Cheap online shopping

Always check what you need to spend to get free delivery – if you're just below it, it can be cheaper to add an extra item than pay for delivery.

For example, we found a £49 John Lewis clutch bag, delivery £3.95, but instead added a £1 Sellotape to be over the £50 free delivery threshold.

Other stores where this works include Asos and Matalan, which have a £40 and £50 free delivery threshold respectively. 

Even better, with Amazon, there's a 'free delivery trick' tool to help.

Our forumites have an insatiable appetite for deals so check the latest on the MSE Forum's Grabbit board, alerting you to the hottest deals around.

These are posted by users so aren't official MSE content. They're normally fine, but take care and double-check before using them.

Mistakes can and do happen, especially in the fast-paced online world, and there can be some right whoppers online. If a £50 brand new iPad seems too good to be true, it usually is. See Martin's blog: Tesco scores second own goal.

With these kind of offers where items are listed well below their RRP, you can't force retailers to sell them to you at that price. Retailers don't have to sell anything to you if they don't want to – deliberately misleading you is criminal though and Trading Standards can investigate.

If you spot a mis-priced mistake, you can try your luck. Online retailers will sometimes honour it if the price difference isn't too big.

Just be aware that if you do order a glitchy item, it can get cancelled, can run out of stock or at the worst, you'll be charged full-price, so weigh up these factors before going for it.

It's enough to make you fume. You've been told you need to be in for a delivery and take a day off work but end up twiddling your thumbs because they're either hours late or don't bother turning up at all.

Yet you CAN fight back if you know your rights. You may even be able to force compensation for the lost time.

See the Delivery Rights guide to make sure you're armed with the full info.

We're not denying they're boring, long or full of convoluted business-speak, but the T&Cs are important – that little tick-box confirming you've read, understood and accepted them could be a deal-breaker later if things go awry.

See former MSE Wendy's blog, I read the T&Cs and was pleasantly surprised, which highlights the importance of reading through the small print.

Even if you don't read the legalese, always at least read the standard terms and conditions before you pay to know exactly what is included and excluded in the exchange. Plus, always ask questions beforehand if there's anything you don't understand, in writing or by email if possible, before you seal the deal.

Speaking to staff face-to-face in-store allows you to add a bit more charm and chutzpah to your haggling, especially if bulk-buying or bartering for discounts on faulty items. It can be worth benchmarking prices online, then using the tips in our High street haggling guide to get the costs slashed further.

If you've got your heart set on a designer number (not MoneySaving), you could hire rather than buy to shave off the cost of a little luxury for an evening. For example, we spotted designer heels you could rent for £16.50 for a day, which would cost £345 to buy new.

MSE Jenny's Top designer clothes rental sites guide goes through the options (including big names such as M&S and John Lewis), as well as all the need-to-knows.

Do watch for soilage and damage costs and extra charges if items are returned late. Also check eBay – it can be far cheaper to grab items second-hand there, then resell them when you're done.

Have you been hit by a £95 fee for unwittingly using Amazon Prime? 

We've seen scores of complaints from confused shoppers whose accounts have been debited by Amazon without them knowing why. Our Reclaim unwanted Amazon Prime guide shows how to get your money back.

Before you part with your cash, first check if you can get the same or similar item for free via Freecyle or Freegle. Sometimes new as well as second-hand goods are offered on these local web communities so there are real bargains to be had.

How do they work?

It's all about web communities – go via the main site and you're sent to free-to-join, volunteer-run local email groups (though nowadays you can also view much of it on their sites).

It can be a source for freebies to kit out your pad with a sofa, espresso maker or even dungarees to lounge in. But the spirit of it is that it's a recycling community, so you should give, as well as get. See the Freecycle & Freegle guide for more info.