shop online: save money, save the planet

This post doesn't have a narrative. It's just a grab bag of some interesting things I've discovered online.

Promo Codes
I had a brain fart while placing an order on Victoria's Secret.com recently. While going through the checkout process, they asked for a special offer code. Ah ha, I bet someone posts the secret codes for free shipping and other discounts that they give out in those newsletters I never sign up for. Sure enough, one quick google search and I had $30 off my order (ladies, that's a free bra, am I wrong?).

If you Google "promo codes" you will find a ton of webpages. Another one I recommend is rentalcodes.com. You can compare promotional offers for all the major rental car companies. They also cover nine different hotel chains including Marriott and Choice Hotels.

Kayak.com
Another website I'm really digging these days is kayak.com. You'll never use orbitz, travelocity, or expedia again. Kayak captures the tickets available on all those websites, plus all the tickets available directly from the airlines - in one place. Here's some other great stuff it does:

• Don't like to get up early? Want to find out if a red-eye saves you money? Use the slider bar to eliminate flights from the search results that don't fit your personal timetable.


• Would you rather eat your own hair than fly American Airlines? Deselect them from the list and kayak will remove all the AA flights from your search results.


• Headed to NYC and wondering if it's cheaper to fly into Newark? Kayak will automatically include all NYC area airports.


• Flexible travel dates? Kayak allows you to search up to three days before and after for both the arrival and departure date.


• Lastly, Kayak isn't a wholesaler, they're just a search engine. In most cases, the cheapest fare will come from an airline's website. Click the link, book directly with the airline, and you have no/fewer worries about there being a flight change or cancellation your not finding out about it due to a third-party booking.
  

Sidestep.com does pretty much the same thing. I just like Kayak's interface a lot better.

Shop to Support
But, to prove to you that I don't use my powers only for evil, I also want to mention shoptosupport.org. This is a web portal which lists top online retailers who have agreed to donate a portion of their profits to charity. In this case, it's our environmental charity Project AWARE. The list of companies is massive: amazon.com, bestbuy.com, target.com, expedia.com, etc. There are no additional fees or hidden charges, the only thing you have to do is click through to, let's say amazon.com, via the shoptosupport.org portal.

There are plenty of other sites out there that will allow your online purchases to contribute to the greater good. But why would you want to do that when Finding Nemo needs your help to fight corporate pollution of the world's oceans!