It’s hard to imagine what life was like before the Internet. Yet as wonderful as it is to have so much information so readily available, it can be overwhelming. Take “grocery coupons,” for example. Type that into Google and you’ll get 19 million results. Search “budget” at Yahoo and up pop 1.25 billion options!
To narrow the field, here are 21 websites to help you save – I’ve even included a couple of great coupon sites, so you won’t have to sift through all those Google results.
Save Money
1. Shop Local
Wouldn’t you love to have the weekly ad for lots of stores in your community (electronics, clothing, shoes, furniture, home and garden) – all indexed, organized and updated for you? That’s exactly what you’ll find at ShopLocal.com. In just minutes you can assess what’s on sale, and who has the best deal this week on the items you need.
2. Mommy Savers
Not just a treasure trove of coupon codes, printable coupons, freebies and bargains, Mommysavers.com is also a comprehensive site that provides the support moms need to live the frugal life. Its informative articles, eBooks, and Web videos provide a wide variety of money-saving tips on topics such as grocery shopping, decorating, family road trips, garage sales and clothes shopping. The twice-yearly “Forget the Joneses” boot camp gives members practical steps for creating a budget and living within their means.
3. The Bargainist
If all you want is a simple, coupons and freebies, then Bargainist.com is for you. Recent Bargainist sightings: 40% off Citizen watches at Amazon.com, $10 tanks and tees at Eddie Bauer, up to 70% off at American Eagle plus free shipping. No need to join, register or pay a cent. Just check back often – the site is updated several times each day.
4. The Coupon Clippers
Choose exactly the ones you need at TheCouponClippers.com, one of the nations’s largest online grocery coupon clipping services. Founder Rachael Woodard has more than a million national-brand and restaurant coupons in her warehouse and shipping center at any given time. You can order coupons today and for just a small handling fee of a few cents per coupon plus a 50¢ administrative fee per order (there’s a $3 maximum) and postage, have the coupons in your mailbox before week’s end. Last time I checked, I could get a $1 coupon for Coca-Cola for 20¢ and a $1 DiGiorno pizza for 12¢.
Get it Free, Swap, Rent
5. The Freecycle Network
Think of Freecycle.org as the nation’s biggest swap meet – where no money ever exchanges hands. It’s organized into local groups in many communities in the U.S., and members trade items within their communities. Want to find someone to come and pick up items you can no longer use and just want to get rid of? This is the place. The best thing about Freecycle: It keeps furniture, toys, appliances and many other goods out of landfills and gets them to places where they can be used and enjoyed. Go to Freecycle.org and join the group in your area.
6. Paperbackswap
If you’re a book lover, you’re going to love PaperBackSwap.com. Here’s how it works: First you join the club online. Registration is easy and currently free. Next, post the books you want to swap with other members. When you find a book you want, just click the “Order This Book” button. The books you receive are free and yours to keep. When another member requests one of your books, you accept the request and pay the postage to mail the book; they return the favor when they mail a book to you. Print mailing labels right from the website (typically, the postage is $2.23 to send a book under 1 pound). Credits are the unit of exchange at PaperBackSwap. When your book is received you get a credit, which you can then use to order another book for yourself.
7. Zilok
Rent just about anything that you might need to use only once: space in a garage, Guitar Hero for a weekend party, a power tool, a pickup truck. Or maybe you have things in your garage you’d like to rent out to make a few bucks. If so, Zilok.com is the website to join. Zilok is a community-driven platform that allows anyone to rent or offer for rent any kind of goods. Recently rented on Zilok: Sony camcorder, $10/day; patio heater, $20/day; pressure cooker, $6/day.
Learn Stuff
8. USA
Bookmark this one! Usa.gov is the official information and services site for the U.S. government – an exhaustive index of government agencies, services and activities. It’s simple to navigate: Just search by agency or topic (how to get grants, health updates in case of flu outbreak, and more). It’s a great place to get tax information, register to vote, renew your driver’s license, get student financial aid, sign up for unemployment online…and on and on.
9. FindHow
Wish you knew how to cut your between haircuts so you could save $15 to $25 per trim without looking all hacked up? Or how about changing your car’s oil? Well, head on over to FindHow.com. Clear, concise instructions for all types of projects are just a search away. Learn everything from how to repair scratches on your car to install a kitchen sink to how to draw a cartoon. There’s no wading through off-base blog posts or irrelevant articles. The information is from reputable companies, colleges and universities.
10. Starfall
This one’s just too good to be true. Made possible through the vision of the Polis-Schutz family, who created the electronic greeting card company BlueMountain.com, the Starfall reading program is designed to be fun, exciting and confidence-building for your young children as they learn to read. Similar to early-reading software you install on your computer (which can cost $15 to $30), the free program helps teach literacy through games. The graphics, sounds and content at Starfall.com are so outstanding you really need to check it out – even if you don’t have any kids around.
11. The Consumerist
Prepare to be entertained and educated about the top consumer issues of the day. At Consumerist.com, a subsidiary of Consumers Union, you’ll find blogs that bring you up to date on the latest scams, ripoffs and hot deals (you’ll even find a few freebies now and then). Readers are encouraged to give feedback about their everyday experiences as consumers. This is the place to complain about things like warranty repairs that never seem to be covered, health insurance claims that are denied and anything else consumer-related.
12. Lynda
Need software training (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver)? Chances are you’ll find it at Lynda.com. For $25 a month you’ll have access to more than 40,000 video tutorials with more than 600 online courses on a huge variety of software and design topics. Sure beats the $99 to $299 you’ll pay for a single online training class at other sites, or attending a semester of night classes at a community college.
Do It Yourself
13. Big Huge Labs
Imagine having full access to a custom photo lab where you can create photo calendars, jigsaw puzzles, mosaics, trading cards and more – all from your digital photos. That’s exactly what you’ll find at BigHugeLabs.com. Access to this very cool photo lab is completely free, as are custom photo calendars, which is a lot cheaper than the $20 or more you’ll pay at your local copy store.
14. Dafont
If you love fonts but don’t like having to pay at least $29 per fond set, go to Dafont.com instead. You’ll find fun fonts, unique fonts and handwriting. And you’ll love to preview feature that lets you see the entire character set or your unique text without having to download first. Many of the fonts (over 9,000!) are free.
15. Fid-It Club
These days it seems that more of us are looking for ways to repair rather than replace our appliances, cars, furniture and electronic gadgets. FixItClub.com shows you how to do ordinary household and other kinds of repairs. You’ll find hundreds of free online guides for fixing everything you can imagine, from sewing machines to fishing poles.
Manage You Money
16. BudgetSimple
Here’s an easy-to-use online budget that will help you figure out how to get your spending on track. BudgetSimple.com is free, the site has no ads, and you don’t need to give any information that will identify you personally. The software was designed to help people get out of debt and encourage saving. “The satisfaction I get in hearing stories from users who have gotten their finances in order has made it more than worth any time, money and effort I’ve put into the program,” says Phil Anderson, the creator/owner.
17. Annual Credit Report
This is the only place you can get truly free copies of your credit reports – one a year from each of the big three credit reporting agencies. Though your reports will come from the agencies themselves (either online or through the mail, your choice), you must enter at AnnualCreditReport.com to make sure you get out of paying a fee. Stagger your reports so you get one every four months. Then check each one carefully and dispute any information that seems inaccurate.
18. Dinkytown
Find more than 350 free financial calculators at Dinkytown.net. Do the math on mortgages, retirement savings and planning, insurance, credit cards and more.
19. Bloomberg
The Budget calculators at Bloomberg.com/invest/calculators/budget.html may seem old-fashioned because you enter your information manually as you would on a paper spreadsheet. But what’s remarkable are the resulting easy-to-read charts that categorize your expenses and break down your spending so you can see what’s up with your finances.
Travel
20. Discover America
Linked to tourism info for all 50 states, DiscoverAmerica.com offers a wealth of information in one place. An activity finder lists more than 4,000 experiences, attractions and events such as museums, parks and festivals. Without a doubt, there’s something for everyone here.
21. Mouse Savers
Any website that contains tons of great information, is run by one woman, and gets a lot of visitors (1 million a month) is a site that gets my attention. Now throw in the name Disney, and like magic you have a website that holds the keys to “the happiest place on earth!” MouseSavers.com (not associated in any way with the Disney organization) is a really exhaustive collection of tips, tricks and secrets for how to get discounts on every aspect of the trip to Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Resorts…in short, all things Disney.
