We strive to jam pack every issue of ShopSmart with great tips to help you save money and find the best stuff. So it wasn’t particularly difficult to cull those tips into a roundup of our very best advice from 2011 in the January issue, on newsstands now. Even though I report on this stuff all year, I have to say, I learned a lot!
My 5 favorite surprises from 2011:
- You can automate price-comparison shopping. Install an app like InvisibleHand on your computer and it’ll instantly pop up to show you if you’ve got the best price or if there’s a better deal out there.
- Amazon Prime is a no-brainer. Pay $79 and get free two-day shipping on everything you buy on Amazon, plus free streaming movies and now Kindle books too.
- You can shop all the daily deals on one website: deals.pricegrabber.com, which shows you the day’s offerings from Groupon, Living Social, and other daily deals at a glance, saving time and preventing overbuying.
- Restaurants have sales too. Find them at BiteHunter.com, EatDrinkDeals.com, or Savored.com.
- You can haggle online! Try it sometime, using live chat. In our surveys, most people who ask for a better price wind up getting one.
For dozens more smart shopping tips, check out “Save big in the new year” on page 22. You’ll see our staff favorite websites also. Happy shopping in 2012! And if you have a favorite tip, please share it in the comments below. Maybe we’ll use it in an upcoming story.
Kathryn Fenner
06:16:37 PM on Mon Dec 12 2011
It's streaming Amazon Prime Videos, not Netflix, alas. No queue, no recommendations....
Robin Melen
11:35:13 AM on Tue Dec 13 2011
Thanks, Kathryn. We'll fix immediately!
vickey hickey
09:40:07 AM on Mon Dec 19 2011
I picked up a copy of your January issue and read about the top 20 reliable cars: you have included a list of cars to "steer" (clever) but I can't find any information about why...or how you came to these conclusions.
Can you tell me where I can find out??
Thank you.
Kenwyn Theobald
02:30:41 PM on Tue Jan 17 2012
After reading 'Our Staff Faves' in the 'That Thing Changed My Life' I decided to buy some Heatech Uniqlo clothing for both my husband and I. However the company's return policy states that the item cannot be returned if opened. So we called the store to clarify the policy for out of state sales. I was told we... 'could try a sample on in the store.' I mentioned we are in Pennsylvania and they have no stores in PA. I was then told 'I could come to NY and try on the samples.' Obviously a drive to NYC is absurd just to try on some underwear; if we cannot return something that does not fit, the company just lost not only our sale but also the postivie word of mouth advertisment I would have provided. Instead I have already decide not to mention them to the 20+ co-workers who hunt, ski, and enjoy the outdoors.
Doug Harding
05:40:07 PM on Thu Feb 16 2012
Re: ShopSmart Magazine.
Do you have a digital version that I can read on my desktop PC?
Oh, and Zinio is a deal breaker. It never worked satifactorily for me.
Robin Melen
02:15:45 PM on Fri Feb 17 2012
Hi Doug~
We don't, at this point. Sorry Zinio didn't work out. We're available on Kindle Fire and the Nook Color... Thanks for reading us!
Robin Melen
managing editor