My wife says I use the word “frankly” about thirty times a day. Frankly, I think she's exaggerating. But here's one place where I'll use it without apology: most of what passes for a “deal” online is, frankly, not a deal at all. It's a sticker price marked up two weeks ago and then knocked back down to where it should have been in the first place. After fifty years running an office-supply shop in Quincy, I've watched every variation of this trick. The good news is, the actual savings are still out there. You just have to know where to look and what to ignore.
This is a guide for folks who'd rather hold onto twelve bucks than feel clever about a coupon code. No subscriptions, no apps that want your email and your firstborn. Just the stuff that works.
What a promo code actually is (and what it isn't)
A promo code is a string of letters and numbers a retailer hands out to either bring in a new customer, clear out slow inventory, or get an old customer to buy again. That's the whole story. The store has already done the math on what they can afford to discount. When the code says SAVE15 and takes 15 percent off, the store made that decision before you ever opened the website.
Two things to keep in mind:
- Codes expire. Most last anywhere from a long weekend to about a month. The ones marked “no expiration” usually mean “until we change our mind.”
- Codes don't always stack. A 15 percent code, a free-shipping offer, and a clearance markdown can sometimes be combined. Often they can't. Read the fine print before you start filling the cart.
Free shipping that isn't free shipping
Here's the one that gets under my skin. A retailer advertises “free shipping over $99,” and you've got $74 in your cart. Suddenly you're hunting for a $25 add-on you didn't want, and now you've spent $99 on stuff worth maybe $80. That's not free shipping. That's the store getting you to buy an extra item to cover what shipping would've cost anyway.
Frankly, the math is simple. If shipping would've been ten or twelve bucks, and the add-on is twenty-five, you just paid $13 to avoid a $12 charge. Don't fall for it. Either you actually need the extra item or you don't. The shipping line on the receipt is a distraction.
The free-shipping offers worth grabbing are the ones with no minimum, or the ones where the threshold lines up with what you were buying anyway. Plow & Hearth, Orvis, L.L. Bean and a handful of others run no-minimum free shipping a few times a year, usually around the holidays and again in late spring. Wait for those.
The Honey situation, in case you missed it
You've probably seen ads for browser extensions that promise to find every coupon code on the internet for you. Honey was the biggest one. PayPal bought it back around 2020, and for a few years it was everywhere. Then in late 2024 a YouTuber ran a long investigation showing that Honey was, among other things, swapping out the affiliate cookie of the website that referred you, so the commission went to PayPal instead of, say, the small reviewer who pointed you to the store. Class-action lawsuits followed in early 2025. Google updated its Chrome extension policy in March 2025 to crack down on this kind of thing.
What does that mean for you, the shopper? A couple of things. One, Honey often was not finding you the best code — it was showing you whatever the partner retailer wanted to feed it. Two, even when it did apply a code, you weren't necessarily paying less than you would have on a different day. Capital One Shopping, Rakuten, and the rest run on the same affiliate-commission engine. They aren't doing you a favor; they're taking a cut. Use them if you want, but go in with eyes open.
Where the real discounts live
After all that, here's what actually works. Pick two or three of these. You don't need all of them.
1. The store's own email list
Yeah, I know — another inbox to clean out. But almost every catalog and online retailer hands you 10 to 20 percent off your first order just for signing up. Sign up with a separate email address you check once a week. That's where the real first-time-buyer codes live, and they're not run through any third party.
2. Senior discount days
Kohl's still does 15 percent off in-store on Wednesdays for shoppers 60 and up. Walgreens does the first Tuesday of the month, also 15 percent. Ross runs a 10 percent “Every Tuesday Club” for the 55-and-over crowd. These don't usually stack with other percentage-off coupons, but they will combine with Kohl's Cash, with Walgreens points, and with clearance markdowns. That's where the savings compound.
3. The store credit card — only if you pay it off every month
Kohl's, Macy's, Talbots, L.L. Bean, and the rest will give you 10 to 25 percent off your first purchase if you sign up for their card, plus rolling rewards. The interest rates on these cards are highway robbery — usually north of 30 percent. So this only makes sense if you pay the balance in full the day the bill arrives. If you can't promise yourself you'll do that, skip the card and use the email-list discount instead.
4. Catalog request and clearance pages
This one's old-school but still works. Request a print catalog from a retailer you actually buy from — Plow & Hearth, Orvis, Signals, Vermont Country Store, whoever — and you'll usually get a postcard or insert with a code in it within a few weeks. Catalogs.com keeps a current list of the catalog-request links, which saves you the digging.
Clearance pages are the other quiet workhorse. Most retailers bury the clearance link two clicks deep on the homepage. Bookmark it. Check it the first of every month.
5. Wait three days before checkout
Add what you want to your cart, then close the tab. Half the time, the retailer will email you within 48 to 72 hours offering 10 or 15 percent off to finish the order. They want the sale more than you want the item. Be patient and let them come to you.
What I tell my grandkids
My five grandkids think I'm cheap. I tell them I'm thrifty — there's a difference. Cheap is buying the worse thing because it's $4 less. Thrifty is paying full price for the right thing once, and not buying the wrong thing three times to save a dollar each go.
The same logic applies to coupons. A 20 percent code on something you don't need is not 20 percent off. It's 80 percent on. Run that math in your head every time the cart is open. If the answer's still yes after the discount, fine — pull the trigger. If the only reason you're buying is the code, close the tab.
That's the whole game. Stores want your money; the codes and the free-shipping thresholds are how they get you to spend a little more than you planned. Use the offers, don't let the offers use you. Frankly, it's not complicated. It just takes paying attention.
