Apr 10th, 2008
Hunting for Discounts: Other Online Offers
A few weeks back we looked at how I shop online to try to get the best price possible. This week, it went into practice, even though the end result was far from frugal.
My buddy Richelle’s birthday is this week, so a bunch of her friends, myself included, decided to get her a gift from Edible Arrangements. Their stuff is great, but it’s expensive! Six of us chipped in for an arrangement that listed for $74, with separate delivery and tax charges. So, in the spirit of frugality, I looked for online coupons.
Checking out the usual suspects, I was able to find a $3 and a $4 coupon, but I was hoping for more. So more digging led me to a 10% off coupon that worked only in concert with the order being paid for with a MasterCard. This reminded me that sometimes there are discounts in places we don’t always look.
Discovercard.com, Visa.com, Mastercard.com, and AmericanExpress.com all list various discounts available or enhanced reward programs. Groups you belong to may also offer discounts (National Military Family Association, mentioned previously, is one example; National Association of Social Workers is another). Your employer, bank, or credit union may also have arrangements with vendors–mine offers a discount with Sprint, for instance. Even my car insurance company has GEICO Privileges which extends better prices to their customers.
So don’t give up on your first run through! Sometimes better discounts are to be had by looking in places you may not always look. I don’t give up until I find 10% or $100 off (whichever is less) in terms of a discount. Keep searching, keep hunting, and look places you may not otherwise look.
