Mike Smith's post about clipping coupons prompted me to write about how I 'clip' coupons – online. I can't remember the last time that I've used a coupon at the grocery store register but I almost always use coupon codes when I purchase something online. Nearly every major retailer has a place within its online shopping cart for a "coupon code" that gives free shipping or a percentage or dollar value off the total purchase.

Online coupon codes are very easy to find. For example, I recently purchased a Dell computer. A quick Google search for Dell coupons saved me a couple hundred dollars off my final purchase. Here is a small sample of some current coupon code deals:

Target
10% off your online order until December 31st (type in TGTAFTSA at checkout)

Bloomingdale's
25% off your online purchase until December 19th (type in DEC25 at the checkout)

REI
$20 off your order of $100 or more until December 24th (type in HOLIDAY7 at the checkout)

JCPenney
Free shipping and other offers

Kohls
15% off online order (type grcp5007 at checkout); 30% off if you use your Kohl's credit card and type GIVETHANKS at checkout until December 15th

When I am about to make an online purchase, I always head over to Google and search for online coupon codes before checking out. More often than not I've been pleasantly surprised and have been able to save money on something I was about to purchase anyway.

Another way to increase online savings is through sites that give users a percentage of their purchase back, such as Upromise, Ebates and FatWallet. These sites earn money as affiliates of various online retailers and then split that money with users in a "cash back" program. I signed up with Upromise years ago, registered my credit cards with them and forgot about it. A year later when I checked my account, I found that I had accumulated almost $200. You can earn additional rewards by clicking through from their online store to their partner stores such as Wal-Mart, Kohls, Target, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Circuit City, Sears and others. These rewards, however, can only be redeemed through a 529 college savings plan. As with supermarket loyalty cards, you do give up some privacy in exchange for these rewards. I've never used Ebates or FatWallet, but they offer a similar incentive – purchase through their site and they will give you a percentage of the purchase back. Unlike with Upromise, you do not need a 529 account to redeem your reward.

Typically I am able to find current codes by just typing the store name and “coupon code” into Google, but here are a few websites that also maintain updated lists:

• Coupon Mountain
• Coupon Cabin
• Current Codes
• Rather Be Shopping

The potential savings are not limited to online stores. You often find bonuses and rewards by searching for the term “referral” or “affiliate” with the name of the company you are doing business with. For example, a couple weeks ago Lending Club enhanced their referral program to offer $25 to new members who are referred by current members. Searching for Lending Club referral or Lending Club affiliate reveals several websites with links that will help you receive this bonus:

• Personal Loan Portfolio
• Rateladder
• DebtKid
• My Money Blog

Before completing any online transaction, I always do a quick search to see if there are any discounts, coupons, bonuses, referral programs or rewards. This has allowed me to save literally thousands of dollars over the past few years.

Please share in the comments if you know of any other good websites or programs for coupon codes or if you have any other online savings tips or tricks.

There are many legitimate reasons to go shopping: to satisfy a basic need, prepare for a special event, or even to reward yourself by spending some fun money. However, shopping for shopping’s sake should be avoided.

I know people who go shopping as a pastime, merely for the entertainment of it. While there are certainly worse ways to spend your time and money, there are also much better ways. These people will go out to Target or to the mall “just to shop” without any other real purpose.

You can avoid shopping for shopping’s sake by only shopping from a specific list. Having a list doesn’t preclude you from browsing; it just helps to prevent you from purchasing things that you really don’t need.

Shopping for shopping’s sake is, at its core, really a discussion of needs versus wants. If you don’t have any needs, you may go shopping to discover new things that you want. You then convince yourself that those wants are needs and end up spending money unnecessarily. While many products and services do make life easier, if you’re surviving without knowledge of their existence, then you probably don’t need them.

When you go shopping without a specific purpose in mind, you tend to spend more money. Some people can afford to spend this money, but most people finance such purchases through debt. In addition to making all purchases more expenses because of the high interest rates and fees normally associated with debt, such a method also holds people back from reaching their true financial potential.

If debt has its hold on you, whether from shopping for shopping’s sake, or for any other reason, you can get out from under that debt more quickly by consolidating with a P2P loan from Lending Club. Whether you’re in debt, on your way there, or finally on your way out, shopping only when you have a defined purpose is a habit critical to your financial health.

In free markets, prices vary with supply and demand, and Lending Club is no exception. Until now, the Lending Club social lending community has enjoyed a near-perfect equilibrium of supply and demand, with funds available to lend slightly exceeding qualified loan applications.

The relaunch of our Facebook application and the addition of other online communities in early December, immediately followed by a National Launch with new loan applications flowing in from California, Texas, Illinois, Michigan and a few other states has increased demand (loan applications) faster than supply (lenders’ lending capital). As a result, we will increase our base rate tomorrow from 6.80% to 7.30%. This page will update to reflect the new rates: http://www.lendingclub.com/info/how-we-set-interest-rates.action.

As an example, a borrower with a 705 FICO score and a 20% DTI currently pays an interest rate of 12.17% for a $20,000 loan. Starting tomorrow, that same borrower would pay 12.67% for a new loan of the same size.

All Lending Club loans are fixed-rate, so the rate hike will only apply to new loan listings. The average return of all Lending Club lenders after 6 months now stands at 12.2% after fees and losses. Monday’s half-point rate hike will help lender returns while maintaining the high percentage of borrowers getting fully funded (currently at about 90%).

As we continue to collect more data and understand the platform’s behavior in different circumstances, the rate-setting mechanism will be established systematically based on real-time supply and demand.

We believe tomorrow’s rate hike is good for both lenders and borrowers: lenders will earn a better return and borrowers’ loan listings should get funded faster. The rate paid by Lending Club borrowers remains on average 25% lower than the average credit card rate, which stands at 15.24%.

Better rates and better returns. Together.

When I first started exercising on a regular basis, there were many things that could throw me off of my training routine. It could be that the weather was wrong, or I forgot my clothes, or my friend canceled or a number of other reasons.

Then one day I decided to sit down and look at the entire process and see where the decisions were made and where things could go wrong. After this, I removed any point in the process where I could stumble. For instance, just in case a friend didn’t show up, I always brought my iPod. Or if I forgot my clothes, I made sure that I always had extras in the locker room. This way, my training became pretty much automatic.

The same can be applied to the Money Marathon.

1. Set up as many accounts as you need – Look for banks that make it really easy to open up as many accounts as you want. Some banks let you open up a new account online with a click of a button.

2. It’s proactive saving – You should take money and put it towards your savings before you have to worry about bills, your mortgage and other expenses.

3. Look beyond savings accounts – You can set up automatic transfers to your savings accounts. Most of investments companies have automatic withdraws and transfers also.

4. Automatically reinvest – Set up your accounts so that any interest or income you receive from investments and savings are automatically reinvested for you. This way you will start compounding your investments and they will grow at a faster rate.

5. Continue paying after paying off debt – If you are paying off your credit cards, here is a good strategy to save money. After you pay them off, keep on making the payment, but now redirect it towards your p2p lending account on Lending Club, with a small portion going towards your Fun Fund.

6. Predict unexpected costs – If you drive a used car, plan for having one major breakdown per year that’ll cost $500 and set aside the money. Set up an emergency account to automatically handle any kind of a cost that might otherwise throw you off your Money Marathon plan.

The goal of automating your Money Marathon is so that human nature or any emergency will not appear in the middle of it and stop you from crossing the finish line. How is your training progressing thus far?

With all of the threats to personal computers from viruses, worms, spam, spyware, adware and the like, you’d be crazy to leave your computer unprotected. That doesn’t mean that you have to pay for the software to protect yourself. More specifically, you may have already paid for it indirectly.

As the need for antivirus software has become increasingly clear, a number of outlets for obtaining the software have cropped up. In many cases, we can benefit by leveraging existing relationships to receive a benefit that would otherwise cost us money. In a similar way, social network affiliations on Lending Club let members leverage existing relationships to achieve favorable P2P loan terms.

First, many Internet service providers offer their customers comprehensive Internet security software free of charge. It’s in the ISP’s best interest to have customers who are able to use their services without viruses or other negative consequences. In addition to keeping their customers happy, cleaner computers also result in less bandwidth tied up by malicious software. If you are already paying for Internet access, then you likely are entitled to free antivirus software as well.

Similarly, I’ve also noticed that some online institutions are also offering complimentary protection software to their customers for the same reasons. Anyone with a Scottrade brokerage account, for example, is entitled to download and activate a one-year subscription to a popular antivirus/firewall/anti-spyware application.

Lastly, your employer may offer software to its employees. If you use a computer at home for work purposes, particularly if you connect into the work network, you may be able to use employer provided software to protect your home computer. This too is in the company’s best interest, since it is better to have protected computers connecting into the company’s network than infected ones. Check with your company’s IT department to see if there is a licensing agreement in place with a software provider allowing employee use on their home computers.

The widespread availability of anti-virus software reminds us to take full advantage of the benefits of being an employee or customer. Once we commit our time or money to an organization, we should get as much value for that contribution as possible. When these relationships allow us to save a little extra money, this is a good thing!