Best Online Coupon Websites and Great Tips for Cutting Costs and Saving Money

While we continue enjoying all the fabulous tablescapes linked for yesterday's Tablescape Thursday, I thought I'd share some money saving tips for putting food on those tables, plus a whole lot more.

I love to save money--who doesn't, right? I guess you sort of figured that out since I refused to pay someone to remove my impossible wallpaper, recently. Then there's all those posts about searching down fabulous finds at local antique/thrift stores and the Pottery Barn, Christmas Garland Hack, HERE.

Recently, I've discovered more ways to save a little on the fun stuff, as well as on the necessities like food, pharmaceuticals, haircuts and more. I hope you find this list helpful. As I find more helpful money-saving sites/tips, I'll be sure to share those, too.

Groupon:
Groupon will e-mail or send to your Facebook or Twitter feed the deals that are available each day in your area. The deal is only available to purchase for a short time, but you usually have a pretty long time to actually use the deal/coupon after you've purchased it. For example, I've purchased two, so far. One was for a local Italian restaurant and I have until July 9th to use it. I paid $7 and it's good for $15 off anything on their menu.

The other one I've purchased was for Blockbuster Express. It's for the rental of movies from the Blockbuster Express Kiosks you see in all the grocery stores. I paid $2 for five, 1-night movie rentals. That works out to .40 cents per movie rental...not bad.



I would not have taken advantage of the Blockbuster deal if a Kiosk wasn't super convenient to my home. There's one in the grocery store I shop in and it's about a mile from my home. I've never used the Blockbuster Kiosks before so I thought this might be a good way to check them out. The coupon they e-mailed to me came with 5 "codes" and I just enter the code into the Kiosk at the time I'm renting the movie.

There are new deals everyday. They offered one recently that was for $5 toward $10 worth of yummy treats from TCBY. That would have come in handy when I had my recent "Fudge Brownie Sundae" attack, HERE. ;)


Scoutmob:
Scoutmob is similar to Groupon except the coupons aren't e-mailed to you. Instead they are held in the Scoutmob app on your iphone/Droid phone and you just show the coupon to the store/merchant/restaurant when you go there to make your purchase. Scoutmob will send you an e-mail each day with the deals in your area and if you see something you like, just save it to your phone to use later. No need to print it out or pay anything in advance. Apparently, the merchant pays Scoutmob a flat fee for each one that's redeemed.

Scoutmob is in a lot of major cities and is growing. You can see which cities they are already in HERE. Just click on your city to access the deals.



5 FREE great Money Saving Apps recommended by CNN for your iphone or Droid:

1. Gas Buddy:
This app will give you a list of gas stations that are in your area and the price per gallon, as well as the directions to the station.

2. Shop Savvy:
I mentioned this app HERE previously. It's super handy to have because if you are out shopping somewhere and see an item you'd like to buy, you can scan the barcode on that product and it will show you the best deals on that item in online stores and in the stores in your area. Google Shopper is another free app that will do this, as well.

3. Grocery IQ:
This is pretty cool. Do you forget to write down items on your grocery list when you're getting low on that item? Here's a fun way to keep up with what you need to buy next time you hit the supermarket. When you see you are running low on a particular food product or supermarket item, just scan the barcode of the item with your phone and Grocery IQ will keep a running list for you. It will categorize your list by food group and show you the latest coupons that are available for those items. Once you are in the store, you can just pull up your shopping list so you won't forget anything and have to waste time and gas going back.

4. The Find:
The Find is similar to Shop Savvy in that you just scan the barcode of an item and it will locate where you can find it for the best price. But this app goes one step further by showing you any coupons that are out there and available for the item at that time. Cool!

5. Shop Lucky:
This one comes from Lucky Magazine. It gives you the top rated stores to buy clothing, jewelry, etc... and will let you check to see if the items you want are in stock online or in the stores in your area.


Prices Have Dropped on These:
According to CNN, prices have dropped dramatically on the following items listed below. So if you've been delaying on purchasing these, you may be pleasantly surprised when you do.

1. Digital SLR Cameras
2. Kindle
3. HDTVs
4. Blu-Ray Players
5. Wii System Bundles
6. Memory cards like 16GB SD cards
7. Portable GPS
8. 15", 16" and 17" Dual-Core Laptops
9. External 2TB USB Drives (these are great for backing up all those photos you have stored on your computer so what happened to Nester HERE doesn't happen to you.
10. iPhone 3GS


Great Sites for Saving with Coupons:

Michaels: For Crafts and HobbyDid you know you can go to the Michaels website HERE anytime you like and print out a 40% off coupon? Yep, it's true. No more waiting for the ad to come in the mail or newspaper.

The coupon says you can use one per day so print several if you're buying a number of high dollar items and just buy one item each day if you live close enough to go back each day. You have to weigh the cost of gas vs savings to see if it's worth it. For me, it would probably be worth it on a higher priced item since there's a Michaels about 2 miles from my house.

Here are the exact directions (below) from the Michaels website explaining how to print the coupon that's in their "ad" each week.

"Click on the "Our Weekly Ad" at the top of the page. This will bring up the ad landing page. Click on the ad to "open" it. You can then click on any coupon image to generate the pop-up coupon landing page which has a print button at the top. Click print and it will print."


Hobby Lobby:
Same goes for Hobby Lobby. Just go to their "Instore Specials" section online each week and click on their ad to print out their weekly coupon.

I'm sure there are many other stores offering coupons at their online sites. So before you head out to go shopping, check your favorite store online, just in case.



Sites for Saving on Groceries, Pharmaceuticals and Other Good Stuff:

Sherry and John over at Young House Love blog, wrote an in-depth post about how to find great coupons online to save a hunk of money on your monthly food bill. The sites they found that were most helpful were: THIS ONE for Kroger, Publix and Target deals, THIS ONE, and THIS ONE and THIS ONE.

They have listed several more money saving/coupon sites, so visit Young House Love for the full list.



Clark Howard:
Clark Howard, a local consumer activist in Atlanta knows how to save, save save! Here's all the great "coupon sites" he recommends. You'll find lots more money saving sites at Clark's site, HERE.

Please Share:
I'd love to hear any money-saving online websites or ideas you've found useful. Just click on "comments" below to share. I can't wait to read what you're doing these days to cut costs and save more.