Living a frugal life with coupon deals is fraught with potholes, problems, scams, errors, and risks. This article offers a guide to people who are looking to live the frugal life on a permanent basis.
Living the Frugal Life with Online Coupon Deals
It seems like the global pandemic has taught us all a little bit about saving and about taking things for granted. Who would have guessed that toilet roll and baby food would suddenly become premium items at the start of a pandemic where the biggest symptom is coughing. People have started looking to buy brands for less through coupon deals and voucher codes. Here is a little advice on living the frugal life with online coupon codes.
Did You Know There Was An Elephant in the Room?
If you are a general consumer looking to find a way to buy brands for less, then you are probably unaware of a rather large coupon code scam that is currently circulating. If you are a hardcore gamer or part of the online gaming community, then you are probably aware of the coupon code scam.
It goes like this: a card scammer steals credit card information and buys voucher codes for games. Gamers buy these online coupons at highly discounted rates. The credit card owner discovers the theft and creates a chargeback to a seller that has already vanished and set up payment details elsewhere. The company has already taken the money because it sold the vouchers to unsuspecting gamers.
Does This Mean That All Great Deals Are Scams?
No, not all great deals are scams, but the fact is that if you want to avoid getting stung, then you should spend your discount coupon and voucher codes rather quickly after you buy them. This is especially true if the voucher you bought seems to be extremely good value. This is because once the shell company has its charge reversed, the company that issued the code will revoke it, but they cannot revoke it if you have already used it; they will have to claim it off their insurance instead. The reason these scams work so well is that it takes such a long time between the crime being noticed/reported, and the code being revoked/invalidated.
Making The Most of Online Discount Coupon Websites
Firstly, you need to sign up for a free email address from somewhere like Outlook or Gmail. This is going to be your discount shopping email address. In other words, when you sign up for discount and voucher websites, you are going to give this email address. You should never give your regular/primary email address. Discount and voucher websites are going to send you spam, and their employees are going to sell off your email address to spammers, so give out your new email address and not your regular/personal one.
Avoiding Getting Scammed With Links
Let’s say you find a great discount or voucher on a website, and they want you to click their link to reach the online shopping website. Do not do it. Instead, you need to navigate to the online shopping website yourself organically, such as through your saved favorites on your web browser, or through Bing or Google.
For example, let’s say you go to a website called “DiscountCodes.Com” (I made that name up), and you find a discount code for Wal-Mart. The DiscountCodes.com website wants you to click their link to reach the Wal-Mart website, but you shouldn’t click it. Instead, go to Bing or Google and find the Wal-Mart website yourself.
The discount website may have an honest reason for wanting you to click on their links. Perhaps they are getting affiliate money for people clicking on their links, but it is not worth your risk. This is because clicking a link may take you to a fake site, or an infected site, where your payment details will be harvested.
Can Somebody Live on Ten Dollars Per Week?
No, absolutely no, never. There are many websites and videos of people proving they can live on one dollar or ten dollars per week because they use discount codes, vouchers and so forth, but it is just not true. The week when you need a new plug for your sink, you are not going to find a discount code for 90% off of kitchen plugs. You are not going to find cheap baby food or nappies every week, or cheap dog food or discount coffee every week. You can live cheaply with excessive use of discount codes and such, but it is not a permanent/consistent way to live.
Learning to Wait
The people who benefit the most from vouchers and discount codes are often people who are willing to wait. These are people who see something broken in the house, or see that they have a need for something, and they do not buy straight away. Instead, they wait until a voucher or discount comes into play, and then they spend their money. This is especially true when it comes to entertainment. After all, why buy a game or movie when it comes out when you can wait a few months and the seller will offer up a discount.
Checking on Discounts Personally
There are some sellers and some discount code websites that will tell you via email when a certain offer is available. For example, the Steam game portal will tell you whenever one of the games on your wish list is on sale. Other companies offer noon deals where you are not notified about sales and discounts, but you are told when they take effect so that you know when they check in with the website. And, for the most part, the people who check in on websites are the ones who get the best deals.
The people who check in on online grocery stores, shopping websites and entertainment websites are the ones who catch the best deals. The same is true for people who check in on voucher websites and the sort. These are often the people who get the best deals, especially considering that many deals and offers have a very short life. Even during the pandemic, companies were giving away free stuff, but they were only doing it over a single weekend. People who were not checking in on such websites were missing out because even if they were signed up for notifications, the deals and free gifts were over before they ever checked their notifications, emails, and messages.
