Bargains on a Budget
57The Economy
It isn't easy to make ends meet in the current economy. With more and more people losing their jobs and franchises being forced out of business, we all have to look for ways to make our money stretch. Some of my very favorite local small businesses have closed their doors forever. Gone are the days where I could go and support local businesses by purchasing from my neighbors directly. Unfortunately, I also do not have the luxury of shopping at large department stores as they simply do not exist in a small rural town.
Luckily we live in an era where we no longer have to soley depend on brick and mortar stores to get our fix of bargain deals. More and more we can find equally good (or sometimes better)deals on the world wide web. With many free shipping codes being offered to sweeten the deals, there is no reason anymore to hop in the car to go shoping.
BARGAIN SITES
There are a plethora of sites that get continuously updated with hot deals in various departments. Apparel, electronics, groceries, etc.....all can be found when one puts a little effort in searching these sites. Some of my favorite sites:
A fabulous site that lists deals according to various categories. Members contribute daily by listing hot deals they find while browsing the internet. The reason I love this site is because they also give you cash back on any purchase you make through their site.
I NEVER buy anything without first checking to see if there is a discount or free shipping code out there to sweeten the deal. This site is great to check for any coupon that may exist. Do NOT buy anything without first checking this site!
My favorite site to find incredible deals on apparel and household items is kohlsbargains.com, bar none. I am a huge Kohl's fan anyways, and upon searching the internet came across this little gem of a website. They update all of Kohl's clearance items daily and then again continuously throughout the day. Items are neatly organized according to percentage off, and coupons one can use to get free shipping and an additonal percentage off are listed on a separate page.
I know some of you may be surprised I list Amazon as a bargain site. However, once you sign up for their Prime Membership, shipping becomes free and some incredible deals can be found. Prime membership is just $80 a year, and can be shared with 4 of your closest friends. Split the cost of prime, and you have free shipping for a year.
For grocery coupons I go to couponmom.com. It is easy to navigate and helps me save money at the grocery store.
Other sites that some people like are www.slickdeals.com (I do not like that site as well as fatwallet because they do not offer cash back) and www.bensbargains.com
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Good hub....thanks! :)
Great hub, I use the couponmom.com to get some coupons sometimes!
Nice hub overall, Jeanette. There are two more sites that I'm guessing you haven't heard of, or you'd for sure have them at the top of your list!
The first is www.slickdeals.net. It's very similar to Fatwallet, but has a much larger clientbase - so much so, the site is worth over twice the amount that fatwallet is!
The other is part of the slickdeals site, but is essentially a website in itself. It's the "Official Kohl's Deal, Clearance, Sales & Chat Thread", found at http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=9015 . They've been running for well over a year now and have an estimated 200,000 people visiting per month. It's likely what many other kohls deal sites model themselves after. The difference is that instead of being owned by a few that are running it to make profit (through clickthroughs and ad revenue), the "Official Kohl's Deal, Clearance, Sales & Chat Thread" at slickdeals is run by a vast group of everybody from military families, SAHMs and SAHDs, and every type of worker from blue to white collar, adults of all ages. And that site is active 24/7, which is why the deals are often found there first. Best of all, it's a warm and welcoming community that shares life tips, stories, advice...everything any fan of hubpages would LOVE! Be sure to check the last pages for the most recent deals.
Lastly, thanks for mentioning couponmom.com. I hadn't heard of it before and will have to check it out!
Bree,
Thank you for the nice compliment. If you read my hub though you will see that I did indeed mention slickdeals as well. I am well aware of that site, but have not liked it because they continue to refuse to give cash back like Fatwallet does. And don’t for a minute think that slickdeals is owned by a group of people who are in charge of a thread. Slickdeals is a for-profit site that refuses to reward people for their hard work. As such it is not a site that I usually recommend. I did check out your thread on the Kohsl deals, but fail to understand why people would want to spend so much time on finding deals (and posting them one at a time) when they are so nicely laid out in a comprehensive list at kohlsbargains.com . Even harder for me to understand is why people continue to post there knowing full well only one person profits from their hard work (slickdeals himself).
Kohlsbargains on the other hand requires nothing from me (or from others). I don’t have to do the work, they do it all for me. I reap the benefits without any of the work.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
Jeanette
I am going to look into couponmom as I am always looking for new coupons, and that is a new one for me too. I have visited the other sites you mentioned, and also cash back is nice. Other than Fatwallet I don't know of any other good sites that give cash back. However, it seems Slickdeals gets the most and best deals posted at their site, so that is where I have been going for deals. Sometimes, I just don't have time to hit all the deal sites, I wish I could but with all I have to do I can't. Slickdeals is kind of like my internet mall of deals (clothes, coupons, electronics, freebies etc.). I think people post because it is more of an attitude about sharing deals so all benefit. Yes, the owners make money, all the deals sites that I am aware of are trying to do that. Thanks for all the good tips, we do need to help each other out to find deals in these harder economic times.
I am getting a few comments to this post that do not make sense and seem accusatory in nature. I have chosen to not display those comments as I am not privy to all the facts and details and am not sure if they are correct. Please accept my apologies. If you would like to make those comments again and clarify them, I would be happy and honored to display them.
Thanks for the info and welcome to hubpages Jeanette! These sites you mentioned are mentioned quite often. I am very thankful though because I love Kohl's and thanks to you and Bree, I've now found a wonderful place to go: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=9015 . I just went there and it looks like a wonderful place with lots of really nice folks. I heard of slickdeals lots of times and love the Hot Deals and Freebies Sections but didn't know the Kohl's thread existed until now. I agree with Jada too in that SlickDeals has lots of great deals, and so does FatWallet. The same goes for Amazon, Retailmenot, couponmom and BensBargains.
Thank you for the welcome to hubpages BobbyJo, I love it here! BTW BobbyJo, you have the same IP address as Bree. Are you two married? If so, that is awesome that the two of you have the same interests like that. :)
I beg your pardon? Did I say something to insult you? Or has your account been hijacked? Because, your hub appears to be something trying to be helpful, but your comments seem to be anything but.
BobbyJo, I do not know what is going on here. When someone makes a hub, all comments show an IP address. I can clearly see you and Bree have the same IP address. I just made that comment because I thought that was cute (a married couple both posting like that).
I am not sure why you are being so offensive. Is it because I would not approve one of your posts? As I said before, I would be happy to post it after you clarify it a little more.
I am not sure what axe you have to grind with fatwallet and/or kohlsbargains, but I think it is best if I ignore your comments from now on.
Nice hub, Jeanette. Don't feel bad about people posting under multiple handles like that...it is what some people do on the internet when they think they are anonymous. Pathetic I know.....seems s/he wanted to get her/his point across that sD is better than any other site and was willing to do what it took to do that. Maybe SDs owner shilling yoir hub....wouldn't surprise me...
Nice hub, thank you Jeanette. I am a long time slickdeals fan (also frequent fatwallet when SD is slow), but had never heard of http://kohlsbargains.com In fact, I post all the time on the SD Kohls thread that Bree mentioned (have over 5000 reps thanks to that thread....hahaha). Checked out kohlsbargains though and found it to be effective and to the point. Can't wait to tell all of the kohlies on slickdeals about it. They will LOVE it (already emailed 18 of them).
Oh, just a BTW: that Bree/Bobbyjo/Jada person is posting all over the internet, slamming KB and FW. Google it and you will see what I mean. Same posts, different handles. Very, very pathetic indeed (and THEY blame others of shilling is the funny part).
Us slickdealers have a word for people like that, but I shall refrain. ;)
Keep up the good work, Jeanette. I will look forward to your future hubs!
westernangel 2 years ago
Thanks for the tips.