As a notorious deal hound I was excited to find out about a new service which makes use of Pricegrabber.com's comparison and searching abilities to provide users with email alerts when an item drops below a certain price. Its similar to having a limit order on a specific stock, except in this case, you have to make the purchase yourself. DealAlerter.com goes beyond traditional deal hunting which for example focuses on finding the cheapest LCD TV over 40 inches with 3 HDMI ports and helps you find the best price on a specific TV.

By letting me first select a specific item based on user reviews and brand experiences, DealAlerter helps find the best item at the best price! DealAlerter also recognizes that not every store on the Internet has stellar quality and customer service, allowing you to choose what stores to include in the alert. You can further limit your price alert by quality to include brand new items or to look only for refurbs, which often provide an excellent quality at a much lower price. Unfortunately as good as the Deal Alerter system is it won't catch deals which revolve around coupons such as the current 12% off coupon for BestBuy.

DealAlerter looks like it will free up a lot of my time and money the next time I am in the market for a major purchase. One final thing I like about this kind of deal alerting system is that it reinforces the idea that you don't need to buy something the second you decide it is what you want. With a little bit of waiting and the right technology you can hold off until the price drops to fit your budget. Too bad they don't have a deal alerter like this for used cars!

Let's face it, frugal shopping can be difficult but it's not because the retailers are out to rob you of your money. Stores of all types operate on one simple premise; It's their job to convert product display space into profit. Store layouts, merchandise displays and product placement are all used in well researched configurations to make the most from limited retail space. As frugal shoppers, it's our individual responsibility to see through the merchandise promotion blitz and to guard our own spending by fending off the impulse purchase of items we never intended to buy when we first entered the store.

The expertise of retailers in moving product is the major cause for my "shopping with an attitude" theory. I realize that stores are providing me a service by offering products for sale, but that doesn't mean that I should be surrendering my wallet to them at the door. My shopping attitude theory is summed up in the following words: "It's my money and I'll decide how much of it you get." It's a simple condition of mental focus which should be taken along with you into every store you enter and it's partially rooted in the following frugal shopping principles: