Tips like these helped us pay off $127K in debt. You can read our story in Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After.
The turkey has been gobbled and you may have shopped ’til you dropped on Black Friday, but the holiday weekend isn’t quite over. Tomorrow on Cyber Monday, the internet will be flush with deals certain to make shoppers click with glee. However, there are some things you can do TODAY to help you save money on Cyber Monday. And by the way, this year, the deals aren’t limited to just Monday, many online retailers are offering specials all week long as a part of Cyber Week.
Sign Up for Cash Back Sites
If you’re not a member already, today is the perfect time to sign up for a cash back site like Ebates. Right now, if you’ve never signed up before you can even score a FREE $10 gift card. An online shopping portal, Ebates collects coupon codes in one place (more on that later) to help you score the best deal and then gives you a percentage of cash back for participating stores. I even use Ebates when booking hotels and rental cars on Hotwire. Sign up today and get that $10 gift card moving your direction.
Maximize Coupon Codes
Don’t buy anything online ever without first searching for a coupon code. Certainly you can use a general Google search but you can also head to deal sites like RetailMeNot, DealNews, CouponCabin, or again Ebates to make sure you’re getting the best deals no matter which site you shop. Depending on which site you shop, you may even be able to use more than one coupon code. So before you hit purchase, take your time and run a couple of different coupon codes through your transaction to see which nets the most savings. Be sure to look for flat rate coupon codes that take a percentage off your entire code. Most notably, Target is offering 15% off your entire order with the code CYBER15. Amazon is currently offering 30% any book too with the code HOLIDAY30 which means you can pick up my book for less than $7 WAHOO.
Price Match Well
Cyber Monday is all about that price match. To see whether or not your deal is really the best deal, run it through Pricegrabber to get a comparison of online offerings for the exact same product. If you shop Amazon on Cyber Monday, take a quick glance at CamelCamelCamel to see if the price you’re paying really is the best. CamelCamelCamel tracks the history of prices on Amazon and alerts you when they’re at their lowest.
Watch Shipping Costs
A deal isn’t a deal if you if pay an arm and a leg in shipping costs. Be sure to glance over FreeShipping.org to see who might have coupon codes or deals. Many retailers will also allow you to ship to store at no charge. Be sure you double check before plopping down extra cash. If you don’t already have an Amazon Prime membership, today is the perfect opportunity to see if you qualify for a FREE trial.
Look for the Unusual
Just like Black Friday, you should be skipping the hot, big ticket items and instead be looking for things you really need during Cyber Week. Now is the time to make site wide coupon codes work to help you score the best deals on everyday purchases.
Check Outlets & Clearance
Don’t forget to skim through the outlet and clearance items on Cyber Monday. Again you can maximize the coupon codes and free shipping finding odds and ends at rock bottom prices. I like to set my filter to the percentage off amount so I can see the steepest discounts.
Set Your Filters
For some shoppers online shopping spirals into a never ending rabbit hole where you see items you can’t afford and experience ridiculous digital temptation. Protect your heart and wallet by setting your filter to include only the products you are looking for within your price range. Especially on Amazon, working those little toggles in the sidebar will help you eliminate the colors, sizes, and brands that you don’t want while zeroing in on those you love. I almost always set the price range to display from Low to High too so that I don’t even see items that are beyond my budget. One last tip: check out the Best Sellers or Movers and Shakers on Amazon, too (you will usually see the option within a particular department). For instance, in the screenshot below, I was looking at Amazon Best Sellers in Toys & Games. The little green arrows indicate an increase in sales and the red indicate they have moved down in rank. Typically, deal bloggers sharing the best prices shoot items up the rankings.
For more on saving money while shopping online, check out:
- 11 Top Secret Ways to Save Money on Amazon
- 5 Essential Cyber Monday Shopping Tips
- My Thoughts on Christmas Online Shopping
- 5 Deal Sites For Great Christmas Bargains
- How to Score the Best Amazon Subscribe and Save Deals
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free
[…] week, we talked about successful online shopping strategies for Christmas. I’m a firm believer that there’s always a way to get around paying full price for […]