10 Brilliant Money Saving Tips For Travelling And Online Shopping
How To Save Money
Tips For Online Shopping
Money Saving Tips
Surf and Shop Smartly
Be aware of startegic practices of online merchants like "online price discrimination" . Most retailers are perfectly aware of your price point, they study user behavior, spending patterns, browsing history etc. They know you, your spending and your needs more than you think. So do best to avoid this discrimination, moreover take advantage of it to Bag good deals for the best possible price. It is also a good idea to choose localized website versions instead of being redirected to US, there is often price difference between the two.
How to hide your details from online merchants
Always clear your browsing history and cookies.
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When shopping online log out from all your accounts social media, emails etc
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Switch to browsers incognito mode.
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Browse anonymously using specialty browser like Tor
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Use VPN to hide your identity and location.
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Online Shopping
Use Coupons And Cashbacks to Save Money
Signing up to promotion lists and coupon sites like EBATES and GROUPON can save you huge bucks. Great ways to save money by just joining and shopping through these sites you not only get certain cash back on almost all major brands under the sun, you also get access to luxury deals, in store cash back facility, daily hot deals as well as double cash back options to shop from.
Now that's called a Deal !!
Be aware of Price Drops
In the digital world price fluctuations are common. To make it work in your favor you will need to track prices on items you're interested in buying. You can use www.camelcamelcamel.com to track prices on amazon products.
Price-drop alert sites such as Love Sales or Notifyy allow you to add items from online retailers to your 'wish list' and name the price you're willing to pay, or ask for an alert when the price drops. Alternatively you can also use www.pricegrabber.com to know when the online prices of any item drop.
Talk to customer Service
Typically, sales reps are interested in closing the deal and will either give you a new promo code or extend the existing one. It may not work each time,but it is always worth trying.
It’s not a well-known fact, but chat support can issue special promo codes that are not widely available. You will be surprised by the amount of money you saved by just talking.
Carry Out Price Comparison Checks
Always check to see if some other retailer is out there to give you better price than the current one. There are many sites and apps available just choose according to your product category. And there will be no deal that you'll miss out ever.
For Fashion Shopping On SALE!! Shop It To Me is a heaven. They will browse sales on fashion stores for you, your size, your brands, your style. Once you sign up with them, you will be able to see your favorite sale items in your account. What else can you ask for.
Play Hard To Get
Retailers always charge more to their loyal customers, people who buy things without any fuss. On the other hand people who are reluctant to buy often bag lower prices, most retailers hate unclosed deals and will try to retain you. If you show your interest in an item and don't buy it certain stores can offer a better price on the next day.
Use Social Networking
Like your favorite retailers on Facebook, Twitter or other networks they are available on. Many merchants, including the Gap and Banana Republic, post special coupons or announce sales first on their Facebook pages.
Negotiate Discounts
Now you can negotiate discounts online as well, use Flubit which is a free site to negotiate discounts for you.
Use the Right Credit Cards
Shopping via credit cards can offer you discounts, cash backs, free gifts or other rewards. Just pick a card according to your shopping needs and limits. You'll be paying your bills anyways, but when you use credit cards you are bound to get many benefits even insurance in case things go bad. Just make sure you pay your entire payout to card every month to avoid any interest that may be levied on you cancelling all the benefits you got earlier.
Sign Up For Your Favorite Brands Newsletter
Brands send discount deals and coupon codes to their customers every now and then if you sign up for their newsletter. Just make sure you are in mailing list of brands you like to buy things from.
Buy On Right Days
In addition to black friday and cyber monday when retailers offer heavy discounts, there are lots of other occasions when you can grab a good deal. Look out for 4 july, mothers day, fathers day, labour day, valentines day, store anniversary any other festival or occassion based sales. There are many around year.
Specific Groups Of People Discounts
Some stores offer special discounts if you fall under categories like :
Students
Army Personnel
AAA Membership
Age related discounts
Signup Forums For Hot Deals
Look out for shopping hot deals on forums like Grabbit board, or sign up to receive a feed from the Wow Forum alerting you to the hottest deals around.
Hot Deals
Buy Out Of Season
Buying in the off-season comes with shit load of benefits. Rather than heading to the stores at the same time as everyone else, simply shop for items at non-peak times, when there’s not a lot of demand to drive up prices. Apart from clothes and home appliances there are lots of other stuff you can consider buying off-season. Like :
Real Estate - Off season fall & winter
Outdoor and lawn items - September and October
Weddings - Depends on where you live
Winter sports gear - Summer
Vacations - Depends on location mostly it's winters
Carpeting & Flooring - Off season January
Have It For Free
Travel
Check Prices
Prices for flights, hotels or car rentals tend to fluctuate so its best to keep eye on them to get a good deal. Tools like kayak and skyscanner point out the days when you can get flights for cheap, they also list hotels and car rentals on discounted prices. You can browse within your budget for best deals you can get.
Check FLIGHT / HOTELS / CAR RENTALS on -
KAYAK
SKYSCANNER
Bid Your Own Price
Tracking price drops, comparing prices from different retailers is one thing, now you can place your own price for a flights, hotels, rental and see if someone is ready to give you that deal. Particularly for bidding your own price for flights/hotels/rental cars go to https://www.priceline.com
Choose Accommodation Wisely
Instead of luxury hotels you can choose to stay at Posh villas( can cost £1,000 less than posh hotels ). Condos and Rental Apartments are another cool choice to live beautifully as well as save you hundreds of dollars. The easiest way to find a rental is online. Check out craigslist.com, and look under the vacation rentals tab. Choose your destination city, and browse through scores of listings.
If you want to get more lower on your bill you can choose local hosts via Airbnb where house owners can offer you their house to live for a few days at cheap prices.
Holiday Accommodation
Hourly Car Rentals/Car Shares
Some rental car company can be heavy on your budget there are still ways to get rental cars for dirt cheap prices. Zipcars is one of players in rental cars marketplace where you can get rentals cars for very low prices.
Zipcars can be found in cities across the U.S. and are a great option when you need a car for only a few hours. There is a $25 one-time application fee to join and an annual fee of $50, but then you get dirt-cheap hourly rates. You can have them anywhere in your city or your vacation destination.
Never Ever Give Up On Looking For Deals
Check out lastminute.com for cheap deals.
Do The Talking
Call around a few places, speak to supervisors about their ‘best prices’ of their hotel you’ll be glad that you talked out a good deal for yourself.
Track For Price Drops
Already booked your flight and hotel, not to worry you still can secure rebates and price drops by using this wonderful app named Yapta. It not only alerts you for price drops but also helps you securing them.
Use Travel Cards
Travel cards can bring a lot of savings to your traveling expenses. From cashback, reward points, gifts and deals, you can also keep track of the money left on your card and if you need a top-up, transfer funds online from your bank.
You will receive best exchange rates when you transact in any currency other than the card currency. Not only all your transactions will be secured but you will get awesome insurance cover for your trip.
Commute Smartly
Taxis, rental cars can up your travel bill adding hundreds of dollars. Only if you are well aware of the commuting scene of the city you are visiting you can save yourself good amount of money. Try using public transport while commuting or use car rentals like zip car taking care of your commute for much less price. While moving in and out of airport to your hotel or your spot try using airport shuttle buses they are much cheaper than taxis and rental cars available at the airport.
You will be surprised by the money you save by following these tips. Leave comments if you want to share something that worked for you or anyone else, feel free to share your knowledge and tips.