Budgeting

[Host] Welcome to Money Talk, the podcast series that helps you manage your money—and improve your financial well-being! This week, we’re talking with Lisa Koivu, blogger at ShopGirlDaily.com. Lisa spends hours every day scouring the Internet for the best deals on everything from wedding gifts to winter coats. In this episode, she shares some of her top tips for finding budget-friendly deals.

Here’s the podcast. Enjoy!

[brief music transition]

[Host] Let’s start from the top: What’s the easiest way to find deals and save money when I go shopping?

[Lisa Koivu] The first thing I would really recommend is that if there’s a store you really love or shop at often, register for their email newsletter. Because that’s often where they will send out coupons and discount even before they release it to the public.

And in addition to that, like a page on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter. There are some stores, like Kate Spade is notorious for always posting about sales on Facebook a full 24 hours before they even send out an email about it. So doing those three tips, you’ll always know when a brand is going to have a big sale.

[Host] Most of your research is done online, right? So what are some tricks you’ve learned about saving money while online shopping?

[Koivu] When you use cash-back shopping sites you will earn part of your purchase total in cash back. Pretty simple! The cash back can range from 1 percent all the way up to I’ve seen 50 percent for some companies. But there’s no fee to you, you really just register and make your purchases through these sites, so it’s a super easy way to save and they have almost every company and every brand listed on them. What I tend to do is, I use both ShopAtHome and Ebates and I usually check both sites to see which one is offering the better cash back percentage because it will often vary between the two sites. But like I said, that is one super easy way to save.

[Host] Nice. Any other tricks you’ve learned while online shopping?

[Koivu] Another thing you can do is if you really want an item—and West Elm does this frequently—is add it to your shopping cart, sometimes I think you can even just look at the item, but adding it to your shopping cart and then leaving will often prompt the company to send you an email saying, ‘Hey, you left this item in your cart. Here’s 10 to 20 percent off if you want if you want to buy it now.’

[Host] Are there any advantages to shopping online rather than in a store?

[Koivu] This year I did almost all of my Christmas shopping online because I could really track the coupons and see when things went on sale. So I started Christmas shopping in October and just watching the things I wanted. One of the ways I organized those things was through Pinterest. I had a private Pinterest board with just the gift items I was looking for. And one of the things that was really nice was not only could I track the items as they went on sale, but by shopping online, you kind of cut back on impulse shopping, which I am definitely guilty of.

[Host] Are there any apps or alerts that let you know if something you’ve been eyeing goes on sale?

[Koivu] There’s a site called PriceBlink.com, which is a browser add-on, which means you would attach it to your browser basically just by clicking an item. But then any item that you’re shopping for, you can list it on PriceBlink and it will automatically tell you when the item goes on sale on any website.

Another one is a phone app called Coupon Sherpa that lists in-store coupons so if you’re heading out to the mall or whatever, you’ll want to visit Coupon Sherpa and it will automatically list the stores that are having big sales and any extra coupons so you can kind of track what’s going on that way.

[Host] Yeah, and is there a best time of week or a best time of year to buy certain things?

[Koivu] Veteran’s Day is actually a better shopping day than Black Friday because it has the benefit of being a three-day weekend, so three full shopping days, but then it is also at the end of a season, end of summer, very end of summer, so the stores are trying to clear out all of their merchandise because at that point they’re making room for winter. So you’re kind of getting the benefit of double the deals: everything’s going to be on sale and then almost everyone is going to offer an extra coupon on top of that. Another big one is Memorial Day. So shop around the holidays and you’re going to find some really awesome sales and discounts.”

If you are booking travel, look for airfare discounts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That’s normally when prices are going to be on sale.

[Host] All of this is great advice. I’ve got one more question for you though: wedding gifts. Is there ever a good time to buy those?

[Koivu] Yeah. May through August, the wedding season, you’re going to find almost everything that a couple puts on their registry is going to be on sale. Any way you can save on wedding gifts is awesome, because if you’re anything like me, you have 10 weddings to attend this summer.

[Host] That’s it for Lisa’s expert shopping tips. Thanks for tuning in! Check out more Money Talk podcasts for financial tips you can use to get organized, make a plan and stay on track to a bright financial future!