OHSS, Part 2: Save Your Money

Happy Black Friday! I’ll be celebrating from the comfort of my couch this year and hopefully far away from the crowds. In honor of all of the spending, I present you with OHSS Part 2!

So now that you’ve been picking out the items you want to buy, it’s time to look for the discounts so you can save some money!

1. Give in and sign up for those mailing lists for your favorite stores.

I know, they’re annoying and overload your mailbox, but the best deals are sent out to mailing lists. Also, features like filtering in gmail (or the promotions tab) allow you to filter all of that mail directly into one folder so you can look at it when you want and it doesn’t clog your inbox. Stores will offer better discounts to card holders, but don’t get a store card if you aren’t able to pay it off!

2. If they aren’t emailing the deal, they’re tweeting and facebooking it.

Follow your favorite brands on Twitter (or facebook). Don’t want to tweet? Don’t want it to clog up your feed? Create a twitter account just to follow brands.

3. Use RetailMeNot.Com.

I discovered this site during a research project for my marketing class and it has saved me so much money. This site allows you to search your favorite websites and see what coupons and deals are currently available. The site also allows users to vote up or down deals, so you can see if the coupon code isn’t successful for people.

4. Just because it’s a promotion, doesn’t mean it’s a good one.

Now that retailers can reach you easily through the internet, there are promotions every day. But not all promotions are equal. For all the retailers I shop at, I try to have a base for my saving/spending. For instance, Ann Taylor and Loft will offer promotions fairly often, so I know if I wait I can get something for 40% off and I often won’t buy something from there unless I’m getting at least 40% off. However, with places like American Eagle Outfitters, I’m pretty content with 30% off. Either way, promotions will come along, so buying something full price can be a little silly.

Note: Be careful about Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that in some cases (for clothing at least, I can’t speak on behalf of electronics/appliances), the deals before and after will be much better. So if you do go shopping on either of those days, set a minimum discount for each retailer. It may sound odd, but it could keep you from spending more money than you need to.

Check out OHSS Part One: Pick It!