This weekend I started to venture out into retail land to do some pre-Christmas shopping and scouting for prices and items. After about spending twenty minutes in a big box store I had enough of the looking for a parking spot, the pushing, shoving and sales people either in your face or nowhere to be found.

I started my Christmas shopping by doing it online and ordering the items either to be picked up in the store or delivered to my house. The nice part is not having to put up with the crowds and waste my gas driving around town but there is also another added bonus to shopping online.

That is online coupons. For example, I search in google for sears coupons, go through them at my leisure and then do my shopping. I pour a cup of coffee, fire up the computer, find my coupons for the items I want to buy and it’s done. I wouldn’t have that coupon price if I just went to the store. This way I can ensure that I get the best price possible.

I am going to do all of my Christmas shopping this year with online coupons and online ordering. Why pay more and why go through the aggravation of fighting it out at the shopping malls and stores when you don’t have to.

The internet has done a lot for consumers in terms of our buying power and the best example of this has to be social buying. If you are unaware of just what social buying is all about then you might be missing out on some hot retail deals.

In a nutshell, a retailer will offer a very attractive deal on goods and services if a certain number of buyers commit to buying their deal. For example, they will offer a great price on widgets if fifty people commit to buying. The deals range from most anything and you can find carpet cleaning, fine dining, fast food and pedicures. The variety of items being offered on social buying sites is endless.

When the sites first started to spring up online they were restricted to only major cities in mostly the United States. You could find a new york city daily deal but not much in smaller markets. That has all changed. There are lots of money saving deals being offered in almost every city in the United Sates and Canada.

I sign up for email alerts for about two or three of them and have personally found some really awesome deals. I have purchased coupons for car maintenance, luncheon specials and spa treatments for my wife. If you are a shopper then you won’t want to miss out.

My point is don't rush out to a retail store and pay way much more than what you have to for a brand name item. Do some digging and I bet you can find what you are looking for and save some money.

About Online Shopping at eBay.com 

Ebay.com is website with unique shopping rules as compared to other online shopping websites all over the internet. eBay.com is a website that auctions items from people all over the world. Before you can purchase any used item in eBay, you must bid for the item and pray that you will win against other eBay users. You must register first and then search for an item you wish to purchase and then bid for that item so you can have a chance of getting it. There is a bidding period wherein people are allowed to bid and when it ends, then the person with the highest bid gets the item, as in any auction process. When you have won the item, you will now have to pay the eBay seller the amount you’re indicated in your bid and then you can get your item shipped in your location. eBay also has products that can be purchased directly without bidding but most of the time, eBay items are up for auction.  

About Online Shopping at Craigslist.com 

Craigslist.com has been renowned as a great online shopping websites for used items. The Craigslist website differentiates every users by their city of origin. The items in Craigslist are posted with product descriptions and images to help buyers get the full details of items that are up for sale. If you want to go online shopping on Craigslist, you can go shop for items from your own city so you can save on shipping fees or from other cities wherein you are shouldering an additional cost for the shipping fee, it’s your choice. In Craigslist, you can have an agreement with the seller to either ship the item, see each other for personal payments or even pick up the item in some pre agreed location. For those who need to have the item shipped, then the buyer will pay for the shipping fee and other applicable charges to get the item. For this reason, you must only purchase from credible Craigslist sellers or take extra precaution and bring a friend whenever you do meet-ups.  
 

How to Choose Good Used Items When Online Shopping 

Unlike real life shopping, you cannot personally examine the items that are sold online that is why you need to know some tips on how to evaluate used items online. First of all you need to ask the seller for complete details about the item. Since you can only see the images of the item, you should zoom in and carefully examine the item. If the pictures of the item provided are not adequate enough to give you good judgment, then you can ask the seller to provide more specific pictures or details to help you decide.  
 

"Today's deal for those in New York: Save 50 percent on a $20 purchase of cupcakes from "ChikaLicious Dessert Club." If 450 people agree to the deal, everyone saves money. If that critical number is not reached, however, the deal is a dud. The site offers one deal per day in the cities it covers, and the number of cities in the network is growing fast."

The website is called Groupon. I just joined to see what the deal in Toronto is. You get some nice savings on a cruise around the Toronto Waterfront. Okay, so I don't need it but if I was thinking of doing something touristry in the summer it would be a good deal.

See what is going on in your city.

Source

I will give you a perfect example. We all know how expensive a good universal remote can be. I picked up on of the top brand name units for under a hundred dollars. The regular retail price was well over a two hundred dollars. I got this from a major retailer that was having a deal of the day week long sale.

Another bonus was that many of them will give free shipping straight up or free shipping when you spend a minimum amount of money.

My advice to get all of the savings is to start with a free gmail address and sign up for their newsletters or email alerts. That way they bother your regular email. You can also get in the habit of visiting your favourite retailer websites everyday so you don't miss a sale.

Most people think that back to school is all about the little kids. From a shoppers point of view it's all about the college kids moving out of their parents basements and needing kitchen gear, bathroom accessories and every other electronic or household gadget you can think of. That's big cash for the box stores and they are giving it away this week. Check your local flyers or get online and see the deals.

One friend was all set to spend the farm on a new computer and all he really used it for was surfing the internet and sending email. There was no need for him to go out and buy a top of the line machine. He just needed something simple because that is all he uses his computer for. Simple tasks. Ask yourself what you need your machine for and then shop accordingly. You wouldn't buy a pick pick up truck if you don't use it for hauling things around. The same holds for a computer.

You can also reuse most of your accessories if they are still good. Save some money by eliminating keyboards, mice, speakers and even a monitor if your old ones still do the trick. I always like to buy a nice keyboard and mouse set and then when I upgrade I just have to buy the tower or have one made.

I have always promoted to shop online for deals or at the very least to do your comparison shopping. Many store offer free shipping and many of the big box stores have weekly or monthly sales on their computer if you shop online.

Those are just a few generic tips but some important ones when shopping for a new computer. Don't spend all of your money if you don't have to.