Having a lengthy to-do list is not uncommon in the summer. Finding time to get the yard work done, complete some repairs on the house and fit in some outdoor exercise isn’t easy, let alone making the time needed to buy all the requisite gear.

Last year, Americans spent more than $130 billion while shopping online, a growth of more than 6 percent over the year before. It’s no surprise that shoppers choose to use the Internet more and more: you can save time and money by checking reviews of products and finding the best deals. Finding online coupons for selected retailers can also be a way to save money.

With the economy in uncertain times, saving money has never been more important for most families as they embark on their summer activities. Here are some tips for how to save money using the Internet this season:

* Comparison shop to find the best deals. Use a search engine to look for the product you want, and find out which company has the best deals. Don’t forget to check consumer reviews to get other users’ opinions on the product you are interested in.

* Pay bills online. By using the online bill-pay option with your bank or utility, you can save yourself money on stamps and envelopes and not worry about running out of either. Oftentimes, you can set payments in advance so you don’t have to worry about missing a due date for a bill, which can lead to unnecessary — and often pricey — finance charges and other fees. You can also approve automated withdrawals from your account to pay for your bills as well.

* Seek out online coupons and coupon codes. Hundreds of online retailers have coupon codes available for customers if you know the right place to find them. One of those places is DefinitiveDeals.com.

The coupons are all added by people — not computers — and the most popular coupons are tested to make sure the codes are still valid, while expired coupons automatically drop off the site. Many other sites build up a large database of largely expired offers.

The site has coupons for travel, home and garden, athletic gear and clothing retailers. You can search the site for Finish Line coupons, and you can save money on your children’s soccer or baseball equipment.

* Look for home improvement tips. After you’ve used coupons and saved money buying all the gear and tools you need for the job, seek out sites that give you step-by-step instructions for your home projects. With online advice to help, you can complete a lot of projects yourself without having to hire someone.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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First and foremost, think outlet shopping! Outlet stores are found in many major metropolitan areas, and you will be able to purchase wonderful fashions for a fraction of the price that you would have to pay at the local department store. If you are a traveler, take every traveling opportunity to find out about outlet shopping opportunities at your destination.  After all, while your shopping opportunities may be limited at home, if you are traveling anyways, you might as well make the most of the trip and investigate any shopping opportunities that might exist.

Work with the sales personnel.  You cannot imagine how often there are markdowns in the back of the store that are waiting to hit the shelves!  Friendly chatting with a sales clerk – rather than barking at them that you are “just looking” in the hopes that they will move on to the next customer – may make sales items appear that you did not even know existed!  Identify yourself as a bargain hunter, and pick the clerk’s brain for running sales, markdown tables, and items that are likely to go on markdown any day.  Sometimes you might be able to pick from some gems from the back room, and you might even be able to further negotiate the price, especially if you are purchasing a number of items!

Do not discount coupons! As a matter of fact, check manufacturers’ and department stores’ websites to see if they offer any deal on brand names or simply for coming in.  You will be surprised how often you will be able to print out a ten or even 20% discount on any number of items.

Did you know that small boutiques sometimes offer the biggest bargains?  Very often when lines go out of style, they are marked down to make room for the next line of fashion.  Since there is only limited space available, these markdowns happen more often than you realize!  Add to this the reputation of many a boutique for having outrageous prices and you will quite possibly have a proprietor on your hands who will be more than happy to wheel and deal with you on some items.  After all, keeping the store in the black rather than going in the red is a powerful motivation for marking down an item with a hefty discount, if the customer will only buy something.

Shop at stores that pay their sales personnel a commission on sales made.  These sales clerks will be most likely to bend over backwards to make a sale, rather than simply tell you “we can’t do that.”  Granted, they might not be able to mark down a designer pair of pants – although sometimes they will – but they might be able to offer you free alterations!  They might be able to give you a hefty credit toward a matching belt of pair of shoes.  Simply talk with a sales clerk and see how willing she or he is to help you.  Maybe talking with a different sales clerk might help.

 

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Coupons are easy to get.  Open your Sunday newspaper and take out the inserts, and the odds are pretty good that you will find a valuable cornucopia of coupons for anything from electronics to groceries.  Coupons need to be carefully scrutinized.  Just like a gourmet hunk of cheese, they do have an expiration date. Additionally, some spell out certain conditions that need to be met before the coupon value kicks in.  For example, some coupons specify that two like items need to be purchased, while others require the purchase of the item for the coupon is printed in addition to another item that is specified on the coupon.  This is very common in the grocery business where you may receive a coupon for $1 off a gallon of milk, which you will receive only if you also purchase a certain type of cereal.

Sometimes coupon deals may not be as great as they sound, especially if they are enticing you to purchase products you were not really planning on buying in the first place.  On the other hand, dedicated coupon aficionados will be quick to tell you that if you are extremely organized with your coupons, you will be able to reap great rewards, such as many dollars off at the cash register.  Of course, you do not need to wait for the Sunday newspaper to get your coupons.  Many times retailers will have coupon pages in the front of the store, online, or send them to you via mail.  Always check a retailer or manufacturer’s websites for additional savings!

Discounts are specials advertised by the individual retailers.  Usually they are advertised in print media or on the television, sometimes also the radio. These discounts are oftentimes a great opportunity to purchase a high-ticket item that you had on your wish list for a while, but did not want to pay list price for. Yet discounts are a bit of a double-edged sword. The reason being is the fact that sometimes an item is not necessarily marked down a lot, and a store’s discounted price might still be higher than a similar item’s price at another store.  Before getting out your wallet to partake of a discount sale, do your homework and check the competition, especially if you are dealing with a high-ticket item.

Rain checks are the bane of existence for consumers.  You might have read the ad for a great deal at your local store, obediently showed up on the first day of the sale, and then disappointedly started at an empty shelf.  It is true that sometimes a retailer simply does not anticipate how popular a sale will be, and therefore will not order enough merchandise to accommodate everyone.  Retailers try to protect themselves against angry customers by stating in their ads “while supplies will last.”  Other times, you will not see this notation – usually in a grocery store ad – and this is where you will have a last chance to shine as the bargain hunter you really are: invoke the rain check.

First and foremost you will need to get a sales clerk to help you hunt down the item, sometimes a sale item is stocked in two or three places at the same time, and just because you are looking at an empty shelf does not mean that there are not more in an end display somewhere else. If the store really is sold ask, for a rain check, which simply means that when the next shipment of the item comes in, you will be able to purchase it at the sales price, even if the sale has long since expired. Other times you will be able to ask for a comparable item to be sold to you at the sales price.  Since this is more of a management decision, you might want to ask the floor supervisor for help on this one.

 

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