My colleague has been using Google Alerts for a long time to get company related news from around the web. This neat little utility checks the web for any new articles that Google finds on search terms she provides. For example, she can put in a search term for “MoneyNing”, and Google Alerts will send her an email every day if someone mentioned this site anywhere on the web.
A couple days ago, she started noticing that Google Alerts also finds all the blogs and websites that searches for coupons or deals and sends her the information as long as it matches the search terms she puts in. After checking out the link which contained the coupon, she probably struck gold because this would mean that instead of always looking for a coupon from a certain company, she can just setup Google Alerts to track that company and wait for Google to find the coupon.
By having the coupons pushed to her instead of spending time to find it, she can take advantage of the coupons much more effectively. With gas prices so high, I’m sure everybody can appreciate as much savings as they could find.
What I plan to do is setup Google Alerts to see if I get any coupons or deals. I suggest you do the same because you might be able to save yourself some time and money.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Only problem I see is if it shows coupons for something that you would not purchase otherwise. This leaves you spending money on something that otherwise you would not have purchased in the first place.
Philip has a good point. I think it’s very hard to not buy something you really like if there’s a coupon in your email inbox.
Sounds like a good way to save money if you are going to be buying something anyway. I’ll be trying this out next time I need to buy something.. (may be a while)
Pete – I agree. If you are going to buy a product, you might as well save as much as you can by using a coupon. Just seems pointless not to do a little research and see if anything is availble!
Wow. Thanks for the explanation on how this works and the feedback. As a google/gmail person, I had received the notice, but hadn’t looked into it yet.
Now, I will – and I can see LOTS of uses for this in my life also.
Thanks. Great information and I’ll be trying it out soon.
By far the best use of googles alerts I’ve seen so far. Thanks man.
What a fantastic idea. I just set up one to look for sales on high definition camcorders. We’ll see what we come back with. Keep up the great frugality recommendations.
It works
Now I need to edit and narrow down what I was looking for as it works TOO well 
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this interesting information with us. I went to town today and filled the Jeep up with gas and almost cost me $60.00. What a waste of good money. I hope to find coupon savings on food. This Google Alerts will save time and come in handy. Thanks again.
I like it – I’m down with setting it up that way, but a lot of times the coupons it finds are random off the wall ones that I’ve seen send me to sites I really don’t want to be at…