frugal underground

Quick question; how many grocery store discount cards do you have in your wallet?  Or on your key-ring if you’re like me and carry them there?

I have three on my key-ring: also a drugstore cared and two bookstore cards.  We’ve joined other discount clubs, too; these are just the ones I keep with me all the time. In case you haven’t guessed, I believe in membership discounts.

As we all know, membership discounts come in two kinds:  free and paid.  The biggest difference (apart from the annual fee) is that companies that offer paid memberships may not sell your data, and those that offer free memberships almost certainly will.

So, before you sign up for one of these cards that’s one thing may want to consider.  Do you mind having your data out there?  It doesn’t bother me, but there are some people who refuse those cards on principle, just because of the data collection.  One thing you can look into is seeing if they will issue an anonymous card without you revealing personal information.  Not all stores will do this, but I was able to sign up for a card at Albertson’s in Washington State without providing any personal information.  Wegmans in Virginia went to the other extreme and wanted a drivers license number.

Personally I would recommend signing up for every free discount card you can find.  It only takes a few minutes and the savings more than outweigh the effort.  My most recent receipt from one of our local supermarkets (not where we do most of our shopping) shows that we’ve saved over $220 this year at that store alone.

They also offer gas discounts:  every hundred dollars you spend there earns you a $0.10 per gallon discount on fuel at their gas pump.   You earn points over a period of six weeks or so, and can redeem them any time up to about two weeks after that period ends.  It works for us.

Paid cards are a different story:  Any time you think about signing up for one of those you should sit down and to the math first.  For example, a Books-A-Million membership costs $20 a year and gives 10% off everything in the store (and an additional 10% off the already discounted price on their website.)  If you spend less than $200 a year on books it’s probably not worth it.  I belong to a group that meets there every Wednesday morning, so I’ve probably saved the price of the membership on coffee alone.

As a reward for anyone who has read all the way to the bottom of the this post I’m posting a couple of links for Borders members.

First this coupon offers 25% off your entire purchase.

Second this one offers $100 off a Sony Reader.

Both coupons expire on June 14th and the Reader coupon is only valid in stores, not on the website.  I used the Reader one Tuesday night, so stay tuned for a post on saving money with eBooks.  There’s also a 20% off your entire purchase coupon floating around out there, but I didn’t see the point of posting it when there’s a better one.

Happy Frugaling.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Have you heard about the cheapest family in the United States? There is a 20/20 special about a family of seven that lives debt free on a household income of $35,000! They don’t use credit cards.

This family owns a home and two cars, and by stretching every dollar, they have saved the thousands and thousands that most of use waste. They stick to the hard and fast rule that you shouldn’t buy anything that you don’t have the money for. Easier said than done in our country, right?

They meticulously plan grocery shopping using coupons and sale fliers. The husband and wife use walkie-talkies to communicate sale options and prices on certain items. They also purchase clothing and furniture used. They never go over budget, and don’t buy things that they can’t afford.

This family proves that financial discipline can truly pay off. You don’t have to have a high salary to make a good living for yourself. It is just important that you use what you do have wisely. They published a book called America’s Cheapest Family and it is in stores now.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Photo by pt harriet

You should never underestimate the power of the coupon. You may think, “What difference will it make if I save $0.25 on bread this week?” When you are tight on funds and have numerous bills to pay, every little bit helps. Clipping coupons can really save you money in the long run.

Here are some coupon rules:

Don’t go out of your way to buy items that you don’t need just because you have a coupon. Unless it is free, you will save more by not buying it.

Wait until the item goes on sale to use the coupon. (Many stores also offer double or triple coupon weeks, and you can hang on to coupons until then and save even more)

Don’t be afraid to try a new brand. If it costs less, why not try it?

You can find coupons in your local Sunday paper, right in the store, or online. All you have to do is visit a reputable coupon site, like SmartSource.com or CoolSavings. There are many more sites that offer coupons. The best way to save is waiting until the item goes on sale at your local grocery store to use the coupon. You can save hundreds of dollars per year!

Popularity: 28% [?]

Last week I received notification that the site 100 Big Coupons wanted to purchase a review here. Fair enough, I thought, and agreed.

According to their review request, they “… offer coupons for all the major online stores to help people save money while still getting what they want. The service is free to use for anyone who wishes and requires no registration or personal information.” With that in mined, I’ve looked over the site and have come away with a few main impressions.

Design

My first impression was one of being overwhelmed. There is a lot of information on that front page, and I can’t immediately tell what’s most important. The headings on the sidebar are decent, but what can I say, I’m a designer and I felt somewhat lost. Because I’m getting paid for this review, I took the time to sort through everything, but I’m not sure I would have if I’d just stumbled across the site.

Functionality

What does the site actually do? They share coupon codes. You know when you place an online order and it says “If you have a coupon code, enter it here”? Well, there are lots of sites that gather and share various promotional codes in the hopes of making money either through advertising or affiliate programs. 100 Big Coupons is one of these sites. I make it a habit to search for coupon codes when checking out at stores that usually have them, like GoDaddy, so I’ve seen lots of these sites.

When I clicked around through 100 Big Coupons, I found a fair amount of coupons, but also some confusion. For instance, clicking on a product category brought up a list of stores in that category, and also said: “View the 36 coupons in this category:” The colon made me assume the coupons were listed below… but they weren’t. I assumed something was broken. Later, I moused over the statement and realized it was a link, and clicking it brought up the promised coupon. However, since it isn’t underlined until I put my mouse over it, I didn’t realize that I could click it.

Similarly, I tried a search for GoDaddy, since I know they almost always have coupons floating around, and essentially got a blank page as a result. There wasn’t even a statement that there were no coupons found. I understand that no one website will have all available coupons listed (and I think that 100 Big Coupons isn’t even interested in listing domain name coupons) but I found the response unhelpful and potentially confusing.

When you DO find a coupon that interests you, though, the site is good about giving you the information you need to use the coupon.

But can it save me money?

Possibly. It depends on the kinds of things you buy, and mostly on whether you’ll remember to check the site before purchasing.

Suggestions

I feel like 100 Big Coupons is trying to be too many things to too many people. I imagine that offering coupons is a fairly low-profit-margin business, so a lot of eyeballs are crucial, but I’d much prefer to see the site focus a little and branch out within a niche. For instance, I frequent sites that feature domain coupons. Why not create a site that focuses on exclusively on Women’s Clothing (for instance) and has a blog that not only lists coupons but alerts readers to unusually good deals? That way you as a customer don’t have to go out of your way to check the site; it’s more likely that you’d use a coupon because you were already subscribed to the site.

Popularity: 47% [?]

If you’re considering starting a blog of your own, or a website, or anything where you need web hosting, you should check out Dreamhost’s excellent offer. Until midnight Pacific time, you can get $99 off of their already-ridiculously-cheap prices when you pay for one or two years.

Seriously, if you’re thinking of a blog, go for it. You’ll get your domain name for free, and you really can’t beat the deal. They also have a one-click tool to set your blog up, and it works great. This blog is hosted on Dreamhost, too, so you’ll get to join the cool kids! (HA HA HA…)

Popularity: 27% [?]

Orville Redenbacher is bribing you to sign up for their new newsletter: sign up and get a “rent one, get one free” coupon at Blockbuster. Not that great of a deal, but handy if you’re already in the habit of renting movies at Blockbuster.

Do note, though, that this is very ambiguously labeled “And for a limited time, if you are one of the first to sign up…” If you try it and don’t get your coupon at the end of the process, leave a comment here and I’ll update the post.

Popularity: 31% [?]

A month or two ago, I received an email from someone who had seen this blog and wanted to tell me about his own frugal site. I get a few of these emails each month, but this one hit me at a crazy busy time, and I didn’t take the time to look at his site until now.

Because the gentleman was kind enough to include a summary of what the site does, I’m copying it here:

DealMine.com is aggregating member discounts and rewards from loyalty programs, credit cards, associations (AAA, AARP), unions, etc and matching them up to comparison shopping technology. The idea from a consumer perspective is that as popular as comparison shopping is, the information they provide is limited to price, tax and shipping info and that does not provide all the information and consumer needs to make a purchasing decision. For example, the average consumer has nine credit cards, belongs to four rewards programs and at least one association or club (sources: FairIssac and Colloquy) all of which have member benefits and have not been aggregated anywhere before in a way that makes them easy to use. We help consumers discover deals they didnt even know they had available like 10% off at Target.com with AAA or $15 off at Bluefly with Visa cards…

The site features two types of searches. The first is into the directory to compare discounts or rewards like this one for car rentals currently featuring over 100 deals: http://www.dealmine.com/deal-directory/Travel-discounts/Car-Rentals/49

The other search on the site is actual comparison shopping where prices at various stores are matched up to affinity/membership discounts and benefits. See below for an example of a “Compare Prices” search on jeans: http://www.dealmine.com/compare-prices.php?s=jeans

The site currently features discounts and rewards from 29 member programs and is growing quickly.

I was impressed at the concept when I read the email. It seems like a tool that could help a certain market segment (namely, us, “the cheapskates”). And goodness knows I’m part of way too many rewards programs, and don’t keep track of them nearly as well as I ought to.

I tried out the site to see what I thought. My impression: a touch clunky, but extremely useful. The registration process includes a spot where you tell DealMine what rewards programs you’re part of, and then future searches are customized to your actual memberships.

I was impressed at the options for filtering and sorting on a product search. For instance, I did the example jeans search, and found loads of bargains on pants. But then I saw I could filter to show only five-pocket jeans, or bootcuts, and limit it to deals under $20. That’s handy.

I went on to find a lovely pair of bootcut jeans at Sierra Trading post that were under $20 shipped, and would net me 4 hotel rewards points per dollar. I didn’t buy them (that’s still a lot of money for jeans, in my opinion, and I don’t need any right now), but it was a good exercise in seeing the potential benefit of this site.

My biggest concern? Whether I will remember to use the site. I’d like to see them offer a search plugin to the Search Bar in . That would make it much more likely that I’ll return when it’s time to buy.

Popularity: 40% [?]