05 May

Written by Kathryn Vercillo on May 5, 2009

Those of us who use online coupons regularly do so primarily because we want to save money when shopping online. However, we also reap a number of other benefits from the choice to shop using promo codes and other Internet coupons. We make smarter shopping choices, do our shopping more efficiently and live more in tune with our inner selves than we did before we adopted our frugal living habits. Another benefit that many of us get from using online coupons is that we make good friends from this practice and we do a better job of keeping the friends that we make. How does that relate to using online coupons? Let’s take a look:

Making Friends Through Online Shopping Communities

Many of the sites that offer online coupons also offer a chance to be a part of the online shopping community that is associated with the site. Through these communities, you can set up a profile and connect with other people who are also interested in the use of online coupons. The major benefit of this type of online niche social network is that you gain a lot of information and tips about how to make better use of your online coupons. However, a major ongoing and long-term benefit is that you end up making great online friends with whom you can communicate about the frugal living issues that are pertinent to your way of life.

Making friends through online shopping communities is great because it gives you a lot of support in your use of coupon sites. For some people, it’s annoying to have to spend time each week looking for coupon deals online. When you do so in combination with catching up with your online shopping friends, you turn the experience into something fun that you look forward to doing. You save money, learn more about online coupon use and create a network of people that add to your online social life. These may or may not be people that you end up meeting in the real world but that doesn’t mean that they can’t become good friends.

Making Friends Through Traditional Social Networks

Of course, you don’t have to rely on niche social networking sites to have the experience of sharing online coupon ideas with others. Traditional social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are also great places to form friendships with people who share your interest in saving money when shopping online. There are groups within these sites that support frugal living and that’s a great place to start making new online friends who will want to share tips and thoughts about saving money with you. If you’re interested in making friends with like-minded people who are in your local area then you can use the advanced search functions on these sites to find those people, connect online and take that friendship into the real world.

Making Friends Through Blogs
Blogs are another place where you can meet online friends who are interested in saving money with online coupons. The frugal living blogs and coupon blogs that you probably already read regularly are a great place to start forming those online friendships. Start responding to comments on the site and send friendly emails to your favorite bloggers. Participate in the forums on money saving sites. This will introduce you to a network of people who want to save money just like you do.

Making Friends Locally Through The Internet

The traditional social networks and blogs aren’t the only way to meet people locally by first connecting with them on the Internet. You can use various sites for meeting friends that will connect you to people who share your interests. When creating profiles or looking for events on these sites, you should emphasize your interest in online coupon use and smart shopping. This will allow you to meet people who also share those interests. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a group of friends to meet up with weekly or monthly to discuss your money-saving ideas over a cheap cup of coffee.

Benefits for our Real World Friendships

The main way that we use online coupons to make friendships is to connect with like-minded people online. Sometimes we take those friendships offline and become friends with people in the real world. But even if we don’t, our online coupon use may have some added benefits that keep our real world friendships strong. The main benefit is that smart online coupon use allows us to save money on an ongoing basis. This means that we will have both money and time to invest into our real world friendships.

When you think about it, the main reason that most of our friendships suffer is because we don’t have the time to spend with the people in our lives. That’s usually because we spend most of our time working to be able to afford our lives. Smart coupon use, along with other aspects of frugal living, can make it so that we can reduce the number of hours that we spend earning money. This frees up our time so that we can spend it doing the things that we enjoy including spending true quality time with our friends.

Additionally, we may find that our smart online coupon use bleeds into other areas of our lives. We start living frugally even when we’re out with friends. This is a good thing because it means that we stop wasting our money on entertainment and shopping with people and start actually spending time doing things that don’t cost much but bring us closer with the people we care about. Whether it’s with new friends or established friendships, our frugal lifestyles end up making us become a better friend to others.

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