Since Groupon and LivingSocial changed the game by serving up daily deals to localized consumers, following in the wake of Woot‘s success, literally hundreds of daily deal sites have popped up. There are over 15 here in Boston alone. The same has happened in every major city in the country. Then there are the daily deal sites for national audiences like Woot. These cater to all kinds of niches from shoppers with pets to Christian consumers.

For a while, I subscribed to all kinds of these sites, hoping to save more money. I think it’s a given that everyone who reads this blog is into saving money, so I’m sure many of you did the same. So why did I unsubscribe from all of these today? Here’s why:

Daily Deals Were Killing My Budget!

The whole point of building a budget, planning how you spend your money and following the plan you set out for yourself is that spending money on unplanned frills is something consumers should often be more disciplined about. Some people budget more spending money than others, but since I started editing this blog and really thinking more about how my girlfriend and I are planning for the future, I’ve really had to limit my fun money in order to pursue bigger goals. For the first time in my life, I’ve become really obsessed with my financial future. Suddenly I’m thinking of how I’ll buy a house, when I’ll pay of my student loan and car debt, and when I’ll be able to afford an engagement ring (shhh).

As I learn more from the awesome columnists who also write for PerkStreet, all of whom are PerkStreet customers just like I am by the way, I’ve realized that I simply shouldn’t tempt myself by voluntarily receiving a dozen emails a day with awesome deals I wasn’t planning on purchasing. For a while I thought I would be able to go through those deals every day without being tempted, but then, that’s why these business are making so much money! They encourage people like me to buy things I didn’t intend to because the deals feel “too good to pass up.” In truth, very few deals (and none I’ve ever received via email) are this good. My budget is my thing. I don’t need distractions from my own financial well-being.

Daily Deal Aggregators Have Arrived!

Why the heck do I need to get 12 emails from different daily deal sites when I can find out about all of them from sites like Yipit and DealGator. These new companies are scouring the web to find the best deals around and send you one consolidated email. If you’re still getting emails from dozens of sites, do yourself a favor and learn about deal aggregation. It’s shaking up the game of daily deals quickly and making surfing these deals easier.

Why Would I Use an Aggregator if Alerts Are Here Too?

You want to know what my new favorite thing is in this space? It’s something that fits my budget and helps me take advantage of great deals? It’s called DealSpoon, and I’m telling you this honestly. Nobody at DealSpoon asked me to write about it, and PerkStreet has no affiliation with anyone at the site. I really, genuinely like DealSpoon. It doesn’t pull in local stuff, but that’s O.K. with me because my girlfriend and I aren’t looking for extra ways to spend money in the expensive city we live in. We do that on our own. What it does do is display current deals happening on quick rotation (multiple deals per day) sites like Steep and Cheap, which I love. It also features geeky stuff like software and electronics, which I also love. Those are the things I fit into my budget so DealSpoon has become a site I love. It’s as simple as that, but there’s more…

DealSpoon is a rare breed of site that offers alerts. Sites like Steep and Cheap that rotate their deals in 15-minute increments often recycle the same deals. The bummer about this is that you never know when they’ll put up a deal they already featured. They do it randomly. But when I saw a bag I really liked on BonkTown, I researched it a little and made sure it was what I wanted and then set up text an email alerts — just like the ones PerkStreet offers for free on our accounts — for that specific bag. Next time it went up, I got a text from DealSpoon, jumped on my laptop and headed to DealSpoon to buy it from BonkTown. Boom. Now I had a bag I really wanted that I budgeted for, and I got an awesome price on it.

Who needs daily deal emails bogging their inbox anyway?

Are you interested in free email and text alerts about your account balance AND earning tons of cash back for spending your own money and staying on-budget? Check out PerkStreet Financial
and apply for a cash back debit card today!