5 Secrets of Online Coupon Masters

Josh Smith

We all know at least one online shopper who always scores the most amazing deals online. The types of deals that you only see once a year are a weekly occurrence, even for items that seem to never go on sale. These online shoppers have mastered the art of online shopping, and as a certified online coupon master I am going to share my secrets with you.

The following secrets of online coupon use can be put into practice on your next purchase and after a times through you’ll be ready to look past the retail price on every purchase you make online to see the low hidden prices that are only visible to coupon masters.

1. Price Compare and Read Reviews: Before you start looking for coupons, read a few reviews and search on PriceGrabber to find the base prices at stores. This is important because if you find the right coupon you might not buy from the cheapest place you find on PriceGrabber.

While you do this you’ll learn which retailers offer good coupons and which don’t. For example, Staples, Best Buy and others routinely have good coupon deals, but Amazon relies on low prices rather than coupons.

2. Try to Combines Sales, Coupons and Rebates: If you want to be a master of online shopping and coupon use, you need to try for a trifecta of sales, rebates and coupons. This has gotten harder over the past few years, but sites like Slickdeals.net help. Head to the forums and search for the item you want to buy. If you find a recent posting you might stumble into a great deal where someone else has already done the legwork.

3. First Pass for Coupons: The first places to look are RetailMeNot.com and CouponSherpa.com where you’ll be able to look for coupons from the sites you found in your price comparison. If you don’t score here, that’s OK since we have more options.

4. Buy Coupons: Yes, you heard me right; buy a coupon for your next purchase. When I found a great deal on new speakers I wanted to save more, but I didn’t have a Staples coupon. Rather than give up I found a $30 off coupon on eJunkie for $2.95 with instant delivery. I paid $3 and saved $30 on my purchase with only an extra 5 minutes of time.

5. Learn to use Fillers: Many items are just below the cutoff for coupons, like my speakers which were a penny below the coupon cutoff. Rather than look for another thing you think you need, find the cheapest filler item you can. In my case it was a 79 cent box of paperclips. If you need help, Google “store name filler” and look for something in the right price range.

Now, go forth and shop like a coupon master!