There are a couple apps and techniques I use All The Time for shopping successfully. By “successfully,” I mean 1) not overbuying and 2) getting the best price.

Hold Off on the Signing Bonus

We’ve all been on online shopping sites and gotten the big pop-up reading “SIGN UP FOR OUR EMAIL AND GET 10% OFF TODAY’S ORDER!” We’ve all done it, it seems ridiculous not to. But the truth is, I don’t usually end up buying something that day, and someday if I do buy something from them, I don’t get the discount anyway because I was already a subscriber. So the trick is to not sign up UNTIL you are ready to buy something, whether it’s that visit or six months later.

Unsubscribe from Retail Email Lists

I regularly unsubscribe from all online shopping site emails. As I said above, I don’t sign up until I’m actually ready to buy something so I get the signing bonus…but I get off all the mailing lists regularly, like monthly. I use an app called unroll.me. It’s free, and it shows in one long alphabetical list all the 13-zillion emails you’re subscribed to, many without your knowledge or awareness. I’m always shocked. Anyway, by just click click clicking your way down the page you can get rid of all the excess emails you don’t want.

And here’s why you (or I) don’t want emails from retail sites. They’re very very good at what they do – which is tempting people to Buy More Stuff. I don’t want to buy stuff cuz I’ve given into temptation…or because it’s on sale. I only want to buy what I’ve made a conscious and clearheaded decision to buy, based on my need and budget, etc. I keep a list of all the retail sites I like, many I just know by heart, but I only visit them when I’m prepared to buy, both mentally and financially. Who needs to struggle with all that temptation everyday?? Just remove it.

Get Notified When Items You Want Go on Sale

I’ve mentioned ShopTagr many times before as I’ve been using it regularly for many months. It’s an app you put on your computer or phone, and when you’re browsing or online shopping, if you see an item you like but don’t want to pay full price for, you put it in your Shoptagr collection (I call it my closet) and if and when the item’s price goes down, Shoptagr sends you an email letting you know, with a link to the item so you can purchase it (if you so desire). It also lets you know when something you like has come back in stock. I appreciate the app for the sales information, but also for the ability to keep all the things I like and am considering buying in one place. So if I’m looking for a black and white striped shirt (and aren’t I always??), I can keep all the ones I see that I am even remotely interested in, so I can easily compare them to decide which I ultimately want.

This post is not sponsored by ShopTagr, they’re not paying or rewarding me in any way, they don’t even know I exist (!), but I did just notice a “Share With My Friends” link on the page. This is the link -> Shoptagr, it has my name in the url but I don’t know if it’s like an affiliate link or something, so I’m just giving full disclosure in case they send me a nifty neato thank you gift if you use the link to sign up for the app. But I don’t really expect that to happen.

Get Free Money!

Wow, If that doesn’t sound click-baity I don’t know what does, but seriously – with Ebates, you just get free money for buying things you were already buying anyway. I’ve tried a couple other apps similar to this, but you have to sign in and out all the time and the bonuses are only for purchasing specific items and that is Way Too Much Trouble For Me. I like easy peasy.

With Ebates, you download the app onto your computer or phone (I personally only have these things on my desktop computer but I know many people run their lives from their phones, so…), and when you go to a retail site that is a partner of theirs (and they have a lot of retail partners), you’ll get a little popup in the corner of your screen that says like “Do you want to activate savings with Ebates?” Well, of course I do! So sometimes they offer additional discounts to the sale price of the item you’re buying, but you also get a percentage of what you spend BACK. To be honest, it’s not a lot, and it’s not fast, it’s like months down the road…but hey. Who doesn’t like to get a Big Fat (or even Little Skinny) check in the mail for doing absolutely nothing??

Full disclosure, not sponsored, but the links I’ve shared here are affiliate links, and if you sign up, once you spend $25 (on things you were going to buy anyway – remember the holidays are fast approaching!), I get a little sumthin sumthin…but so do you! A signing bonus – the good kind!

Wiki Everything

One last shopping app I use is Wikibuy. Like the two above, you download the app onto your computer or phone and every time you go to checkout on a retail site it quietly appears, informing you if your item can be purchased for less somewhere else…and trying all the coupon codes in the universe (well, close) to see if any will work on this item at this particular moment of time (you know how temperamental coupon codes can be) and automatically applying any that are relevant. You just sit there and watch your total go down. It’s a lovely thing.

Again, I get a little bonus if you sign up through my link. But I wouldn’t be telling you about it (or any of these others) if it didn’t work and I wasn’t using it. I think it actually does even more than I know about but I’m too lazy/creature-of-habit-ish to explore it, I’m pretty happy with it just doing what it does for me now.

I hope this info helps you, and let me know if you try any of the apps and find them useful!

This post contains affiliate links, which means that I may receive a small commission if you click on them and/or buy something as a result of clicking that link.