surviving the recession

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, a celebration of romance where you feel cheated if you don’t get a gift (everyone has experinced the situation in the office where people ask what you got and you feel like a loser if your boyfriend/husband hasn’t gone to town with the gift) but which retailers use to bump up prices extravagantly.

I finally got my hubby to tell me what he usually spends on a bouquet of flowers and nearly fell off my chair in shock - £55! For flowers that barely last a week. Anyway, I’ve banned him from buying me flowers (to his relief), and Valentines Day will consist of the two of us giving each other a massage at home.

Seriously, people need to stop spending so much on these “commercial” holidays. Yes, it’s nice to get a gift, but with a little imagination you can always give something that is personal and romantic, but which doesn’t break the bank. 

Have found a new website that lists all Amazon goods that are half price or less.

PriceCutReview works for Amazon sites in the USA, UK, France and Germany. You don’t actually have to join the site to use it. You simply type in what you are looking for, and if it is half-price or less, it comes up in their results. You then click on the item and go through to the Amazon site to buy. It saves having to trawl through Amazon item by item looking for the things that are on sale. They say that they are considering adding non Amazon items in the near future.

Note that I am not connected in any way with the site, and they do not have a referral program.

RetailMeNot.com is an American site that claims it’s the world’s largest coupon source. They certainly have coupons for all manner of online stores, such as Amazon, J C Crew, J C Penney, Victoria’s Secret, etc. 

They are pretty straightforward to use - you do not need to join the site to use the coupons.  Simply search for the store you want, press “get coupons”, note the coupon, and then press “use it” to go through to the retailer, where you enter the code at checkout.  They also have a price comparison facility, and an online forum (but to use the forum, you need to register with them). They have no referral system, but do share revenue with people who post on their forums (you will need a Google Adsense account).

 If you do a lot of shopping online, it’s a site worth looking at before you buy.  

If you are short of cash, you can make some handy money by renting your stuff out. What kind of stuff? Anything, campervans, powerdrills, barbecues, I even saw a request to rent a dehumidifier.

How do you go about it? There is a company called RentNotBuy, which has two websites -RentNotBuy.com for the USA and Canada, and  RentNotBuy.co.uk for the UK and Ireland. They are free to join, and do not have any referral systems.

You simply join the site and then list the item you want to rent out. Their software estimates the amount you should rent it out for, but it’s up to you to confirm this with the person renting (who can always negotiate with you). If someone wants to rent, they book it, the booking is confirmed by email, the renter goes to collect item, presents ID, pays upfront, plus a deposit, and then when the item is returned, they get their deposit back.

The websites are operated on a community basis, so they do not charge any fees for use of their site.

And if you need something, instead of rushing out and buying the item, consider whether you only need the item for a short while (say you need to video a wedding), and rent. There are many commercial organisations who will rent out stuff to you, but you should be able to rent more cheaply using a community website like RentNotBuy.

If you are shopping online this Christmas, you might wish to check out Vouchercodes.co.uk.  They list vouchers for most of the UK online stores and you simply enter the voucher code when you make your purchase to get your discount. Discounts range from 5% to 50%.

You don’t actually have to join the site to get the codes (though if you join they send you email alerts on the latest offers).  They also have a section on “free stuff” which is all about freebies retailers are giving away to promote their products.

Note that I am not connected in anyway with Voucher codes (am not a member and they don’t have a referral program).