Eats, reads, and the rest - 3 sites for online shopping

Online shopping is huge. Many retailers now offer more inventory on their web sites than in the brick and mortar store.
So how can you turn this into big savings? Know where to shop, before you shop.
Here are three sites that will save you money.

Restaurant.com - If you love to eat out, then you'll like this site. Search your neighborhood - or any neighborhood - for gift certificates at local restaurants. Most are $10 for $25. But there are many times you can score a gift card for much, much cheaper. You just buy the gift certificate, print it out, and use it.
Right now if you use the promo code 'HURRY' you can get a $25 gift certificate for $2! A $23 savings. This deal ends Wednesday 3/21 so you better hurry to get it.

When buying, always check the restrictions listed for each place. Some say you must buy a certain amount of food (usually $35 with a $25), can not use for alcohol, are only good on weekdays, or some other slight restrictions. Most certificates do not expire so you can hold on to them for a bit after buying on the cheap.
I've used Restaurant.com along with Yelp.com before going on trips to see what is in the area and find great places to eat. Jen and I also have a few in our car for areas we frequent so we can grab a bite out.
I've also heard of people buying gift certificates for Restaurant.com on the cheap and then buying the actual gift cards for the real restaurants for even bigger savings.

Half.com - This is the sister site of Ebay. You can buy and sell books, cds, DVDs, video games and even VHS tapes. New. Used. Broken, beaten and scarred. Simply search for the item you want, and if it is available for sale, a list of sellers will come up.  You pick what condition you want the item (brand new to acceptable), and the seller posts the price of the item. There is no bidding.
You buy directly from the seller and because it is a part of Ebay, all the feedback info on the seller is right there for you to view.
Shipping charges are also closely regulated on Half.com. The shipper does not choose the shipping fee, all fees are set by Half.com. So you do not have to worry about someone posting an item for $2, then charging $10 for shipping. Shipping costs are based on current USPS Media Mail rates and a few cents thrown in for packaging.
You can also make money on Half.com. Jen would sell her used text books and when she moved to Philly we sold a few duplicate books from our collections. It's very easy to set up, start selling, and start earning money. Half.com does charge commission ranging from 15% to 5% based on the price of the item. The buyer also pays for shipping. When shipping, I would see what the cheapest option was. Sometimes it was media mail - which is what the buyer paid for - but other times it would be  first class - which gets the item to the buyer sooner.

Retailmenot.com - This is the grandpoohba of all sites. It is the one I find most of the deals and online coupons that I use.
Before you do any online shopping, search this site for deals and codes other people have been using. That's how I just spotted the Restaurant.com deal above.
JCPenny, Sears, Kohls, Babies R Us, REI, Advance Auto Parts, and hundreds of other online stores are listed with money saving coupons. They could be deals for a certain percent off, or for free shipping, or free items... or just about anything. Before you shop online. check this site out!
We just bought blinds for the house. Both a brick and mortar store and online store had them. The B&M was cheaper at first glance. But after checking Retailmenot.com, we found a 60% off, plus free shipping, plus another 10% off that we combined to get the blinds for almost half of what it would have cost us at the B&M store.

If you don't find what you are looking for on Retailmenot.com, then Google the store you are thinking of using with 'coupon code.' Other sites may have great discounts.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions? Let me know.

Next up, I'll tackle how to make your own exercise equipment and stop spending money at the gym. (Thanks to Sean G. for the suggestion.)