Many friends come to me looking for help on finding deals. Whether they are going out to a nice dinner or buying roses for their girlfriend for Valentine's Day or picking up a new HDTV, they want to know where the best deals lie. And, usually, I can find that for them. Let me show you how I do it (and these sites are all free to join!):
Category 1: Restaurants
Open Table - The FIRST place to go before you go out to that fancy restaurant has to be Open Table, a restaurant reservation site that has some membership perks. The first reason you go to Open Table is that you'll be able to see if that restaurant you want to go to has availability. This provides you a quick response to your query without ever having to find the number, call up the place, be put on hold, have to shout in the phone, and then have someone pretend that they don't know you and can't find your reservation. You click and submit and you get an e-mail confirmation. Best of all, if you decide to cancel, it's just one click away, without the awkward call where you probably try to make up some excuse about a sick aunt. The best part of Open Table is that they have membership rewards. Once you earn 2,000 points, you get a free, no strings $20 gift certificate to use at any Open Table restaurant. Most restaurants are only 100 points, but you can search for "bonus point" restaurants that are 1,000 points. These provide a great opportunity to try new places you would have never gone before. Go to two of these 1,000 point meals and you get a $20 gift certificate to use at your next place (where you earn more points). The flaws of the site is that there is no value between 100 or 1,000 points, no advantage for saving up past 2,000 points (4,000 points is a $40 gift certificate...so there's no incentive to save, at all), and no difference if you spend $10 or $500 at the meal (you can go order appetizers for 2 and get the same amount of points as if you order $60 steaks). But those flaws are quite minor compared to the advantages you get.
Restaurant.com - Go here second. You can actually use Open Table and Restaurant.com for the same place--I did last night at The Black Duck in Murray Hill. Restaurant.com is a place where you can get discount gift certificates for restaurants. The key here is to make sure you don't pay full price. First sign up for the site. A few times a week they'll send you e-mails about discount codes for between 50%-80% off (I'd wait until it's 80% off). The gift certificates are a bargain when you factor these in. They all come with some sort of caveat (like a minimum amount to spend, minimum amount of entrees, days you can spend it, etc.) and usually don't include alcohol, but these are still a bargain. You can print out a $25 gift certificate, which normally costs $10 on the site, for $2 with 80% off and go to a place with a $35 minimum and spend $10 plus tax and tip on a $35 meal. Now tell me that's not a bargain? Things to watch out for: some places stop accepting them when too many people come in (like Mackenzie's in Stamford today which gave me such a hard time I'll never go back). But the key is to buy generic certificates when it's 80% off to use as gifts and then, when you're ready to purchase, apply them to your own account. Otherwise, the gift certificates usually have a one year expiration so it's plenty of time to try out a new place in your area.
Rewards Network - This site is one you should go an sign up for now. Register all your credit cards. Because what happens is that when you go to dine at a place and you use that credit card you could get a nice surprise e-mail with the subject: "you've earned rewards". I opted for the American Airlines miles instead of the cashback (every once in a while I'll get the points added to my account so that my account never goes stale and the miles don't expire and it's 5 miles per dollar spent, so it's pretty good), but either one is great. I don't even go on there to check which restaurants in my area give me points because I like the surprise of the e-mail a few days later, but you can actively seek out restaurants and earn cash back. The good part also is that liquor is included in this so if you go to a bar (which probably meant to only accept it for food at the restaurant) and charge only drinks, you'll earn points too. I don't know how many times I've been riding the train Monday morning after a weekend out in New York City and found out one of the places I went to that weekend had just earned me some AAdvantage Miles--too cool!
Entertainment Book - I guarantee that if you get this, it'll pay for itself many times over. Trust me on this. It's worth it just for the movie discounts.
Category 2: Buying Anything
Slickdeals - There is, perhaps, no greater site on the interwebs. I've bought stuff here I didn't even know I needed. The key is to bookmark it and visit a few times a day and check out the deals on the main screen, but also to scroll down to the hot topics and peruse those. If you're looking for something specific, type the keyword into the search bar at the top right and look for what you need (Hot Deals is usually the best place). You can find everything from HDTV deals to airline deals to Broadway show discounts to Stubhub codes to great coupons. Go here first for EVERYTHING. I can't stress this enough. This site is amazing. It takes some getting used to exactly how it works, but there's no site, even close to it out there. Period.
CNET Reviews - Do your research. Read the reviews. The key to finding a good deal is to actually know what you're buying. They have some great reviews on that site and some of their reviews will alert you to the fact that what you're buying is overpriced or the model sucks. Also, they have price comparisons alongside the reviews so you can make sure you're not getting totally screwed on the price.
Woot: One Day, One Deal is their motto and that's usually how it is. One product for a day starting at 1 AM EST until it sells out. This site is best during their Woot Offs where they continuously sell products until they sell out. Some of these can go on for days. Get a Mystery Box if you can. You never know what'll come in it. They usually charge $10 or $25 for these. They're worth at least that much and you could end up with a nice HDTV if you get really lucky.
Ben's Bargains - There's a lot of others behind Slickdeals, but I'll choose Ben's Bargains for this spot. Others that could find this spot include FlamingoWorld and FatWallet, among others. The reason I like Ben's Bargains is that it's on an easy to read, clean site with good deals. This is a little more inclusive than the Slickdeals front page and I've found some great deals on that site. Definitely have some good deals on electronics there so check it out...especially if buying a computer.
Category 3: Flights, Hotels and Car Rentals
Kayak: Caveat: you NEED to go to Slickdeals first (I found a $358 R-T flight to London from NY on Slickdeals that was on no other deal site). But once you've exhausted Slickdeals (or become exhausted from it), you need to go to Kayak.com. There are other sites out there that are good but Kayak takes them all and puts them into one, extremely easy-to-use place. You can sign up for alerts and also go check out the buzz which has the best flight deals other people have found recently. Want to go to Europe in June but not sure where in Europe you want to go? Plug in this option and it'll give you all the flight deals people have found recently. Incredibly easy, no fees, great for international flights as well as domestic, and you won't be sorry that you paid $1000 less than the guy sitting next to you.
Category 4: Cashback/Points
Live Cashback: Some people have complained a lot about this, but I've used it 4 times and earned some ridiculous cashback rewards for things I would have bought already. This is run through Microsoft and allows you to earn cash back at some sites and for some products. Some cashback is instant and some takes 60 days to drop into your account, but they are some pretty good deals. I saw on Slickdeals one day that they had a 25% Live Cashback offer for EBay. I went on, found a $25 iTunes gift certificate, bought it, and got $5 back instantly. They work for a lot of other retail stores from Drugstore.com (who has their own cash back) to Banana Republic.com. You can even search for how much cash back you'll earn on the purchase. You NEED to go through the Live.com site before you purchase the item, however, so don't forget to do that. Here's a list of stores that are giving cash back currently and here's an FAQ to help you through. Sign up before to avoid any hassle after purchase and start earning!
ThankYou Rewards: This could be replaced by any credit card's rewards program, but since I have Citi, I'm going with the company that never sleeps. I've already earned free 2 free hotel rooms without even trying very hard. Go here before shopping as well to see if the store you're shopping at will get you points back, go through that to the retail site and you've got more points!
Example
A recent example of what I did: I needed replacement toothbrush heads. I went to Slickdeals and found a deal at drugstore.com. I went through live cashback (10% back) and ThankYou rewards (4 points for every $1) to get there. I bought something originally $27 for $20, got $2 in cashback and earned 80 points for something I was going to buy anyways! Don't buy anything without following these instructions first!!!
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