Saving Money with Online Purchases
I spend a lot of time at the computer. In addition to conducting most of my work on the computer (including skype calls), I do a lot of my shopping online now. Just a few years ago, online shopping was quite rare and the selections limited, but now, I find that it’s a great tool that helps to save time and often money. Here are some things that I do:
–Take advantage of free shipping and prime memberships — since I purchase a lot of things online, the Amazon prime membership is cost effective. This is a flat annual fee that covers shipping for their products. Although a full membership is not for everyone, there are a lot of discounts offered on shipping, which often require consolidating your shopping to reach a minimum threshhold.
–Utilize the online reviews of a product — one of the most informative sources of information about a product are the reviews of other users. I find both positive and negative information useful. For example, before purchasing my most recent printer, I read the reviews that cautioned about the high price of toner on another model which brought the total costs of using that model much higher. Without the review, I would have purchased the other model and been stuck with expensive toner charges.
–Find precise brands or difficult to find items – I find the ability to locate specific items to be quite a pleasant surprise. Increasingly, I am spending less time hunting around brick and mortar stores. Also, I wear a not very often carried in regular stores dress size, and the ability to select it online is quite fun.
–Take advantage of rebates, gift certificates, and frequent purchaser programs – a number of sites like ebates.com and select credit cards will rebate a percentage of your purchases from online sights. Taking advantage of these helps to lower the cost of many online items.
The final tip to save money online is not to let the ease and simplicity of click and buy lead you to purchasing many items you don’t need. The same principles of money saving apply for all types of shopping.
shared at Frugal Friday
