5 best websites for people on a budget

I decided to do something a little bit different today. As much as I love to talk about my financial life (thanks so much for listening), I think it's time for me to give back. Hopefully, you have learned some things from my mistakes but I wanted to give you something you can use right away. Don't get too excited, I'm not giving away an ipod or anything that cool. I'm just compiling a list of links that I think might be useful to someone on a budget. This will also be useful to those that are not necessarily in debt but just want to watch their spending and do fun things at the same time. I'll link to the sites and put a mini-description for each. Come back and let me know if you liked anything.
Here's my Top 5 Most Useful Links on the Web (for those on a budget)

1. Groupon
This website is kind of cool. They basically are using the power of collective bargaining to get good deals. Basically, they talk to retailers and arrange things like 50% off a spa if X number of people sign up. If you like the offer, sign up. You will only receive it if the required number of people sign up for it. If that happens, they charge you, otherwise, too bad. They have a new deal everyday and the selection has been pretty varied (restaurants, spas, merchandise etc).

2. Ruelala
I talked a little bit about this site here. Basically, it's a private sale online. They have high end designers like prada and Gucci and other not so high end like theory and bcbg on sale for 2-3 days. Their merchandise is usually about 30-70 percent off and you can often find good deals. You can read more about it if you want. If you're interested, send me a message and I can invite you as it is invitation only for the most part. I get $10 for every referral that makes a purchase.

EDIT: You don't have to email me for a code I just found out. You can click on this link to get into ruelala. For beyondtherack you can enter in invitation code
NMU110ACD89.


3. Beyond the Rack
This is pretty much the same concept as ruelala. They just have different designers. I find that in terms of absolute cost, the clothes here are usually cheaper. However, the percentage off might not be so great. This is because they tend to have more mid range items like pastry and uggs. I find it more affordable sometimes though because a Gucci bag that is 70% at ruelala that costs $5,000 is still $1,500 - about what I pay in rent. Just be smart and buy only what you can afford, not what you think is a "good deal." If I invite you to this, I get a credit as well but I think you can just sign up for it without being invited.

4. Price Grabber
I love this site. It's the first place you should check before you buy anything electronic. It basically scans the web and tells you the where they are selling a particular item the cheapest. So you just put in the exact item you want to buy (Canon EOS 50D) and it comes up with a list of places that are selling it and how much they cost. It's a must for price-conscious folks.

5. Retail me not
For all those that shop online, bookmark this site! It gives you all available promo codes for tons of websites. I use it a lot to get free shipping! People also post other codes for percentages off or free items. Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, some retailers have prevented the site from sharing codes so sometimes you don't find codes for your favorite sites but it's definitely a good idea to check it out before you buy anything online.

Alright, that's it for now. Hopefully, some of you might not have known about all these sites and you learned something useful. I'll put more stuff up as I think about them and I will try to make the blog a mix of tips and what's going on with me. I'd love to hear what you thought about these sites so please comment.