Everybody shops, whether online or offline, and here are five tips that will save you money on almost every purchase. These methods will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year.

1. Make sure that it's the right product you want to buy

Once you have decided that you want to buy any product, make sure that there isn’t something better from a competitor and that it hasn’t gone out of production. At a minimum, review amazon.com, epinions.com and Google. Search on "(Product Name) review" and you will see links to several respectable sites that have tested and reviewed the product.

2. Follow the 24-hour rule

It’s been said that it is not the product manufacturers that sell the product, but rather the marketing. Before making a purchase of more than $50 or $100, follow the 24-hour rule. Using this strategy, you will wait 24 hours to see if you are still excited about the product – or if the marketing sizzle has gone away and you can either do without the product or go with an alternative.

3. Use Craigslist

For those of you who are not using this service or don’t have it in your area, you are missing out. You can find almost anything either for sale, trade or free on this site. If you don’t see it listed, you can post a wanted ad and people will contact you with different offers.

4. Look for almost-automatic discounts

Almost every website has discounts and coupon codes that are easy to find. Search on "(Product Name) coupons" and you will be presented with different coupons that you can use to make your purchase. Many times, this simple step can save you hundreds of dollars, especially when you are buying big-ticket items like computers or cameras.

5. Always save purchase and warranty documentation

Nothing is a bigger waste of money than being unable to return a product when it breaks after six months of ownership. If you make the purchase online, make sure to keep the email receipt (i.e., do not delete it). Using an email service like Gmail will offer you easy access to archived messages with a quick search to find it. If it’s offline, find a safe place to store everything in one place.

Insurance is one of the things that most people don’t like to think about but need to purchase. For students attending college, most of the insurance is provided or paid for by parents or the college.

Upon graduating, however, it is time to think about and purchase your own insurance since the insurance provided by the college will lapse, and your parents will probably want you to purchase your own policies. Insurance can be what stops you from having a financial crisis before you’re even up and running financially. We here at the Lending Club blog want to help you understand the major types of insurance that you should consider.

Health Insurance

Health insurance often includes dental and prescription coverage and will most likely be provided by your employer. Talk to the HR department and they will provide you with the necessary information and options. You can also read this government guide. If you’re self-employed or the company does not offer insurance, you can purchase your own. Research sites like BankRate.com or eHealthInsurance.com are helpful. There are many different options and choices to make when selecting health insurance coverage, so make sure to do your research before purchasing. But don’t delay, because your health is the most important thing you have.

Auto Insurance

Auto insurance is required in all states to operate a vehicle. Comprehensive or “full coverage” covers your car and any liability, while “liability only” plans cover only the damage that you might cause. There are many options with auto insurance, so make sure to talk to an agent who can answer your questions before buying a car or making changes to your current coverage. Read this guide from Kiplinger for some valuable tips.

Life Insurance

If you have any financial responsibilities after graduating from college (those college loans), make sure to look at term life insurance. This is an inexpensive way to purchase a lot of coverage for a “term” or a time period (10 years, for example) during which you can better your financial position.

Renters Insurance

Renting an apartment might expose you to different risks to your property; purchasing renters insurance can reduce some of those risks. It protects your property while you are a renter. Nobody expects to be robbed or have to have his or her apartment broken into, but it happens. Here’s an excellent article explaining why you need renters insurance.

There are other types of insurance out there, but this covers the basics. It might seem like insurance costs a lot, but when something goes wrong (and many times it does), you will most likely be saying that you should have purchased more of it.

You have graduated college, the school is booting you out of the dorms, and you can’t move back in with your parents, or don’t want to, so it’s time to find your first apartment. Where to start? Here are some tips to help you along.

1. Start with pen and paper – define what you need. How many bedrooms and bathrooms? Do you need one bedroom and an office, den or studio? Define specifically what you are looking for in terms of rooms and space.
2. Decide what is a deal killer and deal maker – if there are certain things that you must have or must not have, list them. If you don’t want to use stairs, list that. If it has to be close to bike trails or close to work, note this. Must the living room have enough space for your grand piano?
3. Don’t use your apartment for storage – there are cheaper self-storage facilities that you can rent instead of allocating one room for your junk. Or, you can see if the apartment building has small storage units that you can rent at a much lower cost.
4. Determine your budget – figure out what is the most that you can afford to pay for an apartment. This includes all utilities, rent and any other fees that might be set, such as fees for parking or a security deposit.
5. Set your timeframe – most apartment complexes require a one-year lease. If this will not work for you, consider finding a room you can rent from somebody else or looking at places that will allow month-to-month renting.
6. Don’t buy furniture – there are too many unknowns when buying furniture before you have a place that you will live in for many years. It could be that the apartment has a built-in dining area or bookshelves. Once you do move in, buy a comfortable mattress and put a word out to friends, relatives and craigslist for what you need. There are many people who would love to get rid of extra furniture sitting in their garage who don’t want to throw it away.
7. Think conservative and small for your first place – once you move in, you will narrow down your tastes and learn what works and what doesn’t without being committed for a very long time. After your first apartment, you will have a better understanding of where you want to live and the type of residence it will be.
8. Look for your apartment – start with asking your friends and relatives. They know you and might be able to direct you to a place that you will like, and this will save you time. Also try Craigslist and other websites like apartments.com.

Renting your first apartment should be not scary and should not break the bank if you approach it correctly and do your planning and preparing ahead of time.

Let’s be real. Thinking about bank accounts while actively involved in school is something that very few college students do on a regular basis. So what happens is that most of them end up overdrawing their accounts – not just once, but many times.

Most students that are new to banking are not informed about how banks work, especially how a bank can charge fees (around $30, but this varies) each time they make a purchase without sufficient money in their accounts to cover it. If you walk to the local gas station and buy three items (Coke for $2, chips for $3 and gum for $2), and you only have $1.50 in your account, this shopping trip might end up costing you $97 and not the $7 you initially wanted to spend. The extra $90 is from three overdraft fees that the bank assessed before covering the $7 you charged.

The one rule that will save you thousands while you are attending college is this: Open a checking account that has no fees and no ability to overdraw the account. This last point is crucial. You want to have the guarantee that if there are no funds in your account, the bank will deny the transaction and not charge you any fees for doing so.

There are at least two such banks you can look into: ING Direct’s “Electric Orange” checking account and Schwab Checking. Both of these accounts have no monthly or usage fees and no overdraft fees. With the Schwab account, you’ll have to ask them to turn off the overdraft protection. These are just two examples, and there might be others out there worth looking into.

A friend recently confessed that almost every month he “had more month than money” and constantly overdrew his account. He showed me his bank statements from the last six months and we counted 17 overdraft fees. His bank charged $27 per overdraft, which meant he paid $459 to the bank in fees in the last six months. I recommended that he switch banks as soon as possible.

There are options available if you find yourself in this same situation, and paying for overdraft fees should no longer be tolerated. With the money you save, you can start an investment account or pay down any credit card debt you may be carrying.

Knowing where you are financially is always important, and more so during big changes in your life. Graduation is one of those times. When you graduate, many things change, including the role money plays in your life. While going to college, your focus was on your education; being out of college, one of your primary goals should be to put together a financial plan and start paying off your student loans.

Your first step in putting together a financial plan is to find out where you stand now. You will want to find out your net worth, which is probably negative. Include all of your bills, loans and the amounts you have to pay monthly for each. Also list any income you have, from a job or other sources.

Once you have a picture of where you are now, the next step is to determine where you want to be. Don’t plan out a full year-by-year plan towards your retirement, but make some realistic guess as to where you want to be in one or two years. This will give you something to work towards. Make your goal simple, such as saving enough money for a down payment on a house or paying off a certain amount of debt.

With your current financial analysis and your goals, you can put together a monthly plan for how much money you will need to allocate towards different expenditures. If your goal is to save money for a down payment, you might consider putting more money into a savings account instead of accelerating your loan repayments. Having a simple plan will make sure that you are not impulsively spending money, but instead are actively working on your financial future.

If you are new at your job, many employers have outside advisers that can sit down with you and help you even more with your plan. Ask your HR department if your company offers such a service. If not, you can find a local financial planner and buy several hours of his or her time to go over your plan with you and make sure that you’re on the right track.

Putting together your financial plan is one of the most important pieces of paper you can produce, and it will go beyond just giving you a grade, and possibly secure your financial future.