Dealnews.com

While many of you haven't thought as far ahead as Halloween, I've been planning for Christmas for months. In the past, we've waited until Black Friday to start our shopping... but this year we decided to try something different. We decided instead to plot throughout the year to find things that were a good deal that we thought our friends and family would enjoy. Not only will this stretch our Christmas budget over a longer period of time, avoiding the emptying of our accounts in December, but it also allows Drew and I some flexibility in our finances this fall.

So while I'm about halfway done with my shopping, I know there are a good portion of you waiting to get started. I've decided to feature some of the sites that I absolutely love! Each site will save you money if used properly... with some self-control!

First up is Dealnews.com. My love affair with Dealnews has been going on for quite some time. Dealnews features daily deals from all over the web, from Amazon and Barnes & Noble to Newegg and Meritline. Each of the sites they feature have been vetted by the company, so you know you're purchasing from a safe and reliable site.

Instead of spending hours hunting deals online, you can log on to dealnews.com... sort through the posts by category or time listed... and you automatically get a list of the day's greatest deals. Not only do they list the current price, shipping charges, and any possible coupon codes, they also list the lowest price they've seen it recently, and the next lowest price they could find it for. For example, right now on their site they list an inflatable movie screen from Home Depot for $99 plus $11 shipping. The $99 is after the coupon code they have listed in the description (down from $197). They tell you that the price ties a mention from two weeks ago as the lowest price they've ever seen. They also mention that this price is $20 under the lowest price they could find for any brand of inflatable movie screen. While I know an inflatable movie screen probably didn't make it onto your shopping list, they also feature tons of deals in electronics, media, home & garden, childrens toys... and they even have a whole spin-off site called dealmac for just Apple products (though most of them are featured on dealnews too).

So there are a few ways I like to use this site:
1) Figure out what you want and look for it. A few weeks ago, our external hard drive died on us. We needed to replace it fairly quickly so that we could transfer data from one to the other. I knew we needed at least 1TB of space, so I typed that into the search bar on Dealnews. When I didn't find any deals I really liked, I set up an alert. Whenever Dealnews listed a new deal on external hard drives, they sent me an e-mail. I think I had the alert set up for less than a day because something they sent me was a perfect match.

2) Figure out who you need something for and keep an open mind. Sometimes you know a birthday is approaching, but you have no idea what to get for that person... spend a little while on the site just looking at all of the deals, and usually something will jump out at you. It's a great place to browse because everything's on sale!

3) Browse daily to keep an idea of current prices on hand. Ok, so I know this is probably just me being weird... but I like to know when things are really a good deal. I usually check dealnews a few times a week even when I don't need anything just to keep up with prices. When Drew offered to buy me a netbook for my birthday, I had a general idea of what I could get on one through Dealnews, so when we walked through Best Buy and looked at their "sales," I knew I could do MUCH better.

While Dealnews.com has been on my list of favorite sites for a long time now, there are so many awesome places to go online that will save you money... all tried and tested by me, and all on my list to share with you. My goal is to make this your most frugal Holiday yet... but make it look like your most generous!