E-mail sale alerts bring the bargains to your In box. Simply sign up at your favorite store's Web site and they'll send you messages about sales and special offers. You might also get exclusive discounts and coupons available only to customers on the e-mail list.

If you're really on the move, cell-phone sale alerts can arrive via text messages directly to your cell phone. But you might want to limit the number of alerts you sign up for or you can easily get overloaded with messages. If you prefer, let your fingers do the walking for retailer Web site specials. One site, iStorez.com, lets you link to a directory of hundreds of retailers, which connects to each store's specials.

If you're slightly more tech savvy, you can use browser plug-ins. Just go to PriceAdvance.com and download the application for your browser. Then when you shop online at participating retailers, prices at competing stores will pop up automatically. For example, Consumer Reports recently found a Canon Rebel camera for $819 at Walmart.com. Then the PriceAdvance window popped up and showed the same camera for $160 less at Amazon.com.

The browser applications are a simple way to compare prices on the same product, but Consumer Reports found that PriceAdvance information was not always up to date. So you need to click through to each retailer's Web site to make sure you get accurate price comparisons.