I have been doing a lot of shopping in the past couple of weeks. I hadn’t purchased anything new for awhile because I was focused on frugal living but then it got to the point where there were quite a few things that I really needed (or wanted). Luckily, I’ve been able to find a lot of hot deals so I haven’t spent too much money even though I’ve gotten most of the things that were on the wish list I’d built up when I was in my no-spending phase.

Most people who know me know that I look for good deals when I shop. I love purchasing used items. And I also love buying things online using discounts and promo codes to reduce the cost of the purchase. Because of that, I’m loving a new site that I’ve found recently called Buxr.com. It’s a discount codes site but it has many of the features of a social networking site which makes it unique from a lot of the other promo code sites available.

Some of the key reasons that I like this site include:

• Every member of the site is able to submit coupon deals. One of the best things about online coupons that you don’t get with printed coupons is the ability to share deals with others. This site really takes that to a new level by allowing all users to share deals.

• The members of the site can rate the deals that are submitted. The online discussion and rating of each deal helps me as a shopper to see which deals are worth my time. One of the things that always annoys me a bit about using online coupons is that you sometimes have to try out four or five different coupon codes to find one that works. The conversation about the online coupons on Buxr.com makes it so that this problem can be avoided.

• There are some neat organizational tools on the site. You can create online shopping wishlists on Buxr.com which allows you to stay organized about what you want to buy. This would’ve been really nice for me when I was in my no-spending phase and racking up a big mental list of the things that I wanted.

• The site itself is organized well. You can easily see the latest deals, the about-to-expire deals, the popular coupons and the most recent blog news all on the home page of the site.

• The site has a decent money-saving blog. It’s always good to read about different methods of saving money (something that I read and write about frequently myself) so it’s good to see another blog offering that information as a part of this site.

• You can actually earn money by using the site. There are a variety of different prizes available for being active on the site which means that you don’t just save money with it but also have the opportunity to make money from it. There’s also a Buxr.com widget that online publishers can use to earn money from for promoting the site.

There are a lot of really good sites out there that offer coupon codes. This one just happens to offer a few extra perks and benefits that may make it a better choice than many of the other sites that are available.

Tags: buxr, buxr.com, online shopping, shopping, Social Networking, websites

I spend a lot of time online. When I say a lot, I mean more than the average person. On any given day, I probably find myself online for a minimum of ten hours. Sometimes quite a bit more. This is due to the fact that I work online as well as play online.

Because I spend so much time online, I’ve had to learn a lot about being safe online. I know about every aspect of this from protecting myself from identity theft online to being aware of crazy online predators. And I also know a lot about online scams.

Perhaps that’s why I was able to successfully and thoroughly answer this question on Yahoo! Answers about avoiding scams when doing online shopping. I hope the tips that I gave were useful not only to the asker who chose my answer as the best one but also to others who stumble across the question.

Tags: answer question, internet, online scams, online shopping, scams, smart shopping, Yahoo Answers

One of the topics that I have been doing a ton of research on lately is the topic of using promotional codes to save money online. It’s something that I do regularly when shopping online at my favorite websites. There are some sites that I just know always have promo codes available (Walgreens which is where I get my photos printed and 1800Flowers which I use to send gifts sometimes).

What I’m learning, though, is that you can basically use online promotional codes for everything. If you know what you’re doing and where to look, you can get discounts on everything from your daily needs (like food) to your ongoing expenses (like car insurance). It seems like it takes some time to research the best places to actually get those discounts but apparently they’re out there.

I’m really just starting to get the hang of figuring out the right use of discount codes. I’ve been doing it for awhile but I’ve found through researching the topic that there is just so much out there to learn. My next step is to really keep up with my RSS feeds from my favorite money saving blogs so that I can get more tips to use in daily life.

Any tips from you readers out there about using online promotional codes or other ways of saving money when doing online shopping?

Tags: Frugal Living, online discount cods, online shopping, promo codes, shopping

I’ve got another “best answer” over at Yahoo! Answers and I’d love it if you’d check it out. The question this time was about whether online shopping or mall shopping is better. My response was basically that it depends what you’re looking for in terms of your shopping experience but I tried to give a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons of online shopping in comparison with shopping at the mall.

I definitely think that online shopping is usually the better way for me to go personally. I really don’t like malls much. I feel like everything looks the same and it’s overpriced. However, I do like other in-store shopping like thrift store shopping and boutique store shopping. If I want to get the experience of browsing, I’d rather go to one of those places than shop online. But if I want to get a decent deal or to buy something in the most convenient way then online shopping is where it’s at for me.

What about you? Do you like online shopping? Would you rather go to a mall or some other type of store? Share your thoughts …

Tags: money, online shopping, Personal Finance, saving money, shopping, spending money, Yahoo Answers

I’ve mentioned a few times already on this blog that I do a lot of my shopping online for a variety of different reasons. When I do so, I try to keep my costs down in any way that I can. I participate in swap sites that let me get things like books for free. I do some comparison shopping between different sites before making a purchase. And I try to avoid that so-easy-to-fall-into trap of impulsive buying.

But ultimately, saving money online (or off, for that matter) really boils down to being able to do the math. You need to be able to determine whether or not the deal that you’re getting truly is a good deal. If something’s “10 for $10″ but you only need one then it’s a waste to buy ten of the item to get the deal but oddly enough there are a lot of people who don’t realize that.

One area of online shopping where problems with math often arise is when it comes to shipping and handling fees. You can lower those fees if you’re smart about it but you have to be able to do the math. “Free shipping” isn’t always free and expedited shipping is usually, but not always, a bad idea. Then you get into things like bulk shipping and flat rate shipping and you really need to start looking at whether or not you’re getting a deal.

If you don’t want to do the numbers then that’s okay but you should be aware that you’re probably going to lose money if you’re refusing to do that math. Smart shoppers take the time to make sure that they know what they’re paying for what they’re getting!

Tags: online shopping, reduce shipping costs, save money, shipping and handling, shipping fees, shopping

I wrote earlier this week about being a smart shopper. I do a lot of my shopping online. There are several reasons for this including that it’s convenient, it makes more sense for some items since I live in a city where I don’t have a car, and I enjoy it more than being amidst crowds of shoppers.

Since I do shop online a lot, I’ve learned a lot of things the hard way about the good and bad of online shopping. I’ve had problems with identity theft because I wasn’t careful enough when shopping online. I’ve lost money because I didn’t understand certain things about online shopping fees. And I’ve just made some mistakes while learning how to do my online shopping without getting burned.

But, eventually, I did learn those lessons and now I would say that I’m a pretty smart chick when it comes to shopping online. There are many different things I could share about being a smart online shopper but let’s start with “the top five things to remember when shopping online“. That covers the basics and will get you started on your way to being a smart Internet shopper as well.

Tags: Frugal Living, money, online shopping, Personal Finance, smart shopper

One of the topics that I write about regularly is personal finance. Specifically, I write often about frugal living and the tips that I have for saving money even though you have to spend on a regular basis. As a freelancer writer who lives in one of the most expensive cities in the country, I regularly have to work at balancing my saving and spending to make sure that I end up without debt at the end of each month.

There are many different things that I do to make sure that this happens including sticking to a personal budget, tracking my own spending and generally just being aware of what’s going on with me and money. I also try to be really careful about shopping. This isn’t to say that I don’t shop but rather that I try to be smart about my purchases and to not spend impulsively.

Among many different things that I do to reduce my spending when I do shop is that I use promotional codes for all online shopping. I do a decent amount of shopping online because it’s convenient. And before I hit that purchase button on anything, I always check if there’s an online promo code. I especially use these when renting cars, ordering photos from Walgreens and buying things on Amazon since these are places I regularly make purchases and there are almost always promo codes for them.

I believe that the current economy is a great time to use promotional codes for a whole slew of different reasons. You can learn about my reasons in this week’s article titled Why Promotional Codes are Great in Today’s Economy.

Tags: Frugal Living, online shopping, Personal Finance, promotional codes, save money, shopping, spending, tips