| 5 Ways to Always Save on Electronics Posted: 13 Jan 2012 07:51 AM PST Saving money on electronics or finding cheap electronics is really not that tough. However, you do have to have the right expectations and have the ability to not buy on impulse. Most of the time, we rarely buy electronics on impulse. I say this for a few reasons. First, with cell phones, you virtually always have to plan your purchase in advance. We have discussed how to save money on cell phones before. Second, most electronics are expensive. This means rarely do we walk into Walmart and purchase a $500.00 television. Finally, we normally know what we want far in advance. For example, we know we need a new DVD player because our previous one is broke. The main point is that when it comes to electronics, we inherently are already planning. However, to become more effective at saving we need to take it a step further. This does not mean you need to go out of your way, but it does mean you need to do some price research. I have noticed that prices, with the exception of Apple products, fluctuate every which way. Here are our 5 ways to always save on electronics. - Cell Phones: This one is pretty straight forward. Normally you are renewing a contract or not. If you are, always look to Amazon Wireless first. Normally, the deals are always better than the actual store. You can literally save more than $50.00 simply by purchasing and upgrading through Amazon. If you are just looking for a new phone, look to Craigslist or Ebay. Sure, both are risks, however I have found way too many good deals on both sites.
- Home Appliances: These include washer, dryer, stuff like that. Normally these are big purchases. Go to the store and do your research. I then go to Ebates and look for the store. For example, right now you get 6% cash back at Sears, 3% at Best Buy, and 3% at Home Depot. If you are purchasing an $1,000.00 appliance at Sears, you just saved $60.00. Pretty simple.
- Cable/Internet: There are thousands of tips on how to get cheap cable and internet. In fact, we have discussed how to get cheap cable and internet on Expense Hacker before. The key here is a simple Google Search. Advertisements will pop up at the top. These will be resellers of the services. Check their deals because sometimes they offer hundreds in cash back just for ordering through them. Second, go to Ebates again. Comcast currently offers $52.00 cash back for the triple play or $35.00 for just cable and internet. Why not put some change in your pocket for doing something you would have already done.
- Entertainment Gadgets: This includes MP3 players, tablets, headphones, televisions, or laptops. For the smaller items, I always look to Amazon and Walmart.com. Bear in mind, I rarely actually go to any stores. You can also do a Google Shopping search which does a great job of comparing prices. In addition, Sortable is a great website to look for televisions, phones, tablets, or other devices. Basically you tell it what you want to spend on a gadget and it returns a list in that range with the positives and negatives.
- Warranty Obsessiveness: If you need a warranty, by far the best place to start looking is Free Warranty. Basically, all gadgets already have some level of warranty on them. Nevertheless, Best Buy or other stores attempt to upsell you on their warranties. Some can be worth it, but Free Warranty will extend whatever existing warranty the gadget has for an additional year if you shop through them. You can sort through different stores and if it is a competitive product, you will likely spend the same amount you would have spent elsewhere.
Hopefully these tips will help you when making your next big purchase on electronics. Remember, the small savings really do add up if you can be consistent throughout the whole process.  |
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