Gone are the days of heading to your local bookstore to pick up a book at the suggested retail price.  Instead, everyone these days is using Amazon.com to purchase books and other merchandise, often at a slightly reduced cost.  There is an easy way to make even more of your Amazon.com purchases though: coupon codes.  There are a number of ways to get a hold of coupon codes:

-Coupon Sites:  There is an abundance of coupon websites out there that offer coupons.  These sites get a small kickback whenever someone uses the code from their site, so do a few quick searches and see what you can find.  There are a ton of these sites.

-Communities: There are many online communities that are based on information (and coupon code) sharing.  You’ll have to contribute some codes of your own, but you should also be able to find a number of different coupon codes through these communities.

-Promotion Emails: Once you’ve made a purchase through Amazon.com they generally offer to add you to a mailing list—jump on that!  Even though you may sometimes get unwanted emails, the coupon codes that these emails include make it totally worth it!

There are definitely other ways to get coupon codes—scour the internet and see what you can find.  More importantly, though, you have simply got to make the best use of the codes you do have!  How can you ensure that you’ll save as much money as possible?

-Split up your purchases: Coupon codes are often good for a discount on a single item.  Best way to make the most of that?  Buy multiple items individually!  Sure, it takes a couple of extra minutes to go through multiple transactions, but if you’re saving as much as twenty or thirty percent on your purchase, it is probably well worth it!

-Keep your coupons: Sometimes you come across a great coupon code, but you don’t need anything at the time.  Don’t delete the email or throw away the mailing—save it for later!  Simply save coupon codes until you need them.

-Pick and choose your coupons: Often you can only use one coupon code per transaction.  Sure, it may sound like a great idea to get 10% off, but if you also have a coupon code for $5.00 off and your purchase is less than $50.00, then $5.00 off is a better deal.  Even if it means you’ve got to bust out the calculator, these simple calculations will save money in the long run.

Coupons are a lot like cash—it is free money!  Whether you spend it or save it for later is up to you, just make sure you hang on to it and use your coupons wisely!