when buying computer hardware and electronics I use price comparison services like Google shopping and Pricewatch. These services make finding deals easy. Often friends buy stuff and brag about the price and how much a of a deal they got. Pretty common to be able to punch in the same item into these pricing engines and find it cheaper.

Online reviews are another bargain. They are less useful if your into the newest style or fashion, it takes time for good reviews to show up, but as long as your well away from the bleeding edge of consumerism online reviews are a good guide.

A key to using online reviews is to be able to tell when the writer is mouthing the manufacturers brochure and when they are adding useful information. One of the ways to tell is to simply visit the manufacturers site and read their sales pitch. When you see the same phrases in a review you can tell where they came from.

Reading reviews is a great way of avoiding the dogs and paying through the nose for a hyped item that isn't much of an improvement over similar items at half the price.

Reading about what is available and reviews of what is out there and finding the cheapest prices also confirms the old adage that value is in the middle of the market. Buy too low and you often get less than what you need. Buy high and your paying for hype, fashion, bragging rights, and features you probably don't need.

That value is in the middle of the market is handy to keep in mind. Shopping on the internet can be like the proverbial sip from a fire hose. Too many choices and options. Further obscured by the expected advertising, hype, fashion police, gear snobs and resellers desperate to shift mediocre products for premium prices because they got fooled also.

Sticking to the middle third of the market greatly simplifies the issue by removing two-thirds off the bat. The remainder is much easier to sort by using reviews and finding out how it worked for others.

The internet is also a great benefit and savings for such things as free books, general information, instructions, advice from people with similar problems. A lot of people are happy to help. It takes some time to differentiate between the well meaning and unskilled and those who are both willing to help and know something but even the rank novices can sometimes come up with good points. Nobody is the final word and everyone has something to offer. Most everyone, excepting the very few that are malicious, has advice that is worth what you pay for it.