Three tips to get the most from your daily deal shopping experience
Daily deal shopping used to be something you did in your spare time when you had a few extra dollars in your pocket. These days, some shoppers are using deals not only get items on their wish lists, but also to make ends meet. Today we’re spending time with three expert shoppers to learn how to get the most from your daily deal shopping experience.
Tip 1: Get a handle on your subscriptions
“Your email should be a safe haven,” says Hollywood, CA shopper to the stars Gwen Irvine. “Giving every store and daily deal website your email address is like telling every telemarketer you meet on the street your phone number.”
Ms. Irvine’s advice is simple: unsubscribe. “There are better, faster ways to get a good deal than rifling through an inbox of ads.”
Tip 2: Save time with a daily deal aggregator
Josh Elledge, of the popular money saving website SavingsAngel.com, told Fox 35 News Orlando this week that switching to a daily deal aggregator is the only way to keep your sanity while looking for good buys. “Every morning when we wake up, there are about twenty to thirty to forty different daily deals that are available,” said Elledge. “How would you know about all these deals unless you really wanted to get your email box flooded every single morning?”
The better option, according to the money saving guru, is to save your precious time and use a daily deal aggregator. “You can go to one site and they'll show you all the deals.”
Tip 3: Make using daily deal vouchers easier
Buying a daily deal voucher that sits in a drawer until well past its expiration date is like throwing money out the window. If you’re going to invest your time and cash into stretching your dollar as far as it can go, have a game plan to make your strategies work for you.
Chicago-based professional shopper and organizer Mary Bliss claims that the right tools make all the difference. “You can’t have a birthday party without inviting guests and baking a cake,” said Bliss. “You have to plan to save just as you must have a plan to throw a successful party.”
How can you make daily deal shopping easier? Bliss recommends three things:
1. Use a calendar: When you buy a deal, put its expiration date on your calendar, along with reminders to use the deal, or use a daily deal wallet like City Pockets to keep track of vouchers.
2. Employ apps: If you have a smartphone, download and use apps for daily deal websites and aggregators. It’s easier to check in with an app while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store than it is to surf to individual websites or rifle through hundreds of email messages.
3. Sell what you can’t use: There’s going to come a time when you just can’t use every daily deal voucher you’ve purchased. Whether it’s a family emergency that gets in the way of a deal or good intentions gone bad, some deals become inconvenient or unnecessary. In those cases, you can use resale sites like CoupRecoup to lose your buyer’s remorse.
What’s in your daily deal survival kit?
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