Frugal shopper? Use the power of the internet to save money

Frugal shopper? Use the power of the internet to save money

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Story Published: Nov 28, 2008 at 4:32 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 28, 2008 at 9:40 PM PDT

By Herb Weisbaum

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SEATTLE -- Money's tight, so it's more important than ever to shop smart for your holiday presents this year.

My friend, Edgar Dworsky runs the site www.consumerworld.org. He also happens to be one of the most frugal shoppers I know.

Edgar uses the Internet to save money, at sites such as www.slickdeals.net and www.fatwallet.com.

"They have a 'Hot Deals' message board on each of them where veteran bargain hunters kind of gather together and they share the secrets of the bargains they found," Dworsky said.

The postings usually give information about rebates and coupon codes, as well as sale prices at online and brick-and-mortar stores.

Then there's PriceSpider.com It lets you figure out if a sale price is really that good.

"PriceSpider.com lets you look at the price history of a particular item you are interested in over the past 6 months," Dworsky said.

So if the TV set you want is one sale for a thousand bucks, but it was selling for $900 a few months ago, you know that really isn't much of a sale.

"You instantly become a much smarter shopper when you can find out the history of pricing for that item," he said.

The Sunday paper is packed with sales circulars. And now you can see them on online at www.sundaysaver.com. Choose between national retailers and local stores.

At www.salescircular.com, you can select a product category -- for example digital cameras -- and search for sales at stores in your area.

Don't like the prices you see? With www.dealalerter.com, you decide what you want to pay -- and the site will search for you every day. If it finds an online store that hits your target price - or beats it - dealalerter.com sends you an e-mail alert.

For More Information:

www.komonews.com

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