Well, the holiday shopping season is already under way. I can tell you that hundreds of stores across the Internet are already starting to ramp up their coupons, promotions and deals on products. I would definitely make your planned purchases by the beginning of December. Many of these great coupons you see are set to expire early next month. There are no guarantees either that they will be replaced by more great coupons. I can see a couple of scenarios if you wait too long.

One is that stores may reduce their promotions close to Christmas, hoping to capitalize on last-minute shoppers who may not be able to wait it out for a better deal. Or, stores may want to clear out their inventory of holiday gifts and offer items at even bigger discounts.

So, if you want to play it safe, find a great coupon to use now and make your purchase. If you are a more adventurous shopper, just wait to see what comes up closer to the holidays - you may get a really amazing deal.

Another factor to remember when shopping is the shipping time. Generally stores guarantee shipping through the beginning of December. You may run into some nail biting times if you are really worried about receiving your gifts before the holidays come.

Of course, the big holiday shopping days will be here right after Thanksgiving. You’ll have Black Friday and then Cyber Monday. Of course, many argue that these are not the best shopping days of the year, but it is true most stores provide great deals on these days and they usher in the heavy holiday rush.

But, enough strategy already! Shopping is supposed to be fun and a way to express your feelings about those you care about during the holidays. Your gift is symbolic of something bigger and more real. So, put a lot of thought into what you shop for this year, it doesn’t have to be big and expensive. Just make it something personal!

Well, this year has been a rollercoaster for the US’s economy and the world’s. That is why more and more people are turning to online coupon sites like SelectAware.com. Not only do you get all the benefits of shopping online (saving gas, time, money, etc.), but you also get a better price with a coupon. It’s like bargaining for a better price without trying to negotiate. And, there is no better time to start getting prices for your holiday shopping than now.

If you wait too long, you might find your prized holiday gift out of stock, or the price might increase because there aren’t many left. It is true though that retailers, including both brick and mortar stores and e-tailers, have many sales and clearance events leading up to Christmas, especially around Thanksgiving. So, you could try to time your purchase right, or just take out the hassle and start now when you can find what you want with the coupon that you want to buy it with. Visit the SelectAware.com Gift category for many popular gift stores and coupons to get some great ideas. You’ll also find some specialty stores with sweets just in time for Halloween, check out Popcorn Factory coupons.

Speaking of Halloween, it’s not too late to find a unique, stylish costume. BuyCostumes coupons are always a good bet this time of year. Both Sears, Kmart and Disney all have great coupons and great costumes, especially for the kids. And, if you are looking for something particularly sultry, check out Frederick’s of Hollywood coupons. Their costumes will be sure to bring some life to any party.

For most students around the country, school is underway. But, there are still plenty of deals to be found for those last minute shoopers or those looking to find something new. So while you may see sales fading way after Labor Day at your local retail stores, the deals are still hot at online stores.

Looking for a new bag - backpack, messenger bag, luggage, handbag or duffel bag? Check out eBags coupons and deals where you can save 20% or more instantly. They have one of the widest selections of bags to choose from.

Still looking for school supplies - paper, notebooks, pens, pencils and more? Office Depot is the place for you, and you’ll be able to save 10% or more with Office Depot coupons.  They are one of the few online office supply stores to actually provide coupons. If you want to pick up your order in the store, you can!  Use the coupon on their website and then choose for your order to be picked up in-store.

Are there books that you still need - textbooks, novels, poems or plays? This year we recommend Alibris. They have a wide selection of coupons to choose from where you’ll save 10% or more, so check out Alibris coupons. You’ll find not only books from the Alibris warehouse, but also books from thousands of individual sellers across the country to help ensure you not only find what you want, but you can shop for the best price as well.

Are you still looking to purchase a computer - desktop or laptop? Dell not only has some of the best values in personal computers, but they always have excellent coupons to shop with, you’ll be able to save 25% or more with Dell coupons. Their coupons work not only for the computer itself, but if you decide to add software or other devices, such as a mouse or keyboard to your order, you’ll receive the discount on them too.

I hope that I have given you a good start on finding the best deals for back to school items. But, these great deals aren’t only for back to school items, take advantage of them now for the holiday season as well. The holidays will be here before you know it and these deals might not last long!

Some of you may have noticed by now that the blog has officially been redesigned to be more consistent with the rest of SelectAware.com. This will make it easier for our readers to find content on other portions of our site, such as browsing by store coupons, finding free shipping coupons, sales, clearance centers, free item coupons, dollars or percent of coupons, browsing by category coupons and more. The new design also is connected to our powerful site search so that instead of just searching articles, you will also be able to search hundreds of online stores, thousands of coupons and product deals.

You will still find all of the same links from the previous design, such as archives, categories, and rss feeds. We hope that this will provide a better experience for our blog readers who would like to get into the deeper pages of our site more easily. This will also allow those just browsing coupons to more quickly stumble across this blog and find valuable information in our online blog articles. Be sure to look out for more site design changes to make the best deals easier to find! As always, please let us know if there is anything else you would like to see.

RSS feeds can now be found for all online store coupon pages. RSS feeds on the store pages will be updated with every new coupon added to the site. Simply use your favorite RSS reader or a live bookmark and you will be able to keep track of all the new coupons for any online store shown on SelectAware.com. You can also use the RSS feed to quickly access coupons for your favorite online store. To learn more about what RSS feeds are and how you can use them, click here.

The Coupons By Store page also has an RSS feed that will give a link to all the stores with coupons available. You can use this feed to quickly access the store’s coupon page on our site. In addition, three information pages have RSS feeds available - the Most Popular Coupons page, the Expiring Soon page, and the What’s New page. The What’s New RSS feed will not only provide you with new coupons, but also new stores, new product deals, and new articles written on this blog. The What’s New RSS feed is a good all-around way to keep track of everything new happening at SelectAware.com

We strive to serve you, our visitors, and provide you with tools that will help make the process of finding great discounts easy, convenient, and fun! Let us know if there is anything else you would like to see.

Hello all, we have launched a new service to make it even easier to find the most popular and the newest deals for online stores. Subscribe to the SelectAware.com Free Coupon Newsletter. Each week, you will receive an e-mail containing the 20 coupons that visitors of our site have used the most. You will also receive 20 new deals for the week that are sure to be hot with our visitors. After you sign up, be sure to look out for a confirmation e-mail as you will need to confirm your registration - make sure it isn’t caught in your spam filters and add us to your address book! As always, please let us know how we are doing and if there are any other features that will help you find the latest and greatest deals.

During such times of economic uncertainty, it becomes even more important to save on your daily purchases and any other larger expenses. When you save money, you actually earn more money than if you were to make more money at work. For example, by saving $50 you earn more than if you were to earn an extra $50.

The reason is that the more you earn, the higher your taxes become. So, by earning $50, you put progressively less than that in your pocket (for most). You end up putting $50 minus any taxes into your bank account. But, if you were to save $50, you are saving a full $50. That $50 also came from a lower tax bracket so you were taxed less when you earned it. This goes to show that if you want earn more, one of the first ways to start is by trying to save more. There has always been enormous opportunity for saving, but considering the current economic conditions, now would be a great time to start exploring more ways of cutting corners in your expenses.

Many of you may already be aware of this concept, it has been explored in various books and talked about casually. For those of you who already knew, let this be a reminder to save more to earn more. For those of you who weren’t aware, if you would like more information, be sure to check out Andrew Tobias’ The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need.

There are many new, exciting Halloween costumes available this year! If you are searching for kids costumes - princesses, witches, pirates, spider men, super men, pumpkins, cats and vampires are still very popular. For adults, try a fairy, gypsy, or librarian - all fun and attractive Halloween costumes. Try some creative treats this year, like different kinds of candy popcorn or Halloween cookies.

Where are the best selection and deals?

The Oriental Trading Company is a good starting for ideas on how to decorate your rooms, closets and porch this year. A few of the festive selections they offer are spooky shadows, body parts, cauldron fog machines, hanging skeletons, bats, gigantic fly, and a castle scene setter. Find the best deals and get more from your purchase by browsing Oriental Trading Company coupons.

Toys ‘R’ Us also offers a wide selection in kids and infant Halloween costumes. Most of the items this year are also eligible for free shipping. Find more about their exciting offers at the Toys ‘R’ Us coupons page.

The Popcorn Factory’s Halloween treats are this year’s creative goodies. Frankenstein Fingers, monster dots tower, and spider web baskets full of treats are a few of the goodies offered at The Popcorn Factory. You can also find fun Halloween recipes at the Hershey’s website. Some of the mouth-watering recipes include Hershey’s Brownie Cemetery Cake, Monster Cups, Yummy Mummy Cookies and Witches’ Brew.

Have a safe and happy Halloween, savvy shoppers!

Amazon.com has a number of outlet stores and other places where you’ll find overstocked items, markdowns, and other merchandise available at a deep discount. If you are not too particular about the specific item you are looking for, these outlet and markdown centers are a good way to browser shop (my online term for window shopping) and see if anything catches your eye. As always at Amazon, you can get free standard shipping on qualifying products $25 or more. Here is a quick rundown of some of the outlet centers you can find on Amazon. For a complete list, check out Amazon.com coupons and clearance.

For home & garden merchandise, you can shop the home & garden clearance center at Amazon to save up to 70%. You’ll find a little bit of everything from the home & garden category, including over a thousand markdowns in categories such as kitchen and dining pieces, arts, crafts, home appliances, pet supplies, vacuums, bedding, and bath.

For books, check out the Book Blowout Store at Amazon to save up to 80%, on all genres of books, which include popular bestsellers and overstocked titles. Many of these are in limited supply so the selection changes frequently.

Looking for toys and games? Shop from hundreds in Amazon’s toys and games outlet and save up to 75%. You’ll find something for anyone from babies to adults in categories such as action figures, dolls, games, hobbies, and electronics.

There are a number of sales and special offers for grocery products from Amazon. Shop by instant rebates, free shipping items and other discounts available on grocery items through Amazon.

Take advantage of Amazon’s 4-for-3 home & garden special where you can purchase 4 select items and you’ll get the cheapest one for free. This can definitely help you save a lot on brands such as Mikasa, OXO, and George Foreman. Amazon is currently running a 4-for-3 special on books as well. You can purchase any 4 select books under $10 and get the cheapest for free. You can also find 4-for-3 specials in magazines, music, and DVDs. In all, more than 100,000 items are eligible for this offer and you can mix and match products across all 4-for-3 specials so that you select any 4 items from any category and get the least expensive one for free.

If you know where to look at Amazon.com, you’ll find plenty of discounted items to choose from. So, before you make your next purchase, make sure to look at outlet and clearance centers for comparable products at a cheaper price. With 4-for-3 specials, you can even get something for free with your next order. And, as always, before you shop, find an Amazon coupon.

After a relaxing summer…for most of us…school is starting up again, making it that time of the year when we have to go out and pick up all the common school supplies, from pencils to textbooks to laptops.  While the prices quickly add up at checkout, we find it’s necessary to try to get as much of a discount as possible.  Thankfully, during this back to school shopping season, there are plenty of coupons, discounts, and other savings to go around in a variety of categories.  As the back to school shopping season is starting to get into full swing, you will find more and more coupons available for a range of items.  So, be sure to check back often as we find more bargains to help you start off the school year right.  Whether you are shopping for backpacks, basic school supplies, textbooks, clothing, or computers and electronics, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

You can find a range of coupons and discounts good for backpacks by visiting our backpack coupons page.  This year, we highly recommend eBags, they have a great selection of backpacks to choose from, including Jansport, North Face, High Sierra and plenty of others.  Plus, they have very good discounts available all year round, with at least 10% off every day and usually more. You can visit them directly at the eBags coupons page.

Basic school supplies, such as pens, pencils, notebooks, folders, and more can also be found at a significant discount this back to school shopping season.  Visit the office supplies coupons page for a list of office supply stores and the discounts they are offering this season.  In particular, we recommend Office Depot, they have special coupons that will help you save up to 20% instantly on almost anything.  You can find all of their coupons at the Office Depot coupons page.

If you are college student, picking up all your required textbooks is a necessity.  We all are too familiar with the outlandish prices that many of the required college textbooks are going for, so be sure to check out book coupons.  Amazon, Alibris, and Abebooks all offer some great discounts on textbooks, so be sure to check with them first before you buy.

Whether you are looking for clothing for yourself or a loved one, there are literally hundreds of coupons available for clothing and accessories this year from many stores.  You can find clothing for teen girls and boys, kids, or adults at the clothing and accessories coupon page.  If you are looking for teen girl clothing, we recommend checking out Delia’s coupons or Alloy coupons.  Both stores offer significant reductions that are not available the rest of the year and both are considered to be at the forefront of teen fashion.

If you or a loved one is going to college this year, you may be particularly interested in coupons for laptops and notebooks.  Whether you are looking for a Mac, Dell, HP, or Sony computer, you’ll find a coupon for any of them at our computer coupons page.  You can also find a wealth of coupons available for anything from iPods to digital cameras for the school year at the electronics coupons page.  There are just too many great offers this back to school shopping season to just pick one favorite!

As you can see, there are plenty of special back to school coupons and discounts to go around this year.  Let this serve as a helpful guide for discounts on common back to school products.  As always, you can find a wealth of other discounts and bargains for any other product you might be looking for at SelectAware.com.  If you can’t find the bargain you were hoping to find, please let us know.  Until next time, good luck on your back to school shopping and stay savvy, shoppers.