with third party business partners.

    They say they don’t connect your personally identifiable information with your browsing habits, but you can be sure that their “business partners” do.

    Reply
  5. Emma S says

    October 1, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    I always do this as well. In the last 2 months I’ve saved around a hundred dollars doing this:
    I saved 15% off an order for a new pair of glasses and a 6 month supply of contact lenses (AND got free shipping).
    I saved 10% off an order for a coat and booties for our very short-haired dog for winter (we live in an area where -30 celsius is a norm for about 2 months of the year). More free shipping.
    And I also saved 15% off a personalized baby shower gift for my best friend.
    Because we live in a small town that is a 2-hour drive away from anywhere you can do any kind of serious shopping, we shop online a ton. We basically only have a Wal-Mart in town, along with a lot of locally owned boutiques (which are astronomically expensive). So, for us, shopping online is about ease, saving on gas money, and availability. I LOVE finding a coupon for exactly what I need to purchase!
    YAY COUPONS!

    Reply
  6. leslie says

    October 3, 2010 at 6:58 pm

    RetailMeNot ftw!

    Reply
  7. Kyle Robinson says

    October 6, 2010 at 7:22 am

    Hi John,

    This is Kyle Robinson, the Marketing Director for http://www.CouponCactus.com. I understand and appreciate your concerns. I would like to assure you that the privacy policy you quoted is very common (boiler plate) and that we don’t sell or give out any information on browsing history or anything else to anyone.

    You are right to be concerned about privacy though. There are potentially dangerous and unethical uses for cookies, but most sites use them as a way to improve the user’s experience and help them to personalize their content. I personally love the recommendations I get from Amazon after browsing a product since it cues me into an item that might be better or something that might compliment a purchase I am making.

    In our case, Coupon Cactus is a cash back site and cookies are the only way for us to confirm that you made a purchase using a coupon of ours and then to assign the cash back to your account. We need to send you on your way to go shopping and then have the merchant report back to us that you made the purchase. The only way to do that is to have you travel from site to site with a Member ID and when it gets reported back to us we can assign the cash back to your Member ID. That is done with a cookie.

    Thanks for your comment and we hope you’ll check out our site and save some money!

    Reply
  8. Kelly says

    October 7, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    I have shared this tip to so many. I feel it’s my mission in life. I tell them when you see the coupon code box on the checkout page… STOP. Go to Google and search for a coupon. It pains me to think of anyone paying any more than they need to.

    Reply
  9. WebShopper says

    January 18, 2011 at 12:08 am

    I found this smaller site http://www.frugaldistrict.com It doesn’t seem cluttered with unknown brands. It’s easy to find what you are looking for.

    Reply

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