There are many “daily deal” websites that have been sprouting up very rapidly recently, such as Groupon, Morgan’s Deals, LivingSocial and so on.
Are you addicted? I only buy it if I know that the store that is participating is close to where I live and that I’ll actually use it. However, my mother buys ANYTHING! She recently gave me a big stack that were about to expire and told me to start using them. While this is nice that I get to use all of them, she is insane! You are not actually saving any money, if you wouldn’t have gone to the store in the first place.
Here are some tips so that you aren’t wasting money:
Make sure that it is something that you will use. Figure out what the WHOLE cost will be. So if you buy a hair certificate, how much will tip be afterwards? You should be tipping on the FULL amount. If you’re traveling, maybe look into deals in that city, but if you have any doubt that you won’t use it, then don’t buy it. Don’t feel that you have to buy the deal. The little ticker on the side of the page might tempt you to think the deal will be gone soon, but usually the same stores will eventually participate again. Verify that the value that you are saving is actually “saved.” My Groupon deal one day that I saw was for a photography session. The session was one hour long, at the studio, and with a not-so-great photography company. Groupon stated the value of this was $1,495! This is obviously over inflated.
Are you addicted to any daily deal sites? Which ones do you like? Have you made any mistakes with the daily deal sites?