Finally - the time-saving, money-saving, sanity-saving 4 in 1 price checker toolbar. Phew.

Paul Michael — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:15:49 +0000

There's one problem I have with being a thrifty shopper. Well, one big problem anyway. And it's that I always feel like there could be a better bargain somewhere else. I get buyer's guilt that I've overpaid, even when I've saved 90%. Because maybe, just maybe, I could have saved 95%. Or, 99% (the magic number...I have yet to see it).

Anyway, recently my life was made an awful lot easier by those clever techno wizards at howtobewebsmart.com . They've come up with a cool Firefox Toolbar gadget that allows you to search for prices on 4 well-known sites at the same time. That's right. One search does it all.

"What are the four sites?" I hear you ask. Well, they're small. Tiny. Ebay, Amazon, Shopping.com and Shopzilla.com. I'm sure you may have at least heard of them, they've been around a while.

All you need to do his click on this golden link right here and you'll be taken directly to the web page with all the simple, easy instructions and the rest, as they say, is a piece of cake. Just download the plugin and get shopping.

Another great feature of this tool, which I now use daily, is that the results from each store are brought up in a new tab on Firefox. So, you can continue to compare and contrast each deal with ease. Sweet. Right now, howtobewebsmart.com is also asking for additional ideas for sites that could be put into the price checker search engine (personally, I'd recommend Froogle but it's disappeared...it's now know as Google Products).

The 4in1 price checker is top stuff. It's a time-saver. It's a no-brainer. And it's simple. (I wish I'd thought of it.) Many thanks to Kesav Mohan from howtobewebsmart.com for bringing this to our attention. Kesav, keep those frugal tools coming. We love 'em.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: