Published July 12th, 2008
in Popular Sites Series.
This is June 2008 revision of the Popular Price Comparison web sites list. You can find the last month revision of the list here.
The best gainer today is shopwiki.com (21.6%) followed by like.com (18.02%). On the down side jellyfish.com (-17.97%) and mpire.com (-17.9%) have the worst numbers, both have a very good explanation. Mpire team has moved efforts to their shopping widget, while Jellyfish got bought by Microsoft.
Overall numbers are mixed (average Alexa gain is -1.40%) and I don’t expect things to pick up until August or September when the school season starts.
(*) Note: traffic stats for these sites is an aggregate of all traffic to the top domain (e.g. Yahoo.com or Google.com) and thus cannot be used to judge how popular this particular price comparison service is.
Published July 8th, 2008
in Money Saving Tips.
I recently wrote about inexpensive check printing service offered by Walmart. It was a discovery for me that you can use Walmart (or other check printing services for that matter) to order checks for any bank account on your name. Yesterday I gave it a try. I ordered a box of doubles and it took me around half an hour to get it done. I saved about $20 compared to what Citibank charges me but I lost 30 minutes of my precious family time.
Why? Walmart has put several layers of “protection” to guarantee I get exactly the checks I need and also to make sure it is not someone else who is ordering my checks. For starters I had to enter the account and routing number twice and confirm it later on several screens. Also I had to dig out my bank mailing address and confirm my submission with my SSN and drivers license details. Alternatively I could fax a voided check back to them but I honestly don’t even remember when it was the last time that I faxed anything, so I opted for SSN.
The thing that killed me though was that I had to dig out the month and year when my bank account was open at Citibank and honestly I didn’t even know where to go for this information other than call the Customer Service, and you might guess how long it takes to get anyone on the line on Monday afternoon.
So my overall experience was rather disappointing. Do I wish it was less stressful? Yes. Will I try to do it again when I need more checks? Probably yes. I am hoping to cut the 30 minutes in half since I know most of the drill now. Also I hope Walmart keeps some of this data in online so next time ordering checks should be somewhat faster.
Where are you ordering your checks? Please share your tips in the comments
Published July 6th, 2008
in Popular Sites Series.
This is June 2008 revision of the Popular Deal Sites list. You can find the last month revision of the list here.
The change in rating shows the difference compared to May results and includes all deal sites from my database that meet Alexa Rank < 100,000 requirement. I am sticking with the original limit as moving to 50,000 seems to cut some interesting sites.
The top gainer this month is judysbook.com(99.02%) which jumps out of nowhere with a huge gain. Is this a sign that the site has been finally sold?
The worst performer is techbargains.com (-13.29%) but the change is within a usual fluctuation margin. Overall rank changes are mixed despite the bad economy and summer season. I honestly expected more red.
Published July 1st, 2008
in Shopping Coupons.
Amazon has just released a new set of coupon codes for this month and as usual I post them in a list sorted by amount so it is more convenient to pick those with the best value. Most coupons below expire July 31, 2008.
If you like these Amazon coupons, I also recommend you to check out these Amazon discount codes. The best part is that these codes don't have an expiration date!
Amazon coupon codes for July 2008
| $5 off | Ciao Bella Gelati and Sorbetti | CIAOI234 |
| $5 off | Twang Cocktail Sugars | COCKTAIL |
| $5 off | Sun Crystals Natural Sweetener | SUNCYSTL |
| $5 off $25 | Lipton, Wish Bone, and More | UNI55555 |
| $10 off | Kraft Mac & Cheese-A-Palooza | MACPRUIT |
| $10 off | Crest, Oral B, Gleem, and More | JUL8CRES |
| $10 off $29 | South Beach Living | SBLDISCT |
| $10 off $39 | Energizer Batteries | ENEJ0608 |
| $10 off $39 | Vita Coco Coconut Water | VITACO39 |
| $12 off | Amazin' Raisins | RSNACK33 |
| $15 off two | Today's Farm Freeze-Dried Snacks | JUSTUSI5 |
| $15 off $39 | Kraft Summer Beverages | SUMBEV39 |
| $15 off $39 | Kellogg's Special K, Frosted Flakes, and More | KELLNEW2 |
| $15 off $39 | Monogram Meat Snacks | MONOSNAK |
| $15 off $39 | Caffe D'arte Coffee | CAFDARTE |
| $15 off $39 | Splenda products | SPLENDA6 |
| $15 off $39 | Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, and More | CHIPDSCT |
| $15 off $49 | Camano Island Coffee | CAMANO55 |
| $20 off $49 | Bear Naked breakfast foods and snacks | GRANOL44 |
| $20 off $49 | Stretch Island FruitaBu Products | STRETC33 |
| $20 off $49 | Kashi Natural Foods | KASHI333 |
| $20 off $49 | General Mills Products | GENM2O49 |
| $20 off $69 | Vitamins and Supplements | JULYSUPP |
| $25 off $49 | Mr. Z Beef Jerky | MRZBEEFY |
| $25 off $50 | Sun Care Products | JUL08SUN |
| 10% off | Dogswell Dog Treats | DOGTREA4 |
| 20% off | Slim-Fast Products | SLIMJULY |
| 25% off | Ragu Pasta Sauce Pouches | RAGU9999 |
| 25% off | Glenny's Snacks | GLENNY25 |
| 25% off | Good Health Snacks | GOODHEA4 |
| 25% off | Homemade Dressings Mixes | DRESSNGI |
| 30% off | Havana Beverages | HAVANA30 |
| 35% off | Familia Cereal | FAMILIAC |
| 40% off | Genisoy Soy Crisps | GENISOY6 |
| 40% off | Red Bone Alley sauces or rubs | REDBONE2 |
| 40% off | Stash Iced Tea | GREEN333 |
| 50% off | Bentley's Tea or Boston Tea tea chests | TEAGIFT5 |
| 50% off | RK Foods Rice Dishes | BOMBAY22 |
| 50% off | Loma Linda and Worthington | LOMAI234 |
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