Similar to the traditional clip and carry grocery coupons you hunt for in the Sunday paper, shopping websites have quickly followed suit publishing coupons that offer additional savings to cost conscious customers. Once you get in the habit of always searching for a coupon prior to making your purchase, your days of online bargain hunting will be forever changed (for the better). With so many companies offering these codes, there is no reason (or very few circumstances) where you would need to place an order without one.

So, before you hit that "checkout" button, check out a site like jackscouponcodes.com where you can search by store, and you find a list of coupons and coupon codes both submitted by the company as well as other savvy shoppers like yourself, offering valuable savings on your order - really, when else can you make a few extra bucks for 30 seconds of work.

There are usually a few different types of coupons you will find:

*Amazon Coupon Codes or Promo Codes - These are words or phrases that you enter into a "coupon code" or "promo code" field during checkout and they offer instant savings which should be reflected in the order total when you get to your confirmation page. Coupon codes can expire or have specific terms so if you are entering in a code and it is not taking off a discount, check to make sure that the code hasn't expired or that your order meets the terms (for example the order must be at least $50 before shipping, etc).

*Amazon Coupon links - Many coupons are embedded into specific landing pages that you can only redeem when you load a specific page on the site. These pages aren't usually advertised on the website, so the only way to find them is through coupon code websites where they will give you a direct link to the page offering the coupon. In most cases the savings are then added to your order once the page is loaded.

If you make it a habit of book marking your favorite coupon code site and using it as a tool when you are shopping, you will find yourself with more extra cash in your pocket. Once you become an online coupon "clipper", you can meet other savvy shoppers like yourself on coupon and shopping forums and discuss all the best money saving tips that you come across.

And the next time the big whigs in Washington tell you that gas is going up to $7 a gallon, just smile and say "no problem, I have a coupon for that".

Happy Shopping!