Monday, March 11, 2013

Favorite Deal Sites - Part 2

One of my favorite things about blogging is that I get to chat with all kinds of interesting people and get feedback about things I post.  In January, I wrote a blog about some of my favorite daily deal sites.  I was excited about putting some of my favorites out there, but was even more happy to hear about all kinds of NEW sites others loved.

With all this new-found information, I thought it was time for a Part 2 to this money saving series!

Save1.com - Save1 seems like your typical coupon code aggregater at first glance.  As I mentioned last time...NEVER buy anything online without a coupon code.  The good news of online shopping is that you don't have to anymore.

Save1 has lists coupon codes from thousands of websites, and even has a section featuring the best deals of the day.  The main difference between Save1 and other sites is that when you use one of their coupon codes, you're ALSO doing good.

It's easy - every time you use an online coupon or special offer from Save1, they donate a meal to a hungry child.  So far they've donated over 93,700 meals - not too shabby!  Check out their site and then bookmark or pin it.  You'll also like their story.  Wanna help them reach 100,000 meals donated, but don't need to buy something right now?  With a few clicks of your mouse, they'll donate 3 meals now.


Yipit - last time I mentioned several of the big daily deal sites I've purchased discounted classes or goods from.  These daily deal sites are, of course, an awesome way to save money on fun things, but receiving and sifting through all the emails that come along with them can be exhausting.  Yipit aggregates all of the daily deals for major cities and keeps them in one place.  Wouldn't it be nice to get ONE email instead of 10?

Looking through my Yipit thread today, there are deals listed from Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, Google Offer, Travel Zoo Local Deals, Gold Star, Amazon Local, Crowd Seats, Homerun, Eversave, Pave Life, Boston.com, Rue La La, and Sign Post.  That's FOURTEEN sites I didn't have to check...and the cool thing is that the deals I was most interested in were from sites I'd never heard of before.


SmartDestinations is your solution to having fun on vacation...without breaking the bank.  They specialize in multi-attraction passes, so you purchase a 1-5 day pass in the city you're visiting and your admission for almost every popular attraction is covered (that's the Go Card option).  If you have specific attractions in mind, there's also a "build your own" option (Go Select) where you enter the places you'd like to visit and they put together your personalize pass - complete with discount.

Currently, they have passes for Boston, Chicago, Los Angles, Miami, New York, Oahu, Orlando, San Diego, and San Francisco.  If you're coming to Boston, check out my favorite things to do in Boston blog and make sure to hit some of those attractions while using your pass!  The other cool feature about the Go Pass is that some of the attractions let pass holders skip the line!  That would have come in handy when we waited in line at the Aquarium for 30 minutes.  :)

A few other sites...

As I was talking to my cousin about Boston's Blizzard last month, I realized I was sad we didn't have ski gear.  Watching people ski down the streets by our house and snowboard down Beacon Hill made me wish WE had skis and the appropriate gear to stay out all day in the snow.  He told me about The House, a website that has crazy deals on outdoor gear, snowboards, skis, and camping equipment.  Some of this is 70% off!

Follow some of the awesome coupon bloggers out there!  One of my favorites is Hip2Save.  She has pretty much every discount, coupon, or free offer out there listed on her website, and updates many times a day.  I've found it's nice to like her on facebook to keep up with the latest deals.


My good friend Courtney at One Fine Wire told me about one of her favorite places - Once Upon A Child.  They buy and sell gently used children's clothes - like a specialized Goodwill!  Check out their website to see if there's a location near you.

6pm.com and Zappos are pretty great places to find good deals on shoes.

Ebay & Craigslist are obviously awesome places to find almost ANYTHING.  If you're a little worried about buying and selling things on Craigslist the first time, or want to make sure you're getting the best deal, check out this blog from Young House Love about some of their tips for buying furniture on Craigslist.  They are the ultimate Craigslist pros!

As a little follow-up from my last blog, I wanted to share an awesome customer service experience I had with One King's Lane.  I recently purchased a popover pan and Silpat mat from their site - they were having a fannntastic deal on each - and I couldn't wait to get them in the mail!  When I opened my package, I realized they'd sent me a half-size Silpat mat instead of the full, so I emailed them to let them know.  A response came back less than 24 hours later (AND on a Saturday - quite impressive) apologizing for the mix-up, but telling me they didn't have any more full size mats in stock.  BUT, here was their solution:

What I would like to do for you today, is refund you your money back. The refund amount is ** to your ** credit card. As far as the wrong Silpat Baking Liner, please keep, donate,or dispose of them as you see fit.

Isn't that awesome?  They more than made up for the issue, and I'll continue to shop with confidence.


Disclaimer: This post was brought to you by Save1.com.  All opinions are my own. 




7 comments:

  1. These are great! Thanks for sharing! When my brother was born, my family did all their shopping at Once Upon A Child. You really do save lots of money there!

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    1. Very cool - such an important time to be saving money too!

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  2. This is great information! I need to get better about looking for coupon codes when purchasing things online.
    xM

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  3. Yoooou are the savviest shopper Lauren. Savviest of all time. I'd never heard of Save1 before but that sounds like something that every mommy blogger would love to know about!

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  4. Thanks for tips! I didn't realize that there were any coupons sites that do donations! Kudos to save1 ; )

    Sometimes craigslist scares me...thanks for the link to how to shop smart on craigslist too!

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  5. Awesome list! Visiting via I Gotta Try That!

    Helen
    Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

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  6. Thanks Melanie! Heading over to check out your blog now!

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