Spending and Saving

How to Save Money on Almost Anything

Thanks to the recession, many of us have been clipping coupons and haggling for goods. Those are good habits to keep after the recovery, but they can be a real hassle. There’s one recession hack I plan to keep. It’s easy and can be used for almost any online purchase, and the savings can really add up. I call it discount stacking.

When you discount stack, you don’t just look for a single coupon—you total up small discounts and incentives to get more substantial savings. All it takes is an Internet connection, a cash-back credit card and a few extra minutes. Really, there’s no excuse not to save on clothes, computers, movies, travel and anything else you might buy.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Decide what you want to buy

2. Do a search to see which companies have the lowest prices.

3. Check a coupon site for discount codes. Savings.com (a Recessionwire partner) and Retailmenot.com are two of my favorites. Note the code.

4. Go to a rewards website. I’ve used eBates ever since Julie Greene gave it props in her style column. (If you sign up here, you get a $5 bonus—and so do we.) They give cash back on purchases from more than 1,000 partners, including Apple, Barnes and Noble and Lancome. Many offer 1 percent, some as much as 6 percent or 8 percent.

5. Click through to the vendor, and use your cash-back credit card for an extra couple of percentage points back (I recently signed up for the Chase Freedom Mastercard). Don’t forget to use that discount code!

MY REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE

Last week, I booked a rental car for a weekend jaunt to Maine. I made a quick stop at Priceline to get a sense of which company had the best price. That turned out to be Dollar. Next I hit the coupon sites and found that if I booked through Dollar’s site I would get 5 percent off. Nice! Ebates gave 3 percent cash back for Dollar purchases. Even better.

How it added up: 5 percent off the $266 rental is about $13. Another 3 percent off that is more than $7. And then there’s the $3 that I’ll get back from my credit card company. All told, I saved more than $23—enough to finance a couple of lobster rolls.

CAVEATS

It’s easy to get carried away with scoring rebates, and forget about the big picture. Sometimes, you’ll find the best deal on a site that doesn’t have coupons available or a partnership with Ebates. Plus, if you really want to save money, don’t buy stuff!

Tags: deals, shopping, spending, Spending and Saving