The Expensive Money Saving List

Flash sales and daily deal sites are a blessing and a curse at the same time. If you are well disciplined and know when to say no, you can really score some great deals. If you get distracted by flashy things (as I often do) and wonder how you ever survived without that glow in the dark frying pan, you may want to sit this one out. Or hide your wallet before you continue reading.

I've made lists in the past of the sites I tend to frequent. Being the ever changing market we live in, the list is ever changing as well. Some go out of business, some lose my interest (which may put them out of business!), some throw promos at me and reel me back in, some new ones pop up! It's a revolving door where I go in and my money goes out.

Ok, enough of the cryptic talk. Bottom line is this - while it may seem like an awesome deal, ALWAYS double check the prices against some normal store sites. After shipping, many of the deals you see are not the greatest deals and are usually non-refundable. For a difference of a couple dollars, I would prefer to be able to return something if needed. And many sites don't ship right away. They wait until the sale closes, then put in an order to the manufacturer (to prevent overhead/overstock issues), wait for the mass order to come to them, sort out all their orders, and THEN ship your stuff out. I've had things come as quickly as 3-4 weeks later and I've had things take almost three months to show up.

Another good tip is to sign up for daily emails and have them filtered directly into a separate folder, away from your inbox. Then you can keep on top of which sales are coming up when.

Always check to see if a site is available through Ebates. Cash back and sometimes coupon codes. Sounds good to me.

RetailMeNot is a great source for coupons as well.

My final tip is promote, promote, promote. I can't tell you how many credits I've gotten on each site from referring new customers (once they make their first purchase anyway). That is free product in it's entirety. I've gotten SO many things using credits; toys/books, clothing, designer shoes, housewares, you name it! I use my referral links whenever I post about these sites. You never know when a new customer will come along and get you that cute pair of boots you've been eyeing!

Here goes. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Flash Sale Sites:
Zulily
Totsy
HauteLook
TheMiniSocial
Gilt
OneKingsLane
RueLaLa
TheFoundary
MyHabit - this is Amazon's site and is awesome. Free two day shipping, free returns, amazing Amazon customer service we love so much!

Daily Deal Sites:
The Steals Networks (KidSteals, BabySteals, ScrapbookSteals, SheSteals)
Woot (check all the sections regularly)
Target has a daily deal section
Amazon tends to have great things in their lightning deals and deal of the day section
MamaBargains (haven't been finding as many things as I used to here but worth checking out every so often)
BabyEarth has a great sale section called GaGa Deals

If I left anything out, I'll try to get them on here. This should be a good starting point for all of you ready to kiss your money goodbye. Most of these sites have amazing things for adults and the home too, it's not all about the kiddos!


And, on a side note, I like to check local consignment shops regularly, you can seriously get amazing deals!!

Part two of this post will be a collection of my favorite blogs I follow to help me keep track of deals in regular stores or on sites like Amazon and 6pm.com. That will take me a bit longer to compile as the list is long!! But it will come!