Step-by-Step Guide to Finding the Cheapest Deals on the Web Part 1

In my previous post I wrote about my favorite place to find the cheapest deals online – SlickDeals, a community for bargain hunters, and I told you about a magic word “COUPONS”, which power should not be underestimated. Today I’ll talk about cashback sites and credit cards.

3.    I already wrote a post about cashback sites awhile ago, but in case you missed it, here is the link to it: cashback sites. There is no reason why you shouldn’t sign up for them and save even more money. It is FREE and all you have to do is click through their links before going to the store you are planning to shop at. You can save up to 30% of your purchase. The biggest challenge with cashback sites is not to forget to click through them. I made it a habit by now, but in the beginning I used to remember about them after I placed “Submit your order” button.

4.    I don’t like credit cards. I think that they are evil and make people spend more money they can afford. However, there are two credit cards that I recommend getting, because the deals that you can get with them are usually unbeatable.

Now, before I continue, I have to warn you that store credit cards are even worse than regular credit cards, because they have extremely high interest rates. So, if you are not planning to pay them off as soon as you make a purchase, DO NOT get them. High interest rates make even the cheapest deal not deal at all.

I use store credit cards not for the sake of the credit they give me, but for the deals that I can score only while using this specific credit card. You can pay you bill with cash at the store or online and it is better to do it within a couple of days after using your card, so you don’t forget about it and, God forbid, miss a payment.

The store credit cards that I recommend on using are Victoria’s Secret and Kohl’s.

Victoria’s Secret favors their credit card holders and there are always great coupons available for them to use. Almost every month VS sends either $ off bra coupons, free panties (no purchase required) or $10 off any order coupons to the credit card holders. They also send you coupons (money off ANY purchase, or free stuff) for your birthday and often more than one.

I never liked shopping in department stores, because often I could find much better deals somewhere else until recently I discovered (from SlickDeals) that Kohl’s has pretty juicy deals for its cardholders. They always have some kids of coupons which work on clearance (up to 30% off) and they always have free shipping for the cardholders. If you go to Slickdeals.net, search for official Kohl’s Thread and you will not only find the cheapest deals there, but meet a number of friendly people who update the thread constantly with new finds and unbeatable deals.

You can pay both VS and Kohl’s credit cards at the stores with cash. I find it more convenient than sending checks.

Keep in mind that many coupons combine. Kohl’s allows you to use two coupons per order and Victoria’s Secret has slots for three.

5.    The best deals, in my opinion, are the ones where you don’t have to pay a dime – FREEBIES. There are many blogs and forums on freebies, but I am so used to SlickDeals.net and they have been so good about posting deals first, that I don’t go anywhere else. There is a Freebies Forum on SlickDeals where people post how to get freebies and whether they are legitimate or don’t.

I don’t use Google to look for freebies, because often there will be some string attached to them. Deals posted on SlickDeals are verified by the SD community and are unbiased. Read the thread regularly, and you will find out how to score free food items, free pizza, free magazine subscriptions, free music, free samples and so on…

You can view Slickdeals without joining it, but I encourage you not to be a lurker and join the forum. This way you can thank people who post deals and maybe post deals yourself. Slickdealers tend to help each other and if they have any extra one-time use coupons, they share it with the other SD members. I don’t post there often, but I got quite a few coupons from generous SlickDealers.

I warn you than Slickdeals are pretty addicting, but if you know how to control yourself from not getting every slick deal posted on the site, you will benefit from it greatly.