US-centric: Got a product you want to find for a steal, but not enough time to run through Fatwallet, Slickdeals, BensBargains, or any other of the deep-discount sites? Deal aggregator Combyo gives you results on any product, filtered by... Read More »

Wired's How-To Wiki takes a group-edited look at the digital camera market and how a newcomer (or, more likely at this point, a buyer replacing their first, outdated model) can parse all the features and statistics to come out with a reasonable bargain. Their advice on megapixels, one of the most hyped features on any camera, is pretty reasonable:

Then there is the fact that even a 3.1 MP camera, which is obsolete for non-camphones, can take a perfectly passable 6" by 8" photograph. The current standard for the low end of consumer digital cameras is between 5 and 7 megapixels, allowing flawless 8x10s. Really, when any camera you buy lets you print 8x10s, do more mexapixels matter?

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You already love the one-stop convenience of shopping online at Amazon.com, but chances are you're not getting everything you can out of this feature-packed shopping engine. Did you know Amazon can email you suggestions from Mom's wish list two weeks before her birthday? Automatically ship you a new case of toilet paper every two months? Refund the difference on the price of an item you purchased that went on sale? Several advanced Amazon features and third party apps and add-ons can help you get the best deals and the stuff you want delivered to your door right on time. After the jump, add our favourite 10 Amazon power-shopper tools to your cart.

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US-centric: Web site FreeShipping.org rounds up free shipping coupons to over 600 stores, helping you save cash on your next online purchase. Similar to previously mentioned Free Shipping On, FreeShipping.org appears to have a slightly broader reach and better... Read More »

Over at the Get Rich Slowly personal finance blog, one buy-savvy reader shares the techniques and thinking she's used to improve her haggling, a skill many of us have neglected or ignored entirely. Whether at a yard sale or big-box electronics store, changing your angle of approach can often yield solid savings. A few of her suggestions:

• If I'm at a yard sale or buying a bunch of things, I pile them up and ask for a better price because I'm buying a lot.
• I always ask if there's a discount for good customers, and that's often all it takes to get a discount.
• I ask, "Can you take $XXX if I promise to give it a good home?" I say, "It's so cute, I don't need it, but it's really attractive, can you take $XXX for it?" It's amazing how minor a nudge it takes to get something off the price.

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Ramit at I Will Teach You To Be Rich shares a system his friend uses to set a firm amount of discretionary spending each month and then not spend more. It's a take on the "cash in envelopes" system (represented digitally in programs like Budget, and it's just as grok-able—when the money's gone for the month, it's gone. Obviously, you'd want to ensure you don't draw serious overdraft fees, and you'd have to have a handle on your monthly budget to begin with, but it's at least as effective as deducting credit charges as you go, and possibly moreso, with the thought of having a card turned down a nice social conditioner. For those with a fuzzy grip on spending, this technique could make the numbers seem pretty firm.