[Guest Post by Tara Allen]
When we’re talking about saving money, one of the easiest ways to go about that is simply to search for things we need at a highly discounted price, right? Right! Insert the new “daily-deal” phenomenon sweeping across the nation. If you haven’t caught the ever-so-contagious deal-bug yet, you should certainly consider signing yourself up! Almost all popular daily deal sites require that an offer be at least 50% of the original price. This is huge, especially for expensive services and products. That said, I called this a “bug” for good reason. It’s something you have to be smart and wary about. If, and only if it is used responsibly, will it truly benefit you and save you money. Here are some tips to keep in mind to make sure that your deal is really the deal you think it is.
1 If you didn’t need it/want it before you saw the e-mail, don’t buy it.
These sites thrive off of compulsive purchases. But, impulse purchases don’t actually save you money, because you wouldn’t have bought the item in the first place, and thus wouldn’t have spent the money, no matter how much the savings were. I suggest making a list of things you need/want to find, and then stick to waiting for those to come through in an email. If you need a haircut, put it on the list. If you need a gift certificate to a restaurant for a friend’s birthday present, put it on the list. Nothing that isn’t on the list gets bought. This way, you won’t be tempted to buy something that’s 80% off (it’s so hard not too!), but that you never thought of before and don’t really need now.
2) Check the original price.
Always, always go to the website and check to see what the real price of the service actually was. Businesses are bound to be smart enough to start slowly hiking prices in advance of an upcoming daily deal offering in order to be able to afford the percentage loss they’re going to take. Then, go search for local reviews to see if the service and business are really worth what they claim to be. Yelp.com is an excellent resource for this.
