If you do a lot of shopping online, there are a lot of savings to be had using coupon or discount codes. These are codes that you enter during the checkout process that may give you a percentage off your total purchase, discount a particular item, or reduce or eliminate your shipping costs. If you are registered with certain stores, they may send you periodic notices about discount codes, but there are websites that are devoted just to coupon codes. A search of one of these sites before your online spending spree can be the virtual equivalent of cruising the Sunday circulars before going grocery shopping. There are a couple of things you want to keep in mind, though. As with paper coupons, you only want to use coupon codes for things you were going to buy in the first place. Otherwise, you may end up spending more that you would have without the coupon. For example, you may have only needed to buy $60 worth of items from an online store, but the coupon code is for 20% off purchases totaling over $100. If you buy more stuff just to use the coupon code, using the code just cost you at least $20. You should also still compare prices of other brands and other stores. You may be able to find the item at a lower price somewhere else even after the discount.

Here are some sites to get you started in your search for coupon codes.

At CouponCabin.com, you can browse a list of featured deals, search for codes by store name or item category, and create a list of favorite merchants to save you time when you return. They also have printable coupons for brick and mortar stores, and you can sign up for a weekly email of their best deals. The site is easy to navigate, and you can get to what you are looking for quickly.

OnlinePromotionCodes.com also lets you search by store and category, and it lists the coupon codes for new discounts right on the home page with the description. Codes that are expiring soon appear in their featured discount section at the top of the home page and show the expiration date.

SimplyBestCoupons.com has a separate tab on their home page for codes that expire soon, as well as a tab for free shipping codes. There is also a tour available for first time users, and forums where you can post your own finds or see what others have found.