It’s like Christmas everyday and I’m becoming friends with the UPS guy.

We’ve started checking off the obvious items on our build materials list like wire connectors, adhesives, insulation and tools. If you’re interested in keeping up with our material list you can find that here. Everyday another Amazon box appears on the door step. It’s really easy to blow your budget on a conversion if you’re not careful. We’re keeping a detailed spreadsheet of material, parts, costs planned vs spent, etc. to stay on top of it all. I’ve found a few helpful things that has saved us a few bucks already.

Honey

Pretty slick website and browser plugin that helps find easy savings on Amazon purchases and online retailers like Target and Walmart. In their own words “Honey detects savings opportunities on Amazon and shows you the lowest price of all the sellers.” I’m using it on Safari for Mac and it’s been super easy and has actually saved me quite a bit. For the Amazon piece it’s pretty obvious what’s happening but if you’re like me you probably never took the time to manually do what it does automatically. Honey is looking at all sellers of an item on a product page of Amazon and finds the best price available. It might not be Prime shipping but it’s the same item. In our case we have a couple of months before we take delivery on our van so we’re not in a rush for shipping but saving $3 dollars on a $10 purchase is awesome. It really adds up quickly on the amount of stuff you need for a build.

You can also use it to try to automatically find promotions and discount codes on other websites at checkout. They will get a kick back from the merchant and you save some cash. I’ve not used this function much as most of the items I’m looking for have been cheapest on Amazon. You can check it out here.

Harbor Freight

AKA “Garbage” Freight. Before you freak out let me explain. Harbor Freight is a discount tool/supply company. They sell tons of off brand cheaply made tools. Don’t expect high quality tools that will last a lifetime but for the small things like blades, sand paper, gloves or clamps than it’s not that bad. They have an over the top coupon strategy that essentially you can always find a discount offer for something that you might need plus a free item for buying anything. $2 for sand paper and you leave with a magnetic tool holder as well. Not a bad deal. If you have one local then popping in occasionally to grab some supplies and another LED flashlight for free isn’t all that bad.

Jet.com

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with using Jet.com for some of the larger items like a new stereo or porta potty. Prices are on par with Amazon for many items but with the added benefit that new accounts get 15% off the first 3 orders. You also have the ability to use promo codes which puts some items at a significant savings over Amazon and other retailers that I’ve researched. This site does have some limitations on product selection and prices aren’t great on everything. It is work a check when shopping around for a good deal on parts. I picked up most of my audio equipment from them at way better prices than Amazon and saved over $100 compared to Amazon.

I’ll post up more tips and experiences as time goes on, good or bad.