Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
StitcherWhat’s not to love about shopping, right? Waiting for that package to hit your doorstep feels like a mini holiday! But shopping doesn’t have to mean overspending. In this episode, Jen and Jill spill their favorite apps, hacks, and sneaky-smart tricks to help you save money while you shop online.
There’s always the trick of patience.
Sponsors:
- Buying stuff. We all do it. Sometimes we feel good about it. Sometimes we feel bad about it. BUT what if we made great, guilt-free spending decisions every time? Sounds impossible? It’s not! And we wrote a whole book explaining how this can be our reality called ‘Buy What You Love Without Going Broke’ – get it wherever books are sold!
Check out some relevant episodes
Online Shop for FREE
Jen breaks down the top spending habits of U.S. consumers in 2024 and finds that most of our online dollars go to clothing, electronics, books, movies, games, and personal care.
Therefore, Jen and Jill recommend FB buy nothing groups and clothing swaps for clothes. For books, head to your library, Libby, Hoopla, or Project Gutenberg, and free trials for Audible, Libro.fm, and audiobooks.com. For gadgets, try product testing sites like Best Buy Tech Insider, Influenster, BzzAgent, and SampleSource. And for free personal care, check out PINCHme, Social Nature, or post in Freecycle or Reddit’s r/freebies.
Score Big Savings on Online Shopping
If you want a low cost mainstream and trendy clothes, go to Poshmark, Depop, ThredUp, Mercari, or eBay. But if you’re looking for a luxurious feeling, head to The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Fashionphile, or Rebag. For books, there’s Thriftbooks and Better World Books or look for Save with Used on Amazon.
For electronics, check Back Market, Decluttr, Swappa, and Gazelle for deals on refurbished and used devices. Also look for open-box or refurbished items at Best Buy, Amazon Warehouse, and Newegg. Use Rakuten and promo codes to save even more. And for personal care you can check FB Marketplace, Poshmark, Mercari, eBay, Amazon Warehouse.
✨ BONUS: If you’re a reseller, part of a large family, pooling resources with friends, or getting ahead on holiday gifts, check out liquidation.com, BULQ.com, or 888 Lots for bulk deals.
Get a Deal on Online Shopping
If you’re shopping online, Jill suggests using our Rakuten link to get $30 back. It finds rebates and deals for you and automatically applies them to your purchases. There are also websites like Brad’s Deals, RetailMeNot, SlickDeals, and BlackFriday.com.
When it comes to timing, wait for Black Friday sales (they often start in October!). And if you want a smarter trick, leave items in your cart to trigger abandoned cart discounts.
Online Shop with Purpose
Jen and Jill remind us that paying full price is fine if it’s supporting what matters most to you: local businesses, sustainability, and your values. To do that, see if you can find it at a local retailer or choose a more sustainable option. Also consider if it adds value to family, friends, faith, or fulfilling work. Or add it to a wishlist and wait 30 days before buying to avoid impulse purchases, then buy guilt-free.
Lastly, Jen suggests considering the “price per use” by asking yourself, “How many times will I use this to justify the cost? If not, can I resell it at a price that brings me closer to that value?”
What's one thing in your cart you're waiting for the right time to buy?
For Jen, it’s a bathing suit while Jill has skincare in there waiting for the right deal to be checked out.
Bill of The Week
Thank you Lisa for sharing your bill about a productivity tool you asked about getting a deal! It doesn’t hurt to ask 🙂
Thanks so Much for Listening!
Thanks so much for listening. We love love love reading your kind reviews of our book Buy What You Love Without Going Broke and we especially loved this one from:
✰✰✰✰✰
Finally a finance book that celebrates YOU
As a podcast listener, I already knew a lot of what to expect from this book, but loved seeing it laid out so neatly. I love how Jen and Jill encourage you to find what is of value to you and spend accordingly. I think so much financial advice preaches what you should spend money on, whether you value those things or not. My husband and I have started assessing if we’re spending our money on things we enjoy or on things that we feel like we’re supposed to. This book really explores that idea and takes it another step further. I DO highly recommend it in audiobook form. I read the first half, but listened to the second half and almost spit out my drink when I heard the lightning round “pew pews”. I only wish there was some kind of comparable doodle or emoji in the book to signify that this very official and professional book still maintained the fun of the podcast lightning round sound effects.
If you want to check out our monthly challenge community head to frugalfriendspodcast.com/club to see what challenge we have coming up next.
Keep leaving us reviews on iTunes or Stitcher, and sending the screenshot to reviews@frugalfriendspodcast.com. And don’t forget to share your favorite quote from the episode by using the hashtag #FrugalFriendsNote. 😉
