Explore Life For Less
With the rising cost of travel and eating out, you, like many Americans, may rethink certain leisurely activities and vacations that are not “necessary” from time to time. But retirement is all about enjoying life. And, often, you can “have your cake and eat it too”! Using the web to search for deals can help to save money to avoid sacrificing fun and great eats. Check out the following for great discounts, for instance.
Groupon & Living Social – A new trend is “one day deals” made popular by Groupon and Living Social. These offers usually take the form of “pay $10 for $20 of goods/food/services from a certain local restaurant/provider highlighted on that given day”, for example. Upon visiting either of these sites, you will be prompted for basic information, along with your local geographic region, to sign up for email alerts. The sites will then send you emails with new local deals, about every 24 hours. Deals range from discounts on kayaking to wine tasting, fine dining, massage therapy and more! Subscribe to each service for regular updates. And be sure to read the fine print, to know exactly what you are signing up for, before buying into a deal.
Yelp Check-Ins – If you have a smart phone or other device, you can easily download the mobile application for Yelp to take advantage of Yelp’s Check-In Deals. You can view these deals by one of two ways. You can use the app to search for restaurants/activities and see if your particular restaurant or service provider has a check-in deal in the menu. Or, you can check in to your existing destination via Yelp Mobile to see if there is a deal available!
Retail Me Not – Retail Me Not is your one stop shop for all online coupons. Before “checking out” your shopping cart at just about any online retailer (such as www.target.com or www.brookstone.com), head over to www.retailmenot.com. Here, you can search for current deals and coupon codes for your specific retailer. Then, as you go to check out, you can enter that information in the “Redeem Coupon” or “Promo Code” field. Codes can often be good for free shipping or anywhere from 10 to 20 percent off!
Do you use other sites or tactics to save money online? Let us know other tips that have worked for you.