Cheap Trick Thursday: an easy way to search for bargains online
For the next installment of Cheap Trick Thursday, savvy and stylish online shopper (and Baltimore Sun reporter) Kelly Brewington shared links to two fabulous methods to use RSS feeds to search Craigslist and Amazon for you.
That way, you can keep tabs on sales of items that may go quickly yet avoid the temptation of wading through lots of stuff you don't need.
Both require using a feed reader, such as Google Reader, Google's personalized homepage or Bloglines. (P.S. You could always use one of these to subscribe to Consuming Interests as well!)
The Craigslist tip comes courtesy of Get Rich Slowly, a great blog for financial tips and frugal living. J.D. says to search for the item you want, such as a crock pot. Then, scroll down to the bottom-right corner of your screen and click on the orange "RSS" button there and add it to your reader.
Then, you can monitor sales conveniently by checking your reader, rather than performing the same search over and over again.
Super-mega-bonus application: looking for a new place to live? You can also use this method to search through apartment listings.
And now for Amazon:
Trent at The Simple Dollar (another wonderful site for tips on frugal living) has a similar trick for sorting through Amazon's Gold Box specials --- items sold at colossal discount each day, kind of like the loss leaders at the supermarket.
But again, you don't want to read through every discount, in case one lures you into buying something you don't really need. So Trent suggests filtering the feed using a tool called Feedsifter.com.
You pop the link to the RSS feed in the top box, and add search terms for items you're interested in in the box below. Hit the "Filter My Feed" button, subscribe to your new feed by clicking the link, and you're ready to go!
Remember, as a commenter pointed out on The Simple Dollar, that you should verify that an item promoted at a discount is actually a great bargain. Search around online first to gauge how much an item actually retails for before proceeding to checkout.
Any other savvy online shopping tips? Please share!
Comments
I just learned this yesterday! Good timing. I RSS'd "nikon lens" on Craiglist -- and got the how-to after asking my Twitter friends.
Posted by: mary | July 10, 2008 12:23 PM
great tips... my personal favorite site for deals is http://www.searchalldeals.com
it is thorough so i don't miss out on any deals!
Posted by: Jack | July 11, 2008 4:42 PM
In addition to signing-up for RSS feeds from the likes of Amazon and Craigslist, you can save time and look good when shopping for clothes online by opening a free personal shopper account with WearIt.com. Pick the brands and apparel types you like, and WearIt.com then sends you personalized email updates when your favorite brands go on sale at top online merchants like Macy’s and Nordstrom. You can sign-up at http://thelist.wearit.com.
Posted by: WearIt.com | July 11, 2008 8:14 PM