Be a Frugal Shopper Online!

Freecycle is a great idea. It's like an online garage sale, but everything is free. Yes, that's right - free! The idea is to help people get rid of stuff they don't want and keep it out of the landfill. So you just sign up, find a group near you, and see what's available! There are over 4000 groups with more than 4 million members across the globe, so if you're looking for some free goodies or want to get rid of items in your house, surf over to Freecycle.org to start your free membership.

Craigslist started out as a small one-man effort by a guy named - you guessed it! - Craig, and even though eBay now owns a big share of this site, it still has a no-frills design and the feel of a do-it-yourself website. Who cares? It's a virtual smorgasboard of local goodies. Search for free stuff (yep, they've got a category), find used goods for sale, or look for local services. If you're a frugal shopper, this is one site you'll want to bookmark.

Trying to keep up with all the latest DVD and video game releases would be expensive, but there's an easy way to save money and still get a chance to play the latest, greatest games and view the newest releases on DVD - rent them. Online services such as Netflix and Gamefly can keep you supplied with the latest movies and video games, respectively, for less than $10/month for their most inexpensive plans that allow one movie or game out at a time. For a little more, you can keep two or more flicks or games out at a time.

If you're looking for a new product online and want to know who has the lowest price, make your first stop a comparison shopping site. These sites list prices from a variety of merchants and also allow you to calculate the shipping price, so you can find the lowest price for your item.

Good comparison shopping sites to use are:

Shopping.com (owned by eBay)
PriceRunner
Froogle (a Google service)
NexTag

The secret to making sure you're finding the lowest price at an advertised store is to use more than one comparison shopping site. Although many of the big name merchants will appear in most or all of them, some smaller stores may only promote themselves on one or two comparison shopping sites. Froogle is free to merchants, but the other sites charge each time someone clicks on their store link, so merchants don't always buy advertising on all the comparison shopping sites.

Clipping coupons used to mean sitting down with your scissors and the weekly newspaper ads and cutting out all the coupons that might interest you. No more! Now you can get instant coupons online with just a single code. How? After checking prices at several comparison shopping sites, go to your favorite search engine and type in the name of the store with the lowest price, followed by the word "coupons." For instance, if Overstock.com has the lowest price, type "Overstock.com coupons." If the merchant offers coupons, you should see a list of sites offering those discounts.

You can also go directly to a coupon site. Here are some good ones:
Alex's Coupons
Flamingo World
CoolSavings
Coupon Mountain

So you've searched Freecycle and Craigslist and still haven't found the rock-bottom price you want on the latest gadget? Consider buying refurbished model. Factory refurbished or reconditioned electronics are much cheaper than the same items sold as new, but you're getting a great deal. Why?

Buy-Refurbished.com

If you're a book lover, these services can help you save money. Rather than buying new or used books online, you simply swap with other readers. All you usually pay is a flat fee for shipping. So don't buy, swap!

Bookins

PaperBackSwap

Book Crossing