Find store savings with both great new shopping apps and old school methods

If you’re not one who enjoys getting trampled during the Black Friday-like rush of maniacal shoppers searching out the lowest of the low prices, you’re not alone. The long lines, the yelling — sometimes with the addition of physical violence and a few death threats — are not for everyone.

Even the most hardened, stealthiest of shoppers always on the lookout for the next best deal, likes alternatives to potential blockbuster store sales day hiccups. So, how do these masters of the savings art form accomplish filling their weekly shopping list and finding gifts for everyone with enough money still in the pocketbook to pay for gas home?

Below, we’ll take a look at some of your other options when it comes to trying to find store savings. You may decide to use online coupon sites, free shipping and deals sites, print ads found in your weekend newspaper pile, and even — a sign of the ever-changing technological times — use an application for your smartphone to find, detail, and procure a fantastically low price on one of your holiday purchases.

So, read on fellow shoppers to glean everything you’ll ever need to know about finding that perfect item for a perfectly reasonable price.~

The Online Method

While you can scour the advertisements section of your local newspaper to locate reasonably low prices and impressive deals, there are other “newfangled” ways to cut the price down even further. Multitudes of daily coupon sites — like Daily Deals, Coupon Deals Daily, and Groupon, for starters — offer prospective (and smart) buyers a way to save money on popular new items.

These sites will send email reminders of some of the best deals within your local area, they’ll offer food, drink, and grocery coupons to help you save on your weekly purchases, and they’ll provide the best deals on everything else imaginable on your checklist.

Depending upon whether these coupon sites cover exactly what you’re looking for, there are still tried and true methods of searching for your item at a variety of online retailers (Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Macy’s, etc., depending of course what the item is you are searching for). At each site, you’ll be able to compare the best — and lowest — prices on your item and even find deals on other similar brands.

But, is this the easiest way to find the perfect deals, or is there another way to lessen the hassle and legwork you need to do to find that perfect low price?

The Application Method

The world of the smartphone — be it an Apple iOS or Android device — has helped pave the way for shoppers everywhere to ascertain the lowest prices with an ease of use unparalleled. Apps like Coupon Sherpa provide a way for you, the shopper, to have any and every coupon across the internet placed directly at your fingertips.

You can accomplish this without any of the hassle of slogging through websites purporting to have the best deal only to disappoint you after all your legwork. Yowza is also an option; and the best part, both are free.

The mother of all apps to find store savings might just be Amazon Mobile. How about being able to compare in-store prices with the online giant (Amazon) to figure out which offers the lowest price? You can scan a barcode, snap a photo of the item, or simply type in your search and let the application do the rest.

In the end, there are multiple different ways for shoppers to locate the lowest prices in their area. So many, to be honest, that any way you compare — whether it be through old school methods like searching the weekend ads for the best deals or trying new school methods like smartphone applications which simplify the whole process — will most likely get you a satisfactory deal.

So, head out, skip the long lines and stress of dealing with a crowded marketplace, and let the savings begin!

Resources:

Apple.com: Amazon Mobile.

Mashable: 5 of the Best iPhone Apps for In-Store Savings.

Above photo attributed to Robert Verzo