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

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