A little site called Groupon pioneered the brilliant idea of harnessing the collective buying power of total strangers to create group discounts (group coupon = groupon). They launched about a year and a half ago in the States and have been growing at a ridiculous rate since. Now, with Groupon London ready to launch any day now, it’s time to figure out what group couponing is all about.

Groupon features a daily deal on something to do, see or buy at an unbeatable price. If enough people sign up, you get the deal! It’s easy and it works really, really well. For example, today’s deal in Los Angeles was a 60 minute massage for $39 (Approx £26) – more than half off. You can sign up for Groupon London here.

Can’t stand the suspense and want to try group couponing NOW? Try Groupola.com from the founder of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk. It launched last month in eight UK cities and plans to expand. The model is the same. Today’s London deal is £45 for a West End show and a meal at a West End restaurant. Not too late to get in on it now!

My recommendation? Sign up for both sites and seeing what kind of deals they offer if they cover your area. It’s another great tool to add to your budget mum toolkit!

Useful posts from around the web over the past couple of weeks.

To see the last roundup click here.

Festivals for free from MoneyMagpie

Ten top tips for first time buyers from FT Money Matters

How to Teach Teens About Money from Frugal Dad

Top 10 property websites from LoveMoney

Top 10 products that save you money and save the planet from WalletPop UK

Five Tips to Making Better Financial Decisions from Financial Highway

Five Ways to Bargain Your Way out of Debt from SimplyFinance

14 cheap ways to show your family you love them from WalletPop

How to Learn Another Language on the Cheap from SimplyBlog

The 15 tax code blunders to look out for from This is Money

6 Steps for a Woman’s Financial Self-Defense from Wisebread (geared toward Americans but still some useful advice!)

8 websites that will save you money this weekend from SimplyFinance

Loads of interesting data on the UK economy and the financial habits of Britons. Have a look!

Source: Credit Report Guides

Thanks to CreditReport.org.uk for the tip!

Useful posts from around the web over the past couple of weeks. Loads of top ten lists  this time round!

To see the last roundup click here.

Six resolutions from for the New Year from MoneyWeek

10 ways to improve your finances from the Telegraph

Top 10 pension tips for 2010 from Love Money

40 Things to do on a School Snow Day from Frugal Upstate

How to Talk to Your Partner About Money from Moolanomy

Ten Things You Need to Know about ISAs from This is Money

Slow Cooker: Save money on food–and save on washing up from Miss Thrifty

Ten Tips for Post Christmas Financial Blues from Money Dashboard

10 ways to be a money magician in 2010 from Money Magpie

13 Things You Haven’t Cleaned in Six Months from Home Ever After

10 Healthy Things to Eat and Drink in the New Year from Wise Bread

Useful posts from around the web over the past couple of weeks. Given that it’s Christmas, a couple of these are a bit late but since the tips are pretty evergreen, I thought I’d include them anyway!

For the last roundup click here.

Top ten tips on retirement planning from FT Money Matters

Seven steps to a frugal xmas lunch from Love Money

Save on books with Read It, Swap It from WalletPop UK

Where to save children’s Christmas money from This is Money

The easy guide to reading your credit card statement from SimplyFinance

Ten things you can get for free this Christmas from Love Money

36 green gift wrapping ideas from Wisebread

A few more useful posts I’ve found around the web over the past couple of weeks. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so the list is long!

To see the last news roundup click here.

Twitter and Facebook for the Best Online Deals from WalletPop UK (disclosure–I got a mention in this one!!)

4 Critical Money Question to Ask Before You Get Married from Kiplinger’s

Top 10 Tips for Saving for Retirement from the FT

20 Money-Saving Ways to Reuse Old Pantyhose from WiseBread

Top 5 Airline Reward Strategies from WalletPop

16 Recipes for Leftover Turkey from Frugal Upstate

Best Way to Teach Kids About Money from Budgetpulse

Christmas tips:

Some Great Savings for Xmas–A Roundup of the Deals Available from Recessionista

Tweet Your Way to a Festive Bargain from This is Money

How to Cut Costs this Christmas from the Telegraph

Best Online Deals: Toys for Christmas from the Telegraph

Cut Down on Christmas Bills from MoneyWeek

More Christmas Codes and Bargains from Money Magpie

Shoppers Urged to Get Online for Christmas Discounts from the Telegraph

Pop Chart: Seven Ways to Save Money this Christmas from WalletPop UK

And some helpful home-buying advice:

How to Choose a Real Estate Agent–Top 10 Tips from FruGal

How to Get on the Property Ladder from This is Money

MoneySavingExpert Martin Lewis Gives His Top Mortgage Tips from the Telegraph

I overheard two younger work colleagues discussing how much they spend each month on groceries. One was very conscious of her budget. Newly married and currently living on one income, she’s diligent about tracking everything she spends. Impressive!

She uses The Budget Planner from Money Saving Expert and finds it really useful. I haven’t tried this yet (I’ve got my own, less impressive tracking system) but I like the look of it and I thought I’d pass the tip along to you.

About the budget, the site’s editor, Martin Lewis, said:

It’s oft said… “In debt? Do a budget!”, “Skint? Draw up a budget!”, “Wife run off with the milkman? BUDGET!” The problem is most budgets don’t work; they only look at a month’s spending and miss too much out. This is a unique budgeting guide, including the free budget planner tool, with special techniques to manage and control your cash.

If ’saving money’, ’spending less’ or ‘minding my budget’ are familiar New Year’s resolutions for you, this would be a great time to check out The Budget Planner and see if you can fit it into your life come January.

You can download it here and find loads of tips on filling it out here. Good luck!

I just discovered Chiconomise.com, a really fun discount site for fashion lovers from Michelle Dewberry, winner of the BBC’s The Apprentice.

Michelle and her chief chiconomista, Samantha O’Neill, scour the web for the best deals on top brands in fashion, food, travel and lifestyle and deliver them all to you on the blog, on twitter and to your inbox (if you so choose). One of the best features of the site in my opinion is the online diary that tracks the best sales around town.

I think its a great site and there are loads of exceptionally good offers at the moment, including 25% off Monsoon and 20% off at the French Connection Christmas shopping event.

Happy shopping!

Zeezaw.co.uk is a “price drop” website that works in conjunction with Amazon.co.uk to help users track price fluctuations on Amazon wish lists.

Here’s how it works. First you access friends’ and family’s Amazon Wish Lists by entering their email address. Then you enter how much you’d be willing to pay for an item, and Zeezaw checks Amazon’s prices for you every day. As soon as that item comes within your budget, you are immediately sent an e-mail from the Zeezaw team.

I guess the only hitch here is that you’ve got to get your friends and family to actually create Amazon wish lists, but once you get past that, it seems like a good idea. Our family is increasingly hard to buy for at Christmas and Amazon has pretty much everything. Once you get your family to make a list (which is really fun to do, btw) your shopping is a piece of cake AND (enter Zeezaw) budget-friendly.

Have you tried Zeezaw.co.uk? Let me know what you think!

I’ve written about price comparison sites here and here in the past. I’m a big fan, especially when these sites come up with tools to make it even faster and easier to make sure you’re getting the lowest price.

PriceGrabber.co.uk has a handy tool called Price Alerts to help reduce Christmas shopping stress. You set the price you want to pay (on an LCD TV, pair of boots, etc) and the site will email you once a retailer drops their price to match your budget.

PriceGrabber.co.uk updates its prices up to six times a day–and immediately if a retailer makes a change, which I’m told is more than most other comparison websites who typically refresh only once per day.

I haven’t tried Price Alerts yet. It’s an extra step but if it works I can’t see how it wouldn’t be worth it. If you give it a try let me know what you think!