I first heard about Woot a few years ago. I was searching the web looking for websites selling whatever it was I was looking for….  I found the item listed for sale at Woot — then went to do some price checking, then came back to Woot the next day and found the item was no longer for sale.

The reason: They only sell one thing a day.. and the thing I was looking for was only available “yesterday”.

Yup. One item. And they won’t tell you how many they have for sale. When they run out, that’s it.

Woot is not the ordinary kind on online store.

At midnight every night they post a new item for sale. It is available until they run out or until 11:59pm when the next Woot starts. (If they run out early, they sometimes list a second item for up to 12 hours).

Aside from the daily Woot, the site occasionally offers specials like their “Bag O’ Crap” sales which are styled after Japanese New Years Day “lucky grab bags” — a tradition of merchants selling bags of assorted inexpensive items at a discount to encourage new shoppers to come to their stores, (the tradition is called Fukubukuro …seriously).

You might also run across a “Woot Off” which is when they sell off small quantities of multiple items, (one at a time until they run out) throughout the day.

Sometimes manufacturers use Woot to test market new products — if you run into one of these, you might get the latest, greatest new gadget at a serious discount

Then there’s 2-for-Tuesdays when items are sold in lots of two. Woot also sells a Shirt of the Day.. a different t-shirt design every day of the week — only available that day. Woot also sells wine — again, offering only one (different) bottle of wine every day!

To give you an idea of the corporate attitude at Woot: if you live in Texas, (where Woot is headquartered), and you buy something, enter the PROMO CODE: TAXSUCKS at checkout and they pay the sales tax.

For a totally different shopping experience visit:

www.Woot.com – the daily woot is usually an electronic product!

wine.Woot.com – a different bottle of wine each day!

shirt.Woot.com – a different t-shirt design every day!

NOTE: When you visit the Woot websites, check the upper left corner of the site — sometimes you’ll find a link to another retailer’s site where the PROMO CODE “WOOT” will get you a discount, other times it’s a “Side Deal” directing you to a discount at another site… yeah it’s advertising, but its targeted at discount shoppers.

If you’ve ever owned ANYTHING from L.L. Bean, you’re probably already a fan of their store. If you’re too far away to travel to the Freeport, Maine store, you can take advantage of the FREE SHIPPING offer and have anything sent to you — there is no minimum order with this code. Buy a single item or as much as you like, you’ll pay exactly $0.00 to have it shipped!

Tested and working, (even on SALE items, we actually put 15+ items in cart and still got the FREE SHIPPING applied to the enitre purchase).

During checkout process, click the REDEEM button, then select PROMOTIONS and enter code.

Website: www.LLBean.com

Payless Shoes is everywhere — but did you know they’re online too? If you’ve ever had a hard time finding the style or size of shoe you want at a Payless store, not to worry! You can order the shoes you want online and Payless will ship them to your local store where you can pick them up without paying a shipping fee.

To make the deal even sweeter, there are PROMO CODES you can use to save a a few dollars off their already low prices. The current CODE: 16425 is good for $2 Off Any $10 Purchase.

But wait — there’s more! Visit www.payless.com and click the “Sale” button near the top of the home page to find specially priced items and even more deals.

Ads for sporting events, concerts, circus or theater tickets are all over the internet… from eBay to Craigslist, and on thousands of “ticket finder” type websites — but which ones are the read deals?

Before purchasing tickets online for any event, be sure you’re dealing with a reputable ticket seller. Stories of fake tickets, sellers who take deposits and then can’t deliver, and other scams are as prevalent, or more so than nearly any type of online selling.

Know what your buying, and how much it’s really worth. Even if an event is sold-out from the original ticketing agency or event promoter, chances are you can find what “face value” for the ticket is (or was).

In some areas, “scalping” is illegal… both for the seller and the buyer — you could purchase tickets in good faith, only to have them intercepted in the mail, or voided at the gate when you try to use them. Legitimate ticket agencies usually add on a “convenience fee” or anywhere from a few dollars per ticket up to several times the face value of the ticket. Delivery charges, brokers and agents fees, and other charges may be legal in some areas. One way sellers avoid charges of scalping is to sell the tickets “at face value”, BUT, only if you purchase some other (overpriced) item with them — for exmample, you may get (2) tickets to a baseball game for the same $35/ea the seller paid — but they require you also buy a baseball card worth $0.10 for $100 to get the tickets… legal, yes — ethical, not really.

Finding tickets to concerts, sporting events and theater engagements is getting harder all the time — there is a lot of financial incentive for people to stay up all night, wait in line and buy tickets at the box office — only to resell them immediately to a broker for two or three times what they paid. Tickets to major league sports and popular concerts can sell out in a matter of hours.

Unlike many items that increase in value over time — tickets become worthless as soon as the event is over. This one factor can save you a lot of money — if you’re willing to wait ’til the last minute, and maybe do some running around to get the tickets. For instance, tickets selling on eBay will frequently be reduced in price the day before an event — sometimes the seller waits until only 8-10 hours if they aren’t selling — so they drop the price.

Craigslist, (http://www.craigslist.org/) is another great source for last minute tickets — probably even better than eBay since local sellers can more easily be found. We tried to purchase tickets to a sold out concert last month, and ran an ad on CL a week before the show. In the first couple days several people responded (offering to sell the tickets at 2-3 times face value, or sending up spam email directing us to a website where the ticket prices were inflated with excessive fees). We finally made a deal with a “real person”, who just happened to have a couple extra tickets and wanted to sell them… BUT, on the day before the show, we actually received email from two different people offering to sell us tickets at less than face value… they were stuck with the tickets — one guy was even willing to drive the 50 miles to deliver them and sell them for half price, (two for one), but we already had our’s.. purchased at face value only 3 days before the concert — (we ended up sitting next to the guy who sold us the tickets).

If you do buy tickets online, be sure to know the lingo. There are “hard tickets”, “e-tickets” and “will call” (tickets)…

A “hard ticket” is an actual ticket printed on card-stock like you’d get at the box office. Major league sports and concerts almost always have this type of ticket available. Super Bowl and other major events may even have a hologram of other specialty printing that makes the tickets very hard to duplicate — and as a bonus, in some cases the ticket (or even the stubs) become collector items.

“E-Tickets” are ones that you pay for online, then print out on your home computer — while they may have a bar-code or other scan code on them, they are easy to forge, and sometimes hard to redeem.

“Will call” or box office tickets are ones you pick-up a the box office or ticket booth just before the event starts. You are usually required to pay for these by credit card ahead of time, then present the credit card or drivers license when you pick them up — sometimes ticket sellers wil lnot let anyone except the original; purchaser pick up the tickets.

As with anything else you buy from unknown people online — beware, be careful, and double check everything.

If you discover any PROMO CODES, coupons or discount offers for tickets, please share them here.

Taking a vacation doesn’t have to cost every last cent you have saved, (or every last dollar you can charge on a credit card), spending a little time researching online deal, and planning ahead can save you hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.

Planning ahead but remaining flexible is probably the best way to save on vacation costs.

Cruises, airfare, hotel accommodations, tickets for theme parks and many other vacation related expenditures sometimes cost 20%, 30% or even 100% more when you book them at the last minute. On the other hand, there are some great last minute deals.

Do as much research online as you can. Here are some questions you can ask yourself before you start:

Does your vacation have to occur at a predetermined time? (e.g.- if you work ful ltime and must schedule your vacation time and can’t easily change plans at the last minute, the answer is “yes”… If you have a boss who understands that if since you found a deal for a cruise at 50% off what it normally costs — but you have to leave in 48 hours — and the boss is cool with that, you can answer “no”).

Do you care exactly where you go for vacation? (If you have always wanted to see New England in the Fall, and that’s the only type of vacation you want to take, then answer “yes”. If you see a travel deal for a week of kayaking and snorkeling in the Florida Keys or a week watching the Iditarod in Alaska, and you open to whichever one is the best deal — answer “no”).

Once you figure out when and where — the next thing to do is shop! Comparing airfares, hotel rates or “package deal” for the same week, in the same location makes it easy to spot the best deal. If the prices are close from two different companies, maybe one includes first-class travel or complimentary tickets to local attractions. You work hard to earn your money — time spent bargaining for the best vacation package deal will save more per hour than most people earn! Check for reviews from real people.

If you’re surfing the net researching vacations, adventure travel, low cost airfares or cruises, please share any PROMO CODES or other discounts you discover.