That’s right, we have a new blog in our network — the SaveMoney.com Home and Garden Blog written by Kay, a regular commenter on this blog. She’s starting the Home and Garden blog from scratch, so any support we can give her would be greatly appreciated. She’s out of the gate and off to the races with a post on how to save money when buying a sofa.

The Home and Garden Blog will talk readers through ways to save money when decorating the interior or exterior of your home. The first post is just a glimpse into what will likely be in store. But like any blog, the dialogue is what creates the best solutions.

In her profile Kay had this to say:

I enjoy sharing my home and garden passions with others. Even more, I want to learn how other people are getting the look they love for less. I am all eyes and ears! Please share your success stories. What works for you may spark an idea for all of us. Have fun making your place “Home Sweet Home.” Check in for money-saving ideas, when you can. Let me know what decorating, entertaining, or gardening problem you’re grappling with. If I don’t have a good suggestion, another of our community possibly will! There’s always a way to get the look you want, even for very little money.

So take a minute to wish Kay all the success in the world, and don’t forget to sign up for the Home and Garden Blog’s RSS feed via a reader or with your email address.

In our Dealing with Car Dealers post, I mentioned my wife and I would be venturing out into the vast expanse of car dealer lots looking for a larger, yet economical replacement to our smaller Hyundai Sonata. We succeeded! We had driven through a few lots pricing cars on the Saturday before Memorial day. We also spent some of the three day weekend researching prices online, so we knew the likely breaking point for our target vehicles. We took our strategy to task on the Tuesday after Memorial day when we visited a car dealership.

The dealership was about a 20 minute drive from our house, so on the way I coached my wife on what to expect. Do not expect to leave with a new vehicle tonight, I told her. We cannot get roped into an emotional purchase. We had our eyes on a 2006 Dodge Caravan. The price was right and the size of the vehicle would allow us to cart around the little one without too much hassle. We arrived and talked to a salesperson. In no time we were driving around a large country block, testing brakes (gently, of course) and other things like acceleration.

The van met and exceeded our expectations. We hoped to buy it without sacrificing any money each month, which meant the payments had to be in the same ballpark as the previous car. We still owed $5,500 on the old car. The dealership of course didn’t want to give us $5,500 for our old car, which meant we would have to pick up the difference. I was disappointed, but told the salesperson if that was all they could do then that was fine. We left on good terms, and with a slightly better counter offer. I told them to call me if they could do $500 better.

I received a call the next afternoon.

It wasn’t too much of a shock. I figured $500 wouldn’t keep them from selling the car to me. The biggest thing was being cool enough to walk away. Two years ago I wouldn’t have done that. I would have conceded the $500, which amounts to two months worth of payments. The deal keeps us at the same payments a month, so we’re both thrilled.

In the end, the deal came down to what we could afford in our budget and negotiating to get to that point. Of course, in the loan paperwork office they offered us a three year warranty that amounted to an extra $40 a month on the loan payment. That’s for five years. Wow. An almost $2,500 service plan on a three year old vehicle. I don’t think so. Be sure you watch what you sign up for. All in all it was a great experience, and we now have the little one to go with the van. More on that in my next post.

The website VoucherSeeker.co.uk offers shoppers a quick and easy way to save money when buying online. They provide a searchable or browsable database of current and active voucher codes for use with a wide variety of stores, including high-end products and service providers. In this review, we take a look at their site and find out how well it can help you save money when purchasing online.

The VoucherSeeker Interface

Strictly by look and feel, the VoucherSeeker.co.uk site offers a clear and understandable approach to finding voucher codes. The owners have developed a way for users to search by store name or by category of products, so you can find the deal you need. From the top navigation, a user can grab the most popular vouchers being used by members. This and the link to Popular Offers gives everyone a quick glimpse at the money saving power of the site. I really liked the ease of access to this type of information.

The sign up process takes very little time and they don’t require any information beyond name and email address. Once you register with the VoucherSeeker site, you will be enrolled in the weekly deal newsletter. From there, a user can configure the site to email any deals that come through for certain categories or products. This means you won’t miss the 25% off coupon or the great offer on a product you purchase regularly. You can choose to send the alerts daily or weekly, at your discretion. If they get annoying, just turn off the alert or cut down the frequency.

The site doesn’t allow users to submit deals, so the codes are regulated by a team behind the scenes. While this cuts out the community aspects of the site, it certainly ups the prospect of finding a deal that’s current and not outdated.  When you search for voucher codes, the results show up in a sleek page designed to have the user click through to the intended discount site. A single click opens a new window to view the store with the coupon active and it also clears the obfuscation of the code on the VoucherSeeker site so the user can write it down to save it for sometime later.

VoucherSeeker.co.uk also offers European shoppers quick ways to share deals with friends. The sharing features appear next to each code so users can send codes on to others who might find them useful. This way a user won’t run the risk of writing the code down incorrectly in an email or making some other trivial mistake. Overall the site makes it easy to find and share thousands of onlines stores’ voucher codes  – valid with both big and small online shops.

Conclusion

The easy to use features of the site puts the novice online shopper at ease. If you want a deal, find the category or shop you need and click a link to a deal that works for you. Do you want to find what others have found most useful online? Just click the popular voucher link to see the most used vouchers. The site doesn’t push advertising and their committment to up-to-date codes shows in the results you find category after category. I recommend bookmarking this page and using it anytime you need to purchase something online.