This post contains affiliate and referral links for which we both get rewards. All the tools mentioned are free and beneficial rewards are given to both of us should you sign up.
As most of you know, I’m a little bit weird. I don’t shop online very much, but sometimes I do. When I do, it usually takes me several hours of researching, reading reviews, trying to figure out how many reviews are legit, comparison shopping, signing up for a website email list to get coupons, abandoning my shopping cart for a week, and then delaying gratification longer or biting the bullet and buying junk I probably don’t need.
Here are some of the tools and techniques I use to get better deals when shopping online.
Raise.com
Have you ever received a gift card you knew you would not use? It’s a frustrating experience, but you can recoup some of the value by reselling it at Raise.com. Depending on demand, they will buy the gift card for a discount and resell it to someone who wants it.
We recently bought 3 giftcards from Raise.com and they gave me a $10 off coupon. We bought $115 in giftcards to places we would normally shop for just $93.18, which is 23% off.
This is a great way to make your money go farther, but be careful to only buy gift cards to places you definitely will use. Their app holds all your cards and you can just type in the code online or have them scan the gift card in app.
Honey
You’re about to check out your online purchase and you see a field called “Coupon Code.” You decide to search for one really quick and get taken to a bunch of weird sites with codes that don’t work or that you have to buy. 5 minutes later you are frustrated and haven’t saved any money. Not anymore!
Honey gives you legit coupon codes, they have saved me as much as 15% on online order. Super easy, the honest extension will automatically prompt you to try out some codes and in my experience is often successful.
BeFrugal
This is a new one for me, but whenever I go to a site where they have a partnership, they will just give me cash back. I can’t even remember exactly what sites I got cash back from, but I do have $11 dollars in my account. It adds up over time. Sign up to save on your normal purchases and get $10.
Rakuten
An old favorite, this site is the original that BeFrugal and other extensions have copied. Simple cashback to sites has made me over $50 for my normal online shopping. Get $10 when you use them for the first time (on an order $25+).
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a survey site but you can also get cashback when you use their browser extension or even run your normal internet searches through their browser.
CamelCamelCamel – The Camelizer
This tool is a browser extension and website that allows you to monitor prices on Amazon. I use this to see how the price changes over time and if I can expect a decrease in the future.
Camel lets me set a price alert on the thing I want to buy and when it dips below the price I specify I get an email and snag the deal.
Conclusion
It seems like there is always some new browser extension or app coming out that can save money. Part of it is going out and looking for it. Hopefully you find this helpful as these have saved me hundreds of dollars over the years.
Let me know if there are any other great apps, extensions or ways to save while shopping online.
