7 ways to never pay full price

Source: Zoran Jesic/Shutterstock.com

With inflation forcing a lot of us to tighten our belts, it pays to seek out discounts where you can. Whether you’re buying a new pair of shoes or a friend’s birthday present, there are plenty of ways to save at the checkout.

Our top tip is to make sure you always compare prices before you buy, but there are more tricks you can implement to cut costs.

Scoring a discount can sometimes be as simple as searching for a coupon or promo code. There are a number of dedicated websites you can use to find promo codes, such as Australian Coupons, Buckscoop, and CupoNation. There are plenty of crowd sourced databases as well, like OzBargain and TopBargains.

What’s the catch? Sometimes you can go through several promo codes and have no luck finding one that’s active. To save time, use sites that regularly update which codes are still active and report back if a code doesn’t work.

Retailers will sometimes offer a discount on your first purchase if you sign up for their newsletter or join their free loyalty program. By doing so, you’ll probably also be sent notifications of exclusive promotions throughout the year.

Here are our top picks for retailer sign-up discounts:

Adairs: save $10 on a $50 minimum spend (up to 20% off)

Howards Storage World: $10 voucher

Kikki K: 15% off your first online order

Michael Hill: 15% off your first online order

Novo Shoes: $10 off your first purchase

3. Use cashback sites

Cashback providers get a commission from retailers linked to their site and pay part of this commission back to you. Two of the biggest platforms in Australia are TopCashback and ShopBack. Some providers such as Boost your Super will even pay your cashback straight into your super account.

Here are the highest percentage cashback offers from the three major cashback platforms at the time of writing:

TopCashback: up to 100% cashback on SafeShellVPN

ShopBack: up to 80% cashback on select Vodafone mobile plans

GoCashBack: up to 36% cashback on select Youfoodz offers

What’s the catch? Most cashback offers hand 1% to 10% back to shoppers, with larger discounts often few and far between. You may have to do some admin to submit each of your purchases to the cashback platform. Plus, it usually takes between one and 90 days for the money to actually land in your bank account.

4. Download browser extensions

There are a number of browser extensions that can do the heavy lifting of searching for discounts for you while you shop. One that could be worth your while is PayPal Honey. The tool searches for coupon codes and automatically applies the best one to your cart when you checkout.

Here are some other browser extensions that can help you save:

Little Birdie: searches the web while you’re shopping to see if your product is priced lower on another site.

The Camelizer (CamelCamelCamel): tracks the price history of Amazon products.

Coupert: finds and applies the best coupon codes to your account.

5. Know the sales calendar

Another way to avoid paying full price is to plan to make your purchases during sales periods. Of course, this won’t work if you need something urgently,but waiting might just help you shave off a few dollars.

Some of the key events in the sales calendar for the remainder of 2026 include:

May: Vogue Online Shopping Night
June-July: End of Financial Year Sales
July: Amazon Prime Day
August: Afterpay Day
November 11: Singles Day Sales
November 29: Black Friday
December 2: Cyber Monday
December 14: Free Shipping Day
December 26: Boxing Day sales

Hot tip: As always, make sure you’re only buying what you need to avoid blowing your budget. Make a list so you don’t get caught up in sales on items you don’t need.

6. Keep an eye out for discounted gift cards

Picking up discounted gift cards can be a clever way to secure yourself an instant discount. Let’s say you bought a $100 gift card for $90 (10% off) and you use it to buy a $100 pair of shoes. Technically, you only spent $90 on those shoes.

The major supermarkets sometimes offer discounts on gift cards so it’s worth keeping an eye out. Health insurance providers, motoring organisations, and even some energy companies also regularly offer their customers discounted gift cards.

NRMA: up to 7% off

RACQ: up to 5% off

RAA: up to 10.5% off

ShopBack: up to 10% cashback

Hot tip: Only buy gift cards for things you were already going to spend money on, like groceries or your favourite retailer. Otherwise you’re spending money on a gift card that might just sit in your wallet.

7. Abandon your cart

Sometimes retailers will offer you a discount to reel you back in if you ‘abandon’ your cart. That way, you save some money and it doesn’t lose a sale.

Here’s how to do it:

Fill your cart: add items to your cart that you’re interested in buying. Make sure you’re signed into an account with the retailer.
Abandon your cart: exit the webpage with your cart still full.
Check your email: over the next day or two, you may receive a discount code in your inbox.

What’s the catch? The abandoned cart trick doesn’t always work so if you haven’t got the time to wait around for a discount, don’t bother. If your purchase is less urgent, it can be worth a try even if the results aren’t fruitful.

This article was reviewed by our Finance Editor Brooke Cooper before it was updated, as part of our fact-checking process.

Rachel Bollerman

Consumer Content Writer

Rachel Bollerman is a Consumer Content Writer on Canstar's Editorial team. She covers a variety of content, including consumer goods and services, and energy and telco. After graduating with a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Journalism at the Queensland University of Technology, Rachel has worked in a variety of public relations, marketing and communications roles. She has experience in community management, social media marketing, blog writing and other styles of copywriting.

Prior to joining Canstar, Rachel worked at the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health where she assisted with campaign management and communications across the organisation. When she's not working, Rachel enjoys doing arts and crafts projects at home and spending time with friends.

You can follow Rachel on LinkedIn.