Websites For The Frugal?

fwc writes "Like most people, I like being able to get the most benefit out of my money. In pursuit of this, I use several websites which help stretch my dollar even more. For instance, I have found smarterliving.com which I consult for good travel-related deals. I also use slickdeals.net and fatwallet to make sure I don't miss those almost-too-good-to-be-true deals. When looking for the best price on a specific item, I usually consult Froogle, Pricewatch, and Shopper.com. I also use a collection of online stores which sell stuff dirt cheap, such as newegg, PC Surplus Online, and of course half.com. Recently, I was looking for some tools at Harbor Freight's Website and a friend suggested that I might want to also look at Homier's. I was pleasantly suprised to find that they have some prices which are even lower than at any other site which I have found. This makes me wonder what other sites are out there I haven't found yet which are in the same category." I know techbargains has "saved" me money on some things I might not otherwise have bought. Where have you been best led?

Frugal Living Tip File

[Bobdoer]

The Frugal Living Tip File [archive.org] has some top notch advice. It disappeared from the net awhile back, but archive.org has a copy.

do your research...

[Helix150]

always check Reseller Ratings [resellerratings.com] before buying...

Tiger Direct

[davisshaver]

Tiger Direct has pretty good prices on tech stuff.
Tiger Direct [tigerdirect.com]

UK Computer Hardware

[Rexz]

I search all of these UK sites whenever I buy a big hardware item. It would be great if fellow Brits could reply with any reputable sites I'm missing.

In no particular order:

• www.cclcomputers.biz
• www.dabs.com
• uk.insight.com
• www.microwarehouse.co.uk
• www.savastore.com
• www.scan.co.uk
• www.simply.co.uk
• www.overclockers.co.uk
• www.ebuyer.com (current favourite)
• komplett.co.uk

Hate to be a spoilsport but...

[heldlikesound]

In my experience, Amazon is almost ALWAYS the cheapest place to buy something, not because of their prices on items, but because of their free shipping on orders over $25.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

What about eBay? It's a pretty good place, and yes, of course, you do take the risk of getting screwed by a seller every so often, but in general I've gotten pretty good computer hardware off there (think SCSI and SCSI RAID) for a whole lot less than in the store.

Video games...

[syrion]

...can be bought cheap, too. Go to Cheap Ass Gamer [cheapassgamer.com]; it relies on different users posting the deals they have found, but it seems to be a very effective system. The availability of some deals depends on your area (and the brick & mortar stores you have access to).

For us Europeans...

[nordicfrost]

STAY AWAY from Kelkoo! I bleieved for a long time that Kelkoo was a "deal-finder", where products were ranged fair and square with the cheapest one first. Not so. A friend of mine has his products advertised on Kelkoo, and pays 385 USD each month. He has most of the products priced well below the large sites, in addidtion to CC payment and free shipping. But Kelkoo said that the system is click-based! And advised him to "click as much as you can on your own products to increase their rank".

I think Yahoo bought a lemon when they acqured Kelkoo... Or maybe they just have a damn good buisness plan for them...

got apex?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.gotapex.com/

superior. they update every day with new deals, coupon codes, and much more. i check up every day when i get home :-)

bensbargains.net

[Elvisisdead]

He posts a ton of stuff daily, and seems to aggregate what's on some of the other sites and combines it with coupon codes, etc. link [bensbargains.net]

consumer advice

[olscratch69]

There is a local am radio talk show host that is nationally sydicated that you might have hear of. His name is Clark Howard http://www.clarkhoward.com/. He has pretty good advice and some links to some sites that might not already be added to the posts.

SoftwareAndStuff

[Micro$will]

A.K.A. SurplusComputers [surpluscomputers.com]

Old rack mount systems, SCSI drives, motherboards, and a lot of cheapo tools.

For Canadians, Red Flag Deals

[miguel_at_menino.com]

For Canadians, Red Flag Deals [redflagdeals.com] is a great site. Coupons, links to online deals, freebies, and forums.

Biddingfortravel best for travel/priceline

[Anonymous Coward]

biddingfortravel.com contains a whole lot of valuable information on how to bid on priceline.

For British readers...

[amembleton]

CD-Wow [cd-wow.com] for your CDs.
Ebuyer [ebuyer.com] for your computer kit.
Holborn Books [holbornbooks.co.uk] for your computer books.
Click Ink [clickink.co.uk] for your generic ink cartridges.
Cahoot [cahoot.com] for your banking.
Ebay [ebay.co.uk]. No explanation needed!
Netto [netto.co.uk] to check out what deals they've got on. Shortcut to Netto's offers. [netto.co.uk]

Homier

[DaLiNKz]

I had a dealing with Homier. They came through town and was offering a door, a specific door, that normally would sell for.. at least $500.. and was only $100. We stood in line, assured we had a door to find out the guy in front of us changed his mind and talked them into selling him two -- his door and ours. Then when we spoke up they told us we could basically fuck off.

Their prices were really crazy cheap, but a few things I bought broke later on (but doesn't most things today).. and that was only a month ago.

Re:Tiger Direct

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not like tigerdirect as they only offer UPS shipping (which is often broken). If you live in canada or dont mind a cross border shipment, check out ncix.com , no PST tax for us canadians! just GST. On expensive shipments, its often cheaper to pay shipping than the pst. Also, right now they have free shipping over 300 dollars Canadian and you can choose fedex, ups, purolator, canada post, whatever. Sign up for their weekly newsletter and save 5-40% on average on stuff youd normally buy at full price. It saved me 120 dollars on a recent system just last month! here is the newsletter link. http://ncix.com/newsletter/

The real problem with TigerDirect: rebates

[dameron]

I've purchased several item from TD with no problem and my rebates went through without a hitch. -However- they have a terrible reputation for denying rebates, hiding rebate information, and otherwise abusing rebates.

If you find something at TigerDirect and you can get it out the door at a bargain price by all means go for it, but it it requires a rebate be warned, you may have trouble.

-dameron

For Mac deals...

[Fuzzle]

Goto Dealmac.com [dealmac.com] for the best deals on Mac-related deals.

Re:and while we're at it - international shipping!

[Anonymous Coward]

As an eBay seller, I find that in most cases shipping outside the continental US is a pain in the ass (Excluding Canada)

1. Not all postal systems are equal - Yes, the Italian and Spainish postal systems are as bad as the rumours say.
2. Customs routinly hold items
3. Lack of shipping insurance available
4. Postal forms need to be filled out
5. If the customer wants to return the item, it would cost me much more than a domestic return

Harbor Frieght

[almaon]

A great place to get a good pirce on power tools, but their handtools both mechanical and woodworking are of horrible quality.

Cheap woodworking tools lead to serious injuries. And mechanical tools lead to broken knuckles. You get what you pay for and then you pay some more to Blue Cross Blue Sheild :/

Mack, Snapon and Craftsman really can't be beat, you get durability, quality and Sears will replace about any tool even if it's from doing something stupid with em.

Re:The Motley Fool

[acshelp]

Oh yeah, it also has forums for Living Below Your Means (LBYM) which has tons of general money-saving tips for you penny-pinchers.

For the Canucks out there ...

[pimephalis]

Check out Red Flag Deals [redflagdeals.com] for a nice selection of rebates, coupons and specials from Canadian dealers. The site covers all sorts of merchandise, but seems to be predominantly geared towards geek-analia.

DealHunting.CA for Canadians

[Hansele]

Forgot to mention DealHunting.CA [dealhunting.ca] since everyone is griping about the lack of international stuff :)

Re:Tiger Direct

[loraksus]

Yeah, pretty good prices, but they are also theiving criminals who have a horrible return policy (puts frys to shame) and tend to "lose" rebates.

Deep Discount DVD

[BenFranske]

Deep Discount DVD [deepdiscountdvd.com] is usually the least expensive place to buy DVDs from. I will say their customer service is really slow so hope your order goes through without any problems. They offer free shipping (US and everything so they're usually cheaper than Amazon too. I've placed several orders with them and have had good luck so far.

PC Surplus Is The Bomb

[Cylix]

While their selection can be a tad on the small side when considering the great internet at large... their prices kick major woo-ha's.

I recently managed to get a replacement vid card for my laptop for 10$. It was a bit of a deal. Granted the part wasn't tested and sold as-is working pull.... but all in all it worked out well for me.

I check them often... I hope you guys don't drive up the prices. Oh wait... pc surplus bad.. don't shop there... ever... please dont!

Kidding, I hope they do well.

For UK people

[tdvaughan]

Martin Lewis' site [moneysavingexpert.com] has some good tips and interesting forums.

Clark Howard

[mirio]

I would recommend Clark Howard's site [clarkhoward.com]. Clark Howard has a nationally syndicated radio show and has written several fantastic books on smart financial principles. He is very well known here in the Atlanta area and his life story is very interested. He made his first million on an average salary by saving and investing for the long term (of course he makes a lot more now on his radio gig and his books).

His site contains an abundance of information on anything subject you can think of. Hey, he's pretty cool technology-wise...he even uses Vonage!

For price comparison...

[wersh]

I often use PriceScan [pricescan.com] and PriceGrabber [pricegrabber.com], among some of the others already mentioned by others. PriceGrabber even has a link [pricegrabber.com] under "Services" here on /.

for brand new cheap textbooks, use this

[zer0mass]

if you're looking for a deal when it comes to textbooks, addall.com is pretty good. For example, Americans and Canadians can save quite a lot of money by purchasing their new school textbooks from the UK, even with the shipping added. However, that's not always true: some books are cheaper in North America than the UK, so be sure you compare before you buy.

As an example, I had to buy "Partial Differential Equations and BVP" by Asmar for my class. Using the site, I see that Amazon UK is selling it for 110.94, Indigo.ca for 134.95 while the Internet Bookshop is selling it for 104.28 amongst others. These prices always fluctuate due to exchange rate irregularities.

You can also search for not in print and rare used books as well.

Can't get more frugal than free..

[Tricot]

I found this site that collects offers that are Free after rebate [freeafterrebate.info]. It does a good job of finding the offers, and finding the best places to buy with cheap shipping.

Re:Dear God man

[droleary]

Well, you know those soap chips that are left over when you're almost finished using a bar of soap? My father saves them, and then compresses them into a new bar of soap when he's saved up enough of them.

OK, I don't know if this marks me as cheap or just a geek, but my process for dealing with soap "slivers" is to stick them on the new bar. I really don't see what the point would be in saving a lot of slivers, but when you have one old one and one new one they stick together without much effort, since the wet soap kind of acts like its own glue. Future lathering wears down the old sliver, and eventually the new bar becomes a sliver and the process repeats. Hopefully your father finds this new algorithm useful. :-)

Books

[nycsubway]

There are many places out there for cheap books, including the used book section of Amazon. Hamilton books [hamiltonbooks.com] is a great place for discount books. Some of their medical textbooks are 90% off. Also do a google search for "books" and you'll find many websites that find the lowest price for a particular book.

bargainshare.com

[mliu]

Bargainshare.com is sort of a better version of fatwallet. Deals tend to be killed by the shear volume of abusers at FW, and posters are chastized for posting deals (and trying to help their fellow man) by trolls and flamers who are simply out to spoil other peoples experiences. People at Bargainshare tend to be much friendlier, and deals that hit there first last much longer than on FW, giving you more of a chance of actually getting in on them. It's a lot more technically sophisticated, with board software that allows you to filter by criteria that are important to you.

Also, BS has a protected deal area for hot deals that would be killed if posted to the general public restricted to only positive contributors for the hardcore deal followers out there.

DVD deals

[Flounder]

The bargain forum on DVDTalk.com is the best for finding the best prices on new releases, price cuts on DVDs, and finding out the circular prices about 5 days ahead of the newspapers.

Amazon.ca is the best for newly released box sets and other deals. Even with the exchange rate, there have been some outstanding deals. Babylon 5 Season 3,4 and 5 for $USD40, Scarface Gift Set for $USD25 are some recent deals I've gotten. Even with international shipping, it still blows any other prices away.

Amazon.com sometimes has a temporary price cut, and DVDTalk.com is usually one of the first places to find out about it. Recently, they had the Dick Van Dyke Show Season One for $19.99, and it sold out within about 20 minutes after being posted to DVDTalk.

FatWallet is great for finding other deals. Friday Amazon sales are usually posted there Thursday night. And for those with the time to do grocery coupons, FW is THE place to find the best deals. My weekly grocery bills have dropped from $150 to less than $50.

Clinko.com

[clinko]

Clinko.com [clinko.com] is just a module off of my full site Protista.com [protista.com]. But, it's the main attraction because it parses bensbargains [bensbargains.net] and slickdeals [slickdeals.net] so I can check them at work.

I'd say this was a shameless promotion, but i make Jack and shit off of this, so enjoy it.

Re:Harbor Frieght

[Bilestoad]

http://www.penntoolco.com/

Pay plenty - but only pay once. It's cheaper in the long run. There is no better investment than quality tools, your grandchildren will bless you for it.

http://carbuyingtips.com/

[nuggz]

I like it.

Gives some good hints on how to avoid a scam.

Explains how the car dealers make money, and how you can save some.

If you don't understand how they make money off you, then you can't tell if they're ripping you off. If you know what is going on, you have a chance.

If your near Alberson....

[SWTP_OS9]

If your near Alberson they been running a lot of 10 for 10 dollars items lately. Fill up 1/2 of the freezer with those small microwave meals { hey Im a programmer! } each batch of 10 save me almost 7 dollars. And they are not half bad!

Also if nears a frys check every so many days for their flyers. Usualy have some strange mb/cpu deal that usualy is prety good. Latest item are deals on DVD+R for about 0.60 for 25.

Also CompUsless have black ad's some times listed only on there site. BestBut and others usualy post ther weekly ad's late saturday night on there web site.

Re:Frugal Living Tip File

[Anonymous Coward]

Econet went out of business a few years ago (I worked for them for several years), and the guy maintaining the site has moved on to other matters...

So, you are kind of correct.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

ComputerLandCentral.com

[Uninvited Guest]

Computerlandcentral [computerlandcentral.com] breaks down the deals by date by store like many sites. However, they are also good about publishing coupon codes, where many sites (TechBargains, XPBargains, FatWallet, ...) make you click through the link to get the coupon discount. The code is really helpful if you want to start shopping some place like eBates [ebates.com] or FatWallet [fatwallet.com], to get a small rebate on total purchase.

Re:and while we're at it - international shipping!

[justMichael]

No you aren't all rotten, but there is a lot more fraud with international orders.

The best way I have found to deal with this is either stop shipping international or use extra measures to make sure someone isn't trying to screw you.

1) Start using an extra service to get data on your orders. I use maxmind's [maxmind.com] service, they tell me many things that will set off a red flag. Did they come in through an anonymous proxy, are they using one of the many free email services, how far is their mapped IP from their billing address. Nothing personal just enough data to be relatively sure that they are who they claim to be. If the order was placed 8000 kilometers from the billing address, it's probably a stolen card.

2) If you are even remotely concerned about the validity of the order have them sign a form with a photo copy of their card, yes it's a pain, but too many charge backs and you start paying crappy rates or get dropped. If they are legit, they should have no problem doing that.

Re:and while we're at it - international shipping!

[Dave114]

That reminds me of the several times that I've attempted to place an order at Half.com [half.com]. They do actually ship to where I live (Canada), but do so using a service called BorderFree.com [borderfree.com].

I order a fair number of things from eBay, and also AbeBooks.com [abebooks.com] (nice for buying used textbooks) so I don't really feel that I'm out of touch with international shipping rates. However, using BorderFree at Half.com results in absolutely outrageous shipping fees. If I spend $15US, once BorderFree's fees are added in I tend to end up with a bill of maybe $45US, versus somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 - $10 for shipping a similar item from other online retailers.

Re:Ebay Sniping

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly you know nothing of the value-add services like auto-sniping which have grown up around ebay. A manual snipe is a bid, but only the uninformed snipe by hand any more. Automated snipes are placed long before the end of the auction and only become bids when they hit their deadline.

http://www.simpleliving.net/

[Ophion]

Simple Living [simpleliving.net] is a great resource for those interested in voluntary simplicity/general frugality.

Re:Dear God man

[JET 666]

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com

Re:Tiger Direct

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed!

I've ordered stuff from NCIX (some RAM and a hard drive) and got it the next day and only paid $10 canadian! I'm in Toronto and they're in Vancouver, so right across the country.

Some really great deals in their newsletter, but their normal prices are OK. They also match prices with other stores right in the shopping cart.

Re:Harbor Frieght

[tgd]

Actually for tools, Home Depot and the warehouse stores like Costco are great places, too.

The Huskey brand tools are made with the same dies in the same factory as the Craftsman tools... and the Mastercraft are the same as another top-name brand, although I don't recall which one.

Overstock.com rocks

[Anonymous Coward]

No one mentioned the obvious overstock.com. I have had good experiences with their customer service and their price on books is awesome. I bought refurbished electronics from them on the cheap and havent had any problems with the products.

dealnews and dealmac

[asset_wrangler]

dealnews and dealmac have been 2 of my favorites for many years now. They are pretty good about freguently updating their site with "sold out, expired, price change, etc notices.

Re:Hate to be a spoilsport but...

[abischof]

Amazon doesn't own Borders, it merely runs its online store [yale.edu].

Some good sites

[nyquilusa]

Here are the ones I have bookmarked:

Travel
orbitz.com (favorite)
expedia.com
travelocity.com
pricelin e.com
allcheapfares.com
hotels.com
hostels.com
hiayh.org/hostels
aaa.com

Books
bigwords.com (Love it; compares multiple stores)
bookpool.com

Random good deals on electronics in the weekly ad, especially around Thanksgiving
bestbuy.com
circuitcity.com
office max.com
officedepot.com
staples.com

Misc
allposters.com (posters)
outpost.com (you name it)
www.secondwindpcs.com (used computer stuff)

and naturally, ebay, amazon, and buy.com

It's also fun to google for: buy [name of what you want].

When in doubt, check it out at bbb.org (Better Business Bureau) - you can search for businesses by website.

Re:For Canadians, Red Flag Deals

[zhiwenchong]

RedFlagDeals is pretty good, especially their Freebies and Hot deals Forums. Other Canadian deal sites:

Rebates Canada [rebatecanada.com] - instant rebates as you shop
Visa Savings [visasavings.ca] - occasionally get tremendous price reductions (e.g. on IBM Thinkpads) using your Canadian Visa card.
PriceNetwork.ca [pricenetwork.ca] - not as good as RedFlagDeals, but there are some occasional bargains
Book coupon codes [bylo.org] - coupon codes for Amazon.ca
Save.ca [www.save.ca] - get grocery coupons online

And for buying Amazon stuff, Amazon.com doesn't always have the LOWEST prices (in fact Amazon.ca frequently has the lowest prices):

Pricenoia [pricenoia.com] - international Amazon price comparator to find the lowest prices, with shipping factored in.

Of course, half.com now ships to Canada, and many pricewatch.com merchants now ship internationally. isbn.nu is good for book searches. There's also ebay.ca for the snipers out there.

Staples.ca, FutureShop.ca have PriceMatch policies that can occasionally be exploited to get significantly lower prices. The people in the RedFlagDeal forums will usually bring up any such opportunities as they arise.

If you live in downtown Montreal, The Word bookstore on Milton and Aylmer is VERY VERY good for picking up $1 bargain books. I've bought $1 gems in the past, including almost-new *textbooks* and *rare books* -- they're often in extremely good condition.

Re:UK Computer Hardware

[cowbutt]

http://www.priceguideuk.com/ [priceguideuk.com]

http://www.internet-buyer.co.uk/ [internet-buyer.co.uk]

http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/ [kelkoo.co.uk]

http://uk.pricerunner.com/ [pricerunner.com]

Oh, and buy with a Barclaycard [barclaycard.co.uk] to get a 60 day price promise [barclaycard.co.uk] on purchases over 50GBP and an extra years' warranty [barclaycard.co.uk] on purchases over 150GBP.

--

Re:DVD deals

[Anonymous Coward]

The Price Search [slashdot.org] is decent, a lot of times they have more merchants listed than the other ones I try. And there's not advertising everywhere or pop-ups. Plus they also compare software [slashdot.org], cds [slashdot.org], video games, and [slashdot.org] books [slashdot.org].

My comments...

[16K Ram Pack]

ccl are good. Dabs I wouldn't touch again as they don't have phone support, and their email support is too slow (I expect a reply within an hour or two).

Ebuyer seem to have mixed reviews.

A really great company are Crucial - they basically sell memory products (sticks/card readers/gfx cards/cf cards). Service like no company I know. You can find them at www.crucial.com/uk.

Re:Hate to be a spoilsport but...

[stephanruby]

Try bestbookbuys.com [bestbookbuys.com], it compares the prices between online bookstores and it takes into account the shipping/tax cost as well if you input your zip code. And no, Amazon is not always cheaper because of shipping.

yay!

[Soothh]

www.freeafterrebate.info
everything there is well... free after rebates

Re:Frugal Living Tip File

[dealsites]

For real-time updates from slickdeals, techbargains, and more, Check out this link [dealsites.net]. There are also other deal sites listed that you might not have known about.

BestWebBuys

[phord]

These guys [bestwebbuys.com] are sort of a consolidator of other sites. I use them for books [bestbookbuys.com] - enter an ISBN and they'll tell you the price with and without shipping at several dozen online stores. Very handy. They also list prices on electronics, music, movies, and bikes(??).

Re:Tiger Direct

[Gillious]

I have only bought from tiger once in my lifetime. It took 2 months for them to ship the motherboard and CPU combo I purchased. When I got the motherboard in, it was DOA, I had to pay to ship it back. Pay for the replacement, and had to fight with them to get the credit back to my account. Since then I've used newegg.com and it has always been cheaper, I rarely and I mean VERY RARELY get a DOA part. And when I do, I call customer service and they get me a new one ASAP. I use them as my primary vendor here at work and probably have spent over $10,000 in the past 6 months (rough estimate). I've not once recieved a bad part. I honestly can't see how anyone would ever order from Tiger more than once, especially after reading that BBB report. Also trying to support Tiger by saying there are other merchants with crappy return policies is like trying to say that because one person is a rapist, it's ok for your neighbor to be one too. Many stores do not have crappy return policies, and all you have to do is check with the vendor on resellerratings.com to find out.

Re:SoftwareAndStuff (Noooo!!!)

[Ken Erfourth]

I've soured on them. Good prices, but zero quality control. They ship a lot of DOA stuff and the returns policy is a pain in the ass.

Craigslist is doing this now!

[rbenech]

It sounds like frimp.net is trying to do what Craigslist [craigslist.org] is doing... Regional FREE classifieds for just about anything... They charge for job want ads, but it is a great alternative for online paid classifieds and auctions...