Shop Smart Magazine

Are you familiar with Shop Smart magazine? This is one of my guilty pleasure magazines that I don't subscribe to (yet!), but often pick up when I'm out and about. It is put out by Consumer Reports and is full of great, unbiased information about which products are worth your money and which you can pass on. It also offers great advice on how to get the most for your money.

A couple tidbits of information that I learned from this months issue:

* Coupon usage is up 8% from last year. 67% of women reported using a coupon in the past month.

* Open Sky, a social shopping site that has "pro 'curators' who guide you to cool finds in four categories: food, style and beauty, healthy living, and home and design. They'll select one item a week, and you'll have 24 hours to snap it up at 30 to 60 percent off". I'll definitely be checking this website out.

* Many major retailers take returns of open beauty products. You should never get stuck with a beauty product that doesn't work for you.

This magazine tends to be a little more expensive, mainly because there are NO advertisements! Because it is published by Consumer Reports, they do not take any ads or free samples. They test all the products featured in the magazine and provide honest reviews. It's not very often that a magazine will tell you what products NOT to buy.

If you are interested in checking out Shop Smart, here are a couple ways you can save some money.

Look for $1.50 off peelie on the magazine in stores. All the copies at my grocery store had these, which brought the price down to $3.49.

Look for Shop Smart at Costco. I reguarly see this magazine at Costco, where magazines are 30% off cover price. The price at Costco would also be $3.49.

If you are interested in a subscription to Shop Smart, go through Ebates and purchase at Magazines.com. Ebates offers 40% back on Magazines.com. Shop Smart is $34.95 for 10 issues or $20.97 with your Ebates cash back. That brings the price way down to $2.09 per issue. Maybe it's time for me to get a subscription!

P.S. No one compensated me for this review. I just really like this magazine and think it is worth checking out!