Vic recently introduced me to Hot UK Deals which is a user-contributed site where people can post their latest bargain finds. There’s all kinds of stuff on there, from computer kit to clothes and power tools. Some of the bargains are huge reductions in price, and some are where the retailer seems to have made a mistake.

People also post vouchers and discount codes on there which all helps to save a few quid here and there.

Looking round that led me to another great site, Quidco, which is a collective cash-back scheme. The co-ordinators of the site arrange deals with online retailers so that people using the links from Quidco get a percentage of their purchase attributed back to their Quidco account.

The amount you get back varies depending on the retailer, some giving more than 10% back, others giving a miserly 0.1%. The co-ordinators keep the first £5 that each user generates per year as a subscription fee, but everything else comes back to the user, via Paypal if they choose.

A great idea, well implemented, using the collective power of online communities, and it can save you quite a bit of money if you shop online regularly.

I spotted on HotUKDeals that Ebuyer were doing the Microsoft Optical Wireless Desktop (wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse) for £8 each, so I ordered 4. The price is back up to £21 now, but the keyboards and mice arrived yesterday, and I’ve sold a couple of them on, at cost, to people at work already.