Recently in Bargain Tips Category
Take advantage of eBay sellers looking to unload a Luis Vuitton purse, slacks from Bannana Republic, or Calloway golf clubs with Typo Buddy, a site that helps you find misspelled items on Ebay.
When a hapless seller doesn't use the correct spelling for their item, fewer people find it, which means less competition and fewer bids. So you may be able to get a better price!
The way Type Buddy works is you enter the correct spelling of the item you are looking for and they run a search of common misspellings. The site also works for Craigslist. Read more about the site.
I tried searching for iPhone, which is on Hubby's wish list, and got 119 results. Mostly miscellaneous crap came up, including Ivana Trump's "For Love Alone" DVD. Lame.
When relevant items came up, like this iSkin cell phone pouch, I had a hard time telling if it was a better deal than correctly spelled items. A little cross comparison would help so give it a try and let me know if it works for you!
Get all of the day's new blog post e-mailed to your inbox when you sign up for the Bargain Hunter daily digest. I send it out once a day, Monday through Friday.
The daily digest is the best way to see if there is anything interesting to you on the blog.
You can join by plugging in your email at the upper left corner of the blog or by emailing me. I don't share e-mail addresses.
Let me know if you want to get the local digest, which is for Angelenos, or the national digest, for readers outside of LA. Thanks!
PS. Because no picture goes with this post I opted for a random humorous one. What a great way to get back at a crazy neighbor!
Remember Woot.com? The site sells one item for 24 hours starting at midnight until it sells out or the day ends. The site was so successful they started sister sites Shirt.Woot, Wine.Woot and Sellout.Woot (a daily item sold through Yahoo! Shopping).
Turns out the business model is so popular Woot has been named the fastest growing private retailer in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine. With $117 million in sales in 2007, the company has seen 4,988% growth from 2004, when it had $2.3 million in sales.
That's crazy growth. Woot ranks 25 on Inc's list of the top 5000 fastest growing private companies, for all industries.
The funny guys at Woot talk about the honor. "When we finished admiring ourselves, we remembered what brought us to this lofty echelon: you guys. Without your enthusiasm, your word-of-mouth evangelism, and of course your money, all we'd have is a warehouse full of junk and a couple of frustrated writers who think they're funny. So thanks to Inc. Magazine for the honors, but thanks to all wooters for making those honors possible."
The four Woot sites are good ones to keep in mind and the sites' forum are a great resources for shoppers with questions about that day's product. Thanks, Dana!
Here are links to all the deals mentioned in today's column.
What I hope is the final chapter in my battle with Checks Unlimited to get a box of checks for $6.50 ended this morning. It all started a few weeks ago when I filled out their order form and mailed it in with payment.
The price was $6.50 for new customers and I was ordering from a new address so that rendered me a new customer I figured. If not, surely they would return my money.
Not only did they cash my check but sent me a bill for $12.20 because I was not, they pointed out, a new customer. Their records indicated I had ordered in 2005. Drat!
I blogged about my dilemma and was soundly reprimanded for being sneaky. Double drat!
At least one reader took my side, however, and suggested calling them up and explaining my intention. The toll free number they provided was busy. A secondary number I found online was busy. Luckily, a savvy reader shared an inside number for Checks Unlimited (719-531-3900) that worked.
When the customer service operator picked up I explained my situation and apologized for my misunderstanding. Would they please honor the original price?
A pause on the other line...
There's a new competitor for online rebate sites eBates.com and Cashbaq.com. The newcomer is called Extrabux.com and the site is similar to its better known rivals. You register with them, click through to retailers from their site, and earn automatic rebates from 1% to 30% on your purchases.
I compared five retailers to see who had the best rebates. Extrabux.com and Cashbaq.com both came out ahead twice and for one store all three had the same rate. Here's how it broke down:
--- Extrabux --- Cashbaq --- eBates
iTunes --- 4% --- N/A --- 3%
Macy's --- 3% --- 5% --- 4%
Magazines.com --- 30% --- 20% --- 26%
Best Buy --- 1% --- 1% --- 1%
Staples --- 1% --- 2% --- 1%
eBates has the best sign-up deal, offering a $10 gift card at one of three or four stores or $5 in cash, which they send you once you make a purchase through them. Cashbaq.com offers $5 for joining and like eBates, they send it to you after you make a purchase through them. Extrabux.com does not seem to offer any bonus for signing up.
It is also unclear how long Extrabux.com takes to send you your rebate. The site says "these earnings will be deposited into your account (become available) once the return time on the purchased item has passed." So if the store has a 90 day return policy you have to wait three months? What about if it is a store like REI, that basically takes items indefinitely?
I'm going to contact them and let you know what I find out.
If your email address is with AOL, you will automatically be removed from the Bargain Hunter Daily Digest list if the digest bounces even once. Other email providers may reject the digest from time to time (not sure why, perhaps they consider it spam).
So if you suddenly stop receiving the digest, re-subscribe by plugging in your email to the upper left hand corner of the blog. And make sure julia.scott@dailynews.com, the address from which the digest is sent, is on your "safe" or "white" list. That way the digest will get through to your inbox. Thanks!
Are you getting ripped off? Do you suspect some big box mega-company is screwing you? Then check out the Consumerist.com, a blog full of consumer woes, service complaints, and news about the little guy getting screwed.
How uplifting! They say they are "consumer-biased" because they believe good customer service is not just good policy but saves money.
A recent post is about United Airlines clamping down on handing out free food on nearly all coach flights starting September 2. "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that United Airlines will no longer offer free snacks in coach...They are also dropping complimentary meals in business class except for "premium transcontinental flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York." Shockingly, this move coincides with the airlines' expansion of their "buy-on-board" food offerings, says the Chronicle."
Another post shines the light on bad consumers, who appear to be guilty in the theft of 5,000 gallons of gasoline from a station in Wauwatosa.
The site also has tips for tracking down a phone number and email for higher ups at any company, for when you need to file a complaint or get to a supervisor.
The Consumerist is part of the Gawker blog network, which also includes Gizmodo, Defamer, Wonkette, and Gawker.
The Bargain Hunter has a new Web address. It is blogs.dailynews.com/bargain. A few more letters, but it takes you to the same place as www.insidesocal.com/bargain does.
The new address explains that the Bargain Hunter is a Daily News blog (which the folks at the top like). And nobody got what "inside so cal" was anyway.
The change means that when you read the Tuesday Bargain Hunter column in the paper, references to the Bargain Hunter Web site will have this new address. I'll also use it on the site itself. Other than that, not much is different.
Here is a list of 26 "fabulous freebies" from personal finance site Kiplinger.com. The story is a laundry list of where to get free music, books, software, ATM withdrawals, college courses, kids meals, and on and on.
I'm going to print out a list to refer to from time to time. For now gere are some of the best freebies from the list.
"FREE BUDGETING - Looking for help keeping tabs on your budget? You don't have to shell out for Quicken or Microsoft Money software. Track your spending instead through the free service at Wesabe.com. You enter your accounts to organize your spending into different categories on one convenient site.
Wesabe will also help you pinpoint areas where you could improve, and lets you get feedback from other Wesabe users, all while protecting your passwords, identity and other sensitive information."
"FREE INTERNET SERVICE - Even after you've upgraded to broadband Internet, it's a good idea to have a back-up dial-up service on your computer for when the cable goes out or your DSL acts up. NetZero, for example, still offers a free version of its software -- ten free hours per month."
"FREE LEGAL ADVICE - You don't need to hire a lawyer to handle many routine legal matters. All you need is...
Here are all the deals mentioned in today's column.
Salon tips (cheap haircuts, makeup tips, perfect lipstick color)
The latest data from the Consumer Price Index, which represents the change in prices for everyday consumer goods like food, transportation and housing, rose .8 percent from June to July.
The bureau of labor statistics in the U.S. department of labor tracks the CPI, also known as inflation, which is a key indicator of economic health.
Compared to a year ago, the CPI is 5.6 percent higher nationwide, according to a story in the Boston Globe.
Have your paycheck or stocks risen that much? Ha!
In case you missed my recent post about getting myself into a bargain bind, I ordered a box of checks using a deal for first time customers even though I had ordered with the company, Checks Unlimited, before.
I was at a new address so it seemed fair to think I was eligible for the lower price. If not, surely the company would return my check for $6.50.
As it turned out, they cashed my check, sent me the checks I ordered, then mailed me a bill for another $12.20. Drat! What to do? What to do?
Many readers chided me (to put it nicely) for trying to pull one over the check company. Read their comments here. A few shared their tips for getting loyalty-type discounts on par with new-customer discounts. One in particular recommended I call the company and explain my case.
Unfortunately, both customer service numbers for the company have been busy for the past three days.
So I am writing them a letter.
I'm going to explain my intentions, ask them to forgive my misunderstanding, and politely request they honor the lower price. I am a loyal customer, after all. I'll offer to return the checks if this does not still well with them. But if push comes to shove, I may pay the extra $12.20 they are asking for and call it a day.
Here are all the deals mentioned in today's column.
Here's a new Web site that pays shoppers who find the best deals online, literally. BeatThat.com gives members $2 for every deal the site approves as lower than what's already listed on the site.
BeatThat.com is entirely member driven. Stores selling items are rated for safety and reliability using different colored flags. Green, yellow and red. You can guess which means what.
There are a few rules about which deals are eligible for the $2 payback. Deals must be for new products, no refurbished or returned items. The merchant must have the product in stock. Deals must be in US Dollars and the merchant must accept credit cards for payment. The final cost must include shipping cost to a US zip code. Rebates/coupons/discount programs are acceptable, but must be accessible to all shoppers.
Seems like the site still has a few kinks to get out. When I clicked on a deal showing an HP printer for $47.97, much lower than the $123 list price, it re-directed me to a page that had the lowest price of $57 from a different seller. Perhaps the original discount seller already sold out.
A lot of readers email me asking about an item they remember seeing a few days, or weeks ago. How can they find it again?
The best way to find old deals on the Bargain Hunter is to search the archives using the search button on the top right side of the blog homepage (www.insidesocal.com/bargain).
Type a word into the search box that you remember reading in the post - like "Starbucks" or "cell phone" or "baby" - and all the posts with those words will come up. I like to start by searching with just one or two words. If you get too many results, you can narrow it down by searching with additional words.
None of the blog posts ever go away, they just get bumped down by newer posts. So searching the archives may be easier than going back in time, post by post.
Hope that helps!
~Julia
Here are all the deals featured in today's new, expanded column.
TCBY $1 cones
School sales
Staycations
Daily deal email - Plug in your email at the upper left of this site to get the day's new sales delivered to your inbox!
If you are looking for the Bargain Hunter column, it has moved to Tuesdays at the top of Classifieds, the D section. I would have preferred moving to Friday or Sunday, but the move is still a really good thing.
The new column will be on a section front instead of buried inside the news section on A18? A24? Come Tuesday no digging is required to find the deals!
Just flip through the sections until you see a snazzy new picture of me (it's about as glamorous as I get) and the "bargain hunter" banner.
The new column is longer so there is space for more deals and pictures to highlight my fun finds. I think it looks very snazzy and I hope you agree.
Reader comments: my sister says they are the best part of the blog. I'm sure she means besides the blog itself! At least I hope she does. Anywho, you can read the comments by clicking on the "Comments" link that appears above each post. It will say in (parenthesis) how many comments there are.
For example, today's post about getting myself into a bargain bind has gotten a lot of comments - most of them skewering me for my decision to try to get a deal not meant for me!
Anyone can read the comments. No registration is required!
Political cartoonists are having a field day with the souring economy. Two that ran in today's paper are particularly sad, but true. Somehow that makes them funny!
In the first one by Larry Wright two young men are walking next two each other. One is dressed like a bellhop and has a fist of cash. He says to his friend "The good news is the government raised the minimum wage...the bad news is current economic forecasts show the minimum wage will soon be the highest income tax bracket."
In the second cartoon by Mike Lester two female tourists are waiting in line. One says to the other "So, I fill up the Stomper and - OH-MY-GAWD! Can you even be-LIEVE the price of a gallon of GAS?! And don't even TALk to me about MILK!!" Meanwhile, she is forking over money to buy a drink from a stand that says "Drink H2-oh. It's Wet!"
The Daily News' own Patrick O'Connor has this take on President Bush reassuring the American public that we will all be A-okay.
My relatively tech savvy mother pointed out recently that it is difficult to get back to the Bargain Hunter homepage after one clicks on links in the daily digest. She is right.
There is no link in those capsule posts to the homepage. The quickest way to get to the homepage is through a secret link that is not labeled. I should have explained this a long time ago.
The blog banner - where it says "bargain hunter: save a buck in everyday life" spread across dollar bills - is actually a link. It may not look like a link, but it will take you to the home page when you click on it.
I repeat, clicking on the banner will always take you to the homepage. My mother suggested putting links at the bottom of each post to take you back to the homepage so I may experiment with that also. Hope this helps! ~Julia
As a bargain hunter in need of that archaic payment method known as checks, I could not resist an ad in the Sunday newspaper circular.
For $6.50, Checks Unlimited would send me a new box of checks printed on a pretty pattern of my choosing. Just fill out this quick form, send payment, and voila!
Oh, and you need to be a new customer.
No problem, I figured. I had ordered checks through them before but it was at a different address. And if they noticed, they would return my order unfilled. But I was confident. Who wouldn't want my money in these desperate times?
So I was very pleased when my new checks arrived Monday. Five books, a paper box to keep them in, and a new log to scribble my purchases on. No mention of my, err, past business.
I even bragged to Hubby about clinching the deal.
Then Tuesday's mail came. A suspicious letter from Checks Unlimited was on top. And by "suspicious" I mean it looked like a bill. It was.
Blurg!
The bill said...
A colleague noticed her spam mail was getting more and more enticing. A $500 gift certificate to Whole Foods, a $1,000 shopping spree at Target, mondo discounts at Wal-Mart. She did not open any of the e-mails but was intrigued.
Could any of this be real? No way, I told her. Nobody gives away free money. Established retailers will draw you in with small discounts and specials, but windfalls like these are unheard of.
Still, I wondered if she was onto something. Is spam getting more enticing? Or are consumers more willing in a down economy to take a chance on an appealing offer?
I asked Al Frank, a higher up at the consulting firm Deloitte, who knows a thing or two about consumer products and services, what he thought of the situation.
Cash-strapped shoppers have their antennas up for deals, Al said. And many of them feel able to protect their computers from danger. Al did not have hard stats, but the combination of need and comfort suggests more shoppers may be giving spam a second look.
"People are becoming more savvy and becoming more interested in looking for deals," Al said. "If a legitimate distributor or retailer is sending something out, those messages are getting picked up."
To tell the difference between a real deal and a scam, check who the email is from. If you don't know them, hit delete. Consider using an email like Outlook that lets you see the first few lines of an email before you actually open it. If it looks suspicious, delete. Install anti-virus software just in case a bug or virus gets into your computer.
The bottom line is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks, Carolina!
Yesterday afternoon the blogs stopped working and we did not find out until hours later that pretty much all our posts from that day were gone. So if you had problems opening links in Tuesday's daily digest, tha's why.
I tried not to huff and puff about it too much but was pretty ticked off. I had to remind myself of a "Pearls Before Swine" cartoon Hubby recently pointed out to me.
The mouse asks zebra why he is scowling. Zebra tells him he hasn't been able to post to his blog all day because of a tech error. Mouse runs to the window, looks around, and comes back. 'And yet, somehow the world goes on,' he tells zebra in as many words. Zebra has one word for him: "Leave."
A little perspective is healthy. This morning I reposted all of yesterday's items and am now moving onto fresh posts for today. Thanks for sticking with me during this frustrating period. ~Julia
Here are all the deals mentioned in today's column.
Email me to sign up for the Bargain Hunter Daily Digest
Members of The Compact, a Yahoo anti-consumer group started in San Francisco a few years ago, don't buy any new products, according to a story in today's Daily News.
Instead they borrow, barter, or buy used. The group has more than 9,500 members and local chapters are springing up across the country. Read The Compact blog.
"As the economy worsens, one group of Americans is turning to an Earth-friendly way of life as a hard line strategy for saving," the story says. "It seems what's good for the Earth is good for the wallet."
"You don't just go out and needlessly shop as a hobby. It's really kind of an eye opener," said Julia Park Tracey, a mother of five in Alameda who swears she isn't a "crunchy granola hippie."
Members shun frivolous spending on things like scented lotions, flavored lattes, iPod accessories. Buying groceries and hygiene products are okay, and slip ups like a hot new handbag won't get you ousted. But everyone tries to do their best.
Sure the no buy method will save you a ton of money, but I'm wondering if this is really possible. What about gas? How do you visit friends and family? It sounds interesting, but not I'm not ready to go cold turkey and not be able to buy anything! I wonder if they have a 12 step program?
Here's a tip that just about made me pee in my cheap ass pants. If you are shopping in a store and want to check the price of an item you are considering buying, text Google. The little elves at the behemoth Internet company will text you back what other retailers are selling the item for.
Send a text to 466453 (I still can't get over texting to a short number like that - shouldn't it be seven or ten digits, like a phone number?) with the word "price" and the item name. If you don't know how to text, learn.
I tested the number with "price Gap trouser" and got back two messages within 30 seconds. The good news is a lot of other folks are selling Gap pants for $10, which is a lot less than the $49.50 Gap is selling them for.
The bad news is the texts had insufficient information about where these alternative retailers are. They were identified only by name - fashionboulevard - without any address, city, Web site or phone number. Googling "fashion boulevard" led me to a site that sells clothes for adult dolls. None of the other retailers were mainstream enough that I recognized their names.
I tried it again and tacked my zip code on to the end of the message. No luck. My Google elf did not understand 91367 was my location and said my search did not return any product results. Oh well, I guess nobody is perfect, and that includes Google too. Perhaps the company is not quite ready to take over the world.
Note: there is a ton of other info you can get by texting Google, including weather, stock quotes, and movie times.
There are soooo many offers online to get a "free" credit report. All you have to do is sign up for some other service that costs $35.95 a year! The truth is that everyone is entitled to see their credit report once a year for free.
Here's the site where you can get it gratis. The three major consumer credit reporting companies provide your credit report free every 12 months as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act), says the site, AnnualCreditReport.com.
I'm not sure if the report provides you with your credit score, however. But reviewing your report and correcting errors can take months, so for now worry less about your actual score than if the report is accurate. If it is not, your credit score is going to be off anyway.
I've received a few messages from readers saying they are having a hard time commenting. There are two ways to leave your two cents on the blog. Comment anonymously and your message gets sent to me to approve before it goes on the blog (this cuts down on spam).
Or, register your name, email and url, if you have one. Only the name you registered shows up on the blog when you comment, though I will see your email and url. A few folks have said the registration process did not work for them and we worked on those individual cases. But if you are still having trouble please let me know. We can't fix it if we don't know it's broken!
More shoppers are buying online versus in stores, says a recent story in the NY Times. What's causing the shift? The usual suspect - gas prices.
"Online shopping is gaining at a time when simply filling up a gas tank to head to the mall can seem like a spending spree," the story says. Many retailer Web sites are seeing double digit growth, and plenty of others are vying for online shopping dollars by offering discounted or free shipping deals.
I'd like to take this basic trend story a step farther. More people are shopping online, but does it really save you money?
Two things to consider. How much gas do you burn to get to the store and back? What are the shipping costs?
Calculate the first by figuring...
Here are all the deals mentioned in today's column.
Prices for consumer goods like milk, gasoline, and plane tickets rose by 1 percent last month. That may not sound like a lot, but consider that prices shot up that much in just 30 days. For the past 12 months we are at a 5 percent increase. A story by the Associated Press puts the monthly increase into perspective.
"The only time in the past quarter-century that monthly inflation has been that high was in September 2005, when prices jumped by 1.3 percent, mostly because Hurricane Katrina shut down oil refineries and energy prices spiked," the story says.
Here's how the increases played out:
So what are you cutting back on? I'm putting off buying a new swimsuit until next July, when they go on super sale. And I'm scrounging around the kitchen to make meals out of leftovers to avoid a $15 take out bill.
I think the real reason many people are scared to haggle is because they will feel sooooo embarrassed if it does not work. So here are some tips to recover when bargaining goes sour.
+ Avoid getting into a heated situation in the first place. If you make the negotiation into a fight, not being able to convince the merchant will really feel like losing.
+ Be nice. Remind the seller that you are a frequent and loyal customer (if you are) and really want to spend your dollars at their store. Buttering up a merchant never hurts ("You have really nice clothes in here") and it will help you maintain a good relationship with the store, even if you walk away.
+ Stay on the fence. Discuss the price as if you have not made up your mind whether you will buy the item or not. A merchant will be more likely to cut a deal if you are undecided, and it will be easier to not buy an item if you are using phrases like...