Online Coupon Codes: Shop Smarter

Online shopping and being frugal may seem to be mutually exclusive concepts, but think again. Venture capitalists invest huge sums of money into new online stores, while the larger, established "bricks and mortar" stores (such as Staples, Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble) are trying to capture as much of the online shopping audience as possible. To do so, they offer special incentives to shop at their stores: "first-time" customer savings, online coupons, and more.

Savvy online shoppers can find a coupon for nearly every store online. I rarely shop for books, clothes, office supplies, and food at the "dot coms" without a special coupon code. Where can you find these coupons, especially as the kids head back to school, and your budget is stretched tighter than ever?

Webmasters and everyday tightwads have jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon by creating coupon sites, listing available coupons for various stores online. These coupon codes and deals carry expiration dates, just like your coupons that you clip from the newspaper. The good coupon sites update the coupons daily or weekly. Some sites list the actual code, which you type into a special box when you order, while other sites link you directly to the deal page on the store's site.

An entire area of Internet development has been created as a result of online coupon codes: message board devoted to online couponing and deal shopping. In the 1980s and 1990s newspapers and television programs covered stories about coupon queens, and rebate nuts, who matched store sales with coupons, or rebates with store sales AND coupons, to save hundreds each month on food and grocery items.

Now, with the Internet, everything is easier and faster. Bulletin boards and message boards have cropped up soley for coupon code and discount sharing. Looking for printer paper? Go to a "deals" site and do a search--the latest sale is bound to appear. Need a new printer? Someone on a discount message board will tell you where to find it on sale, which coupon code to use, and how to shave an extra 5% off by using an affiliate website link.