Twitter and other sites offer great coupons

Social networking isn’t just for keeping in touch with friends and family. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can save you money, too. All three can be money-saving tools, in different ways. I actively use them to save on groceries, eating out, entertainment and do-it-yourself ideas. Twitter was the first social networking site I joined, and now I consult my timeline several times a day for the best deals on just about everything. (I post my favorite deals to Twitter at @cheapchick.) Twitter is great for making sure you don’t miss out on time-sensitive coupons, sales and offers. Follow sites such as DealNews.com, @dealnews; RetailmeNot.com, @retailmenot; or FatWallet.com, @fatwalletdeals, and you’ll be notified of limited-time offers online and offline. DealNews, for example, let its followers know in late March when Amazon.com was offering a deeply discounted deal on refurbished Kindle Fire tablets — with the same guarantee and warranty as new tablets — for only $139. The deal lasted a few hours before selling out; many who were able to get one saw the offer on Twitter. Follow any retailer or restaurant you patronize regularly, and you could get great coupons and other offers. For example, Iceberg Drive Inn restaurants post frequently on Twitter at @IcebergDriveInn, alerting followers to a host of discounted offers and even free food. Utah’s Subway restaurants are active on Twitter, as well, at @Utah_Subways, alerting followers to specials and periodically giving away free stuff. I joined Facebook a couple of years ago after I noticed all of the high-value coupons being offered on the social networking site. Today, it’s one of my best sources of high-value grocery coupons. In fact, the coupons offered regularly on Facebook are higher in value than coupons found elsewhere online and in print. The trick is to follow food manufacturer websites — but instead of tracking a company such as Nabisco at Facebook.com/pages/Nabisco, you’ll want to follow product-specific Facebook pages. In the case of Nabisco, you could follow Facebook.com/nabiscocookies (this site issues a high-value coupon on the first of every month, while supplies last) or facebook.com/Wheatthins. Use Facebook’s search tool to find the pages of your favorite products and click "like" to follow them. In addition to high-value coupons, companies give away a lot of free food on Facebook. Domino’s pizza tests new products, most recently its artisan pizza line, by giving them away. I recently snagged a free pizza during a five-day giveaway blitz. Cafe Zupas gives away free meals to its Facebook fans before a new restaurant opens; most recently, they enjoyed a free meal in the new restaurant in Farmington in Davis County.