Extreme couponing is a growing trend that probably won’t die down soon.  With a show on TLC titled the same, shoppers everywhere are wondering how to get these great savings.  Unfortunately, most people can’t be Extreme Couponers because it in itself is full time job.  Thankfully, there are coupon websites that bring together hundreds of coupons found online.  One of the great things about coupons and these sites is that there are always new coupons being released or added.  However, unless you are willing to keep refreshing a page for updates all day, you won’t know when new specials are released.  This is where coupon toolbars come in handy.

What is a Coupon Toolbar?

As more people are searching for online coupons, there is now a need for a toolbar to update you on newly released coupons.  In addition, coupon toolbars let you view current offers from either one webpage, or a variety of them.  The toolbar will typically have a few different buttons, as well as a search bar.  Some of the buttons the toolbar will contain include:

• Coupons – this tab should contain coupons, categorized in their correct sections.  Often toolbars will tell you how many different coupons are listed in each of the categories

• Coupon Codes – these are helpful for any internet shopping you do.

• Freebies – though not in every toolbar, these let you know any great freebies

• Best Deals – just like on a coupon website, they may show you the best deals of the day

• Search Bar – The search bar built in can be helpful if you already have another toolbar just for a search bar.  With so many different downloadable tools, many people often want to combine these into one simple bar

Other Benefits

• Some coupon toolbars alert you when you are shopping on a page that this site currently has a special deal or promotion running.  This is very helpful, as most people don’t always remember to search for coupons of the retailer they are shopping at online

• To search for coupons, you don’t even need to leave the website you are currently on.  Instead, you just search within the toolbar in your browser window.

Where Do I Get a Coupon Toolbar?

To find a coupon toolbar, you can search in your favorite search engine for “Coupon Toolbar Downloads.”  From there, you will find many different toolbars to download.  It may be helpful to download a few of them and figure out which one works best for you and then uninstall the others.  Otherwise, you can do a little research to figure out which toolbar offers what you want.

Before you download

• Make sure that the toolbar supports whichever browser you are using.   They don’t all work on all browsers – if you are downloading through Firefox, make sure the toolbar supports the version of Firefox you have.  It often takes a little while for toolbars to be updated to be compatible with new browser versions

• Check to see if the toolbar is compatible with your computer.  Some toolbars only work on PCs or Macs, or certain versions

Our Recommendation

After trying all these different coupon toolbars, we recommend CouponAlert.  Coupon Alert has a search bar, promo codes, and freebies.  It also lets you know if there are promotions on the site you are currently on.  In addition, it is small and easy to use.