Be frugal like Paul :) Part I - Deal Forums

So you want to save money? Get more bang for the buck? Looking for a good deal?

Well you've come to the right place. The web that is. The web is a wonderful equalizer. You've got practically unlimited info at your fingertips. But where do you start? Who do you trust? Because it's so incredibly easy for anyone to setup a website, literally taking only a few minutes, you've got to be careful where you tread. It's as easy to spread information across the web as it is to spread mis-information. For every legitimate website out there, there are thousands of scammers out there trying to get your money.

So what do you do? Start with the big names. While that's not a guarantee of anything, that's a beginning. Ask your friends. And as my better half would say, Ask My Paul.

So what do I do? First and foremost, I scour several deal forums for hot deals and coupon codes.

Deal Forums
Pssst, wanna buy a cheap widget? You've got to know where to find the latest hot tips. Next to having your own personal deal finder, deal forums are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

What are deal forums? They are basically websites that emulate the bulletin boards that you find in your local supermarket. You know the ones, they are the cork boards plastered with things for sale, like cars, garage sales, and various want ads. They are a place where anyone can "post" a message, available for anyone that happens to glance at it.

Deal forums are online places where anyone can share info on hot deals, super sales, and tips, tricks and techniques for nailing down a great deal. They are basically just a whole lot of "posts". Posts are the equivalent of the piece of paper stuck to the supermarket bulletin boards. Once you register on the site, you are free to post a deal or comment.

Deal forums are free, full of information - some good, some useless, and usually are "monitored" by a forum Moderator. The moderator acts as an editor, "locking down" or freezing duplicate, nasty or illegal posts. Typically though, moderators stay out of the way.

One of the first places I go to, and one of the best deal forums on the web, is FatWallet.com ( http://fatwallet.com/c/18/ ). Here you'll find several forums, coupon codes, store ratings, and get this - money back on any purchases that you make when you "click-through" their website. I'll explain this money back stuff in another blog.

When surfing at Fatwallet, I pretty much spend all of my time in the "Hot Deals" forums. This is the forum where, appropriately enough, all the hot deals are posted. If you intend on perusing through the tons of posts there, it would be in your interest to register with the site.

Registering with the site allows you to organize the posts into a more logical and, in my view, useful order. By default, the latest post is at the top of the page. This would be a good thing, but since anyone can make a comment on a post that someone else has made, that post gets "bumped" to the top of the list. When several people comment on a post, it stays at the top of the list. I'm more interested in seeing newer posts, so I organize the posts by "Recent Topic". This format lists the posts in sequential order by time of post. That way, I can quickly scan and view all new posts.

While you can just glance at that post subject lines, reading the posts often describe how the deals are structured, or how to get the price that the poster got. Good deals often require using a coupon code as well as submitting mail-in rebates, so read the post carefully so that you understand how to get that low, low price.

Acronyms
One thing you'll notice when reading the posts, is that people use lots of acronyms. This is to save time - no time to waste typing out everything in great detail. Here are some of the more common acronyms:
AR - after rebate (the price quoted is after mail-in rebates)
AC - after coupon
BM - Bricks and Mortor - a physical store as opposed to a web-based store.
OOS - Out of Stock
PM - price match
YMMV - your mileage may vary (I got this deal, but you might not be able to copy it)

You can find a more through listing in the fatwallet forum faq (frequently asked questions) found as the first post in the hot deals list.

Use the Search
Like google's search tool, most forum websites have a search feature. If you are looking specifically for a good deal on something in particular, you can just do a search in the Hot Deals section for the product that you're looking for. It will list any posts that talk about deals for the product or store that you're looking for.

There's also a built-in price comparison search engine built into Fatwallet's search feature. This allows you to do a quick price search on several different websites at once. Other price comparison websites to check are: www.bizrate.com, www.pricegrabber.com, or ones that are associated with techie websites like www.cnet.com or www.pcworld.com. Just keep in mind that only a few stores are listed in these price comparison engines - typically, the stores pay to be listed.

One more place to get a good idea of what the market price of an item should be, is to go to ebay and see what the item that you're interested in is going for.

Summary
Deal forums are the expanded community bulletin boards where anyone can share great deals with everyone.