Here’s a great tip from Pamela:
We recently came to grips with our 6-figure debt and are determined to work our way out. We know it’s going to be a long road and we’re doing everything we can to spend only what’s in our envelopes and stay within our budget!
As you can imagine, we need all the help we can get to stay disciplined, so I was excited to find a free and easy-to-use website that helped me save almost $100 dollars on a much-needed car seat for our two year old!
The site is called camelcamelcamel.com. It tracks product prices on Amazon and it notifies you when the price on those products drops below the target price you specify.
Here’s how it works:
- Sign up. It’s completely free. This step is actually optional, but registering gives you some added features. (If you do sign up, make sure you verify your account after signing up by replying to the email you will receive.)
- When you’re ready to start tracking a product, go to camelcamelcamel.com.
- In the search box at the top of the page, type in the product you wish to buy.
- Look at the list of possibilities that comes up and click on the exact product you are looking for.
- The Overview page for that product will show you current prices and history of prices on Amazon, 3rd Party New and 3rd Party Used. With cool graphs even! Click around to see the historical prices and other fun info about the product.
- To set a target price, click on “Create a price watch for this product”
- Choose when you want to be alerted. Whether for Amazon Price, 3rd Party New and/or 3rd Party Used
- Specify the price at which you wish to be notified
- Choose to have email alerts or Twitter alerts (RSS feeds are also available)
- Click “Create price watch(es)”
That’s it! Now all you have to do is be patient and wait. 🙂 If and when the price on your product drops to your target price (or below), you’ll be notified.
I opted to receive notifications via email, so when my notification came, I simply clicked on the link they provided and then clicked through to Amazon where I purchased our car seat!
Pamela blogs about paying off her family’s 6-figure debt and staying green & healthy at ooshela.com.
If you have a phone with android technology or an iPhone you can also download a free scanning application. It uses the camera on your phone to scan products. It instantly searches the web and local store prices to give you the best price. If you’re holding out for an item to hit a certain price, just set up a price notification to come straight to your phone.
Pricepinx.com is what I use for price tracking. Camelcamelcamel only alerts you about price drops on amazon.com and four other websites. Pricepinx actually lets you monitor prices on just about any website’s product page. It just alerted me for the first time on a price drop on a pair of athletics shorts at oldnavy.com!
This sounds much easier than checking amazon daily for a few weeks (like I did for my bread machine!) 🙂
THANK YOU!!! so much for this site. I was so disappointed last nite when the yoga mat I wanted was no longer part of the free super saver shipping (& it was 3 wks ago). I refuse to pay almost $10 in shipping. Now I can have someone/thing else check for me
Thanks! This is great!
Also few people know that if you have a special needs child that your insurance will cover some or all the cost of a car seat and stroller with a doctors note and proof of disability. My daughter has Autism and all I had to pay was a small co-pay for a car seat with a five point harness that will last until she is over 105 pounds! They also covered all of a special stroller that was very expensive.
Cool! Thanks for the info!
Thanks for posting this article. I am glad you and your readers find our site so useful!
Oh wow, I just signed up. I love the concept of that site! I have a wishlist on amazon right now and it is currently importing onto that site. How neat! Thanks for letting us know about it.
Thanks for sharing this; what a great concept. now to see if I can find the Baby Jogger City Micro for less than $99…