Making The Most of Sales

One of my readers asked me how I keep track of sales. She wanted to know the magic formula for getting the best prices. The truth is that I really don’t shop around. I refuse to go store to store tracking down prices. I would rather sit and home and let my fingers do the work.

So today we will look at my method of making the most of sales, without having to use a third party tracking or anything other than your basic search.

Making the Most of Sales: The Google Search

My husband is a Yahoo fan. I personally think that Google is more powerful, so this article will be focused on Google. And even if you are someone who prefers Yahoo (I’m sure there are others out there other than my husband), trust me, you can use Google for this without polluting yourself.

So.

The first thing is go to go the Google search screen. You’ll get a box to type in, but the graphics change frequently. Here is what the non-special Google Search screen looks like as of today:

MakingTheMostOfSales1

All you need to do to track the sale prices is of items is to put in “best prices on …insert your item here…”

So the search I put in to track Wii U prices was “best prices on nintendo Wii U consoles”

Once you hit enter, your search results will come back. There is always a list of places in the main area of the search, but there will be a sponsored part on the right hand side that will list some prices. This is good as a baseline of what you are looking for.

MakingTheMostOfSales4I found that I had to dig a bit through the information on the left-hand side to get the best price. At the time I first did this, I found my best price at a game store. Two days later, as I write this article, I see the prices have gone up a minimum of $50.

Saving Searches

You can save your searches so you can run them again to get the latest data. To do this, go to your address bar (or press Ctrl+d) and copy the address. In my example above, it looks like this:
MakingTheMostOfSales3

You can save this search as a bookmark or paste it in when you want to check again.

IFTTT

This doesn’t work for all searches, but for a few retailers, you can hook up to IFTTT and set up alerts. So if you were monitoring the price of a Wii U at Best Buy, you could have IFTTT alert you (via email, text or notification) when the price dropped.

TrackIf

This is a new-to-me service I stumbled across while researching this article. You put in the URL of an item you are tracking, and it will suggest other places to shop for that item. It’s inventory is limited…for instance, I only found three stores with Mario Maker, but I know there are dozens that sell it. This site will also send you notifications of price drops.

Conclusion

There are many ways to stay on top of sales. Do you have a favorite I didn’t mention? Please share below. (It’s always good to save money!)

Image by ell brown. Licensed under Creative Commons.Changes made.