Sorry if there is already a thread like this but I couldn't find one. I know we've had some threads in the past that revealed we have some pretty thrifty board members that know a lot of ways to get good stuff on the cheap. FOCUS: What sites or stores do you use to find good deals? I'll get the obvious out of the way. -Amazon: I don't think this requires explanation. -Woot: They have one deal every day that is way below market price, from toasters to big screen TV's they have random shit for cheap. -Groupon: Uses group buying so you can get ridiculous coupons for local businesses, it seems that they mostly do restaurants, but I've seen them do stuff like massage parlors and classes too. Some of the less obvious -Slick Deals: Site that searches the web for the best deals and posts them in one spot. I haven't found anything of interest on here yet, but my friends swear by it. -Plastic Jungle: They buy gift cards from people who don't want them and sell them at a discount online. Awesome for stores or restaurants you know you're going to go to anyway. Unfortunately they only give small discounts to places like Walmart, but I've always wanted to go to Morton's Steak house and they're at a 17% discount.
Woot is pretty badly hit-or-miss for me and mostly misses. Sure I'd like a refurbished 42" flat screen for $50 under the going rate...it's totally worth the risk to buy a gigantic TV sight-unseen that somebody already returned once. I signed up for Groupon with a throwaway email address. More like spam-on, amirite? Haven't gotten a hit yet; they're 0 for 60 now. I do like SlickDeals and BensBargains and whoever catalogs all the coupon codes for the various sites, because sometimes I try 40 of them and one of them will give me $5 off. Except fucking CafePress, who always has a one-day deal that would save me big bucks the day after I place my order.
Passwird This is probably my favorite, I usually find some pretty great tech deals from here. Another similar one is eDeals.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.bookdepository.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bookdepository.com</a> is a fucking lifesaver for book geeks outside of the usual free shipping zones. I get books delivered from between 20% and 35% of their retail price in Australia. Fucking amazing. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.retailmenot.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.retailmenot.com</a> is also awesome for coupons.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.SteapAndCheap.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.SteapAndCheap.com</a> is a mecca for bargain outdoor gear. I check it every half-hour. Some of the shit is worthless, but just as often you can find a $300 brand-name tent for $100.
Don't know why they changed the name, I liked it better the old way. It used to be called Cheap Stingy Bastard. http://www.cheapstingybargains.com/ This site is an aggregator of other deal sites: http://www.dodtracker.com/
I just did part of my christmas shopping on http://www.restaurant.com. In combination with coupon code 'holiday', I bought 2 $25 gift certificates to a local bar, a $25 gift cert. to a local asian restaurant, and a $50 gift cert. to a slightly more upscale dining establishment. $125 in gift certificates $10 out of pocket. Most of these restaurants have some caveat. For the $25 certificates, your order has to be $35 or more, limit one per table, in most cases. For the $50 certificate I bought, your order has to be $100 or more. Some places won't let you pay for booze with the certificates. Some places will add a gratuity to the bill if you are using a certificate.
I scope out dealspl.us religiously. And: WhiskeyMilitia.com - Winter/Snowboard/Ski gear 1saleaday.com - Much like Woot.
Retailmenot sold their soul to the devil and now remove coupons if a store sends them an email and asks them to stop, posting in their stead the store's own "deals" which inevitably suck. They still have some coupons but many now say, "user-submitted coupons removed at company's request." Woot is also a load of suck these days. For every gem there are a hundred terrible "deals" and yet everyone goes rabid over them because they assume the 24-hour limit means it's good. Most Woot deals are the same price as a deal anywhere else. For coupon codes, just Google <store> and "coupon" and you'll get good results. Sites like Fat Wallet are good because they rely on community and not business involvement. The business sites inevitably sell out to the higher dollar click-throughs or "sponsored" deals. Not that there aren't good privately run sites without relying on a forum-style setting, they just don't last forever and the assumption continues that the deals must be good long after they've stopped anything of value. SteepAndCheap.com is great if you're patient and don't just jump at everything listed, since there are a lot of lousy deals but a fair number of screaming hot bargains, too.
I use this handy add-on for firefox called invisible hand. Just install the add-on and then whenever you're looking at a product while online shopping, it searches the internet for the same product for the lowest price. It comes in handy pretty often, though about half the time the lowest price is Amazon. Link here: <a class="postlink" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11377/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11377/</a>
Be careful with that shit. I signed up once and started getting monthly charges from some random company on my bank statement. I called the number and complained and they refunded me the full amount, about a years worth of charges, so at least they were good about being a scam. http://consumerist.com/2009/01/buy-...-up-for-a-recurring-1495-monthly-service.html <a class="postlink" href="http://www.logicbuy.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.logicbuy.com/</a> is a lot like slickdeals.
Since people will probably be getting new electronics, I just wanted to point out something that everyone should know already. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.monoprice.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.monoprice.com</a> Get pretty much any cord or cable for $1-4, with pretty much any length available. This includes adapters, splitters, and anything cable related you could ask for. I am never sure where the debate lies between videophiles about whether or not these non-gold plated "lower end" cables make any difference, but a HDMI cable from here is about 1/10th as expensive as from Best Buy, and has never done me no wrong.
Very true. In the two or so odd years I've kept tabs on Woot (and a lot less recently because of the amount of suck), I've never made a purchase until actually late last night. A 250gb Xbox 360 HDD for $55 shipped... Fuck yeah I bought one. Considering they retail for $130 at other consumer stores. Great site. Another one to go along with that is Meritline.com - other small electronic consumer goodness for cheapness with generally good daily deals. Example: 3 pack of 6ft. HDMI cables for $5 shipped? Sign my frugal shit up. Speaking of, I'm blown away at the mark-up of HDMI cables at Best Buy and other stores. $50+ for 1 cable? Obviously, a lot of people don't know any better.. but really? Frick that in the cunt. Best Buy - Where YOU Drop The Soap!