Everyone knows that Walmart is the low cost leader in retail shopping, but did you know that you can save even MORE money at Walmart by using free online coupons and free gift cards? It’s true.

In fact, I would even go as far as saying that if you’re not using online coupons or gift cards, it can actually be costing you more money when you shop online compared to shopping at your local Walmart. Why? Because of the shipping fees. Depending on what you buy, your shipping fees can be crazy expensive. That’s why to offset the cost of shipping, always — always — use coupon codes that you can find online.

Here’s a tip: When you order something online, on the shopping cart page, if you see a field that says “Discount Code”, that means there are discount codes to be found and used to save money.

So where do you get coupon codes? Well, it’s pretty easy nowadays. You can look for them online (by doing a Google search or visiting a coupon site) or you earn them. The best places to find coupon codes are on coupon sites. Believe it or not, there are actually coupon sites that just list coupon codes for most major retailers, including Walmart. These sites are often paid by companies like Walmart to distribute coupons (which are actually advertising tools) to the general public.

You can find pretty good coupons at coupon sites or by simply searching in Google.

But one of the best sources of coupon codes is from Walmart itself. Once you sign up at the website and enter your email address, they’ll send you email alerts for special offers they’re having and coupon codes. And places like Walmart usually have membership reward points that you earn when you buy more stuff.

An even better way to save money at Walmart or other retail stores is to get a free gift card. No… I’m not talking about asking for a gift card as a present from your spouse. I’m talking about scoring a free gift card online! You can actually sign up to get free gift cards worth up to $1,000 from places like Walmart, Kohls, Lowes and others. Click here to get a $1,000 gift card for Walmart.

Now remember, there ARE strings attached. Walmart isn’t just going to hand out $1,000 gift cards to anyone who asks for nothing, especially in this economy. To qualify for a free gift card, you normally have to participate in a survey or sign up for other free offers. But here’s the deal… the other offers that you have to sign up for are great offers too! It’s like someone saying “I’ll give you this gift card worth $1,000 and all you have to do is sign up to get more free stuff from these other vendors.” It’s really a no-brainer.

For example, the Walmart free gift card offer I’ve shared on this site requires that you sign up for a handful of other offers, one of which was Netflix. When I signed up for it, I actually saved money compared to what I was paying at Blockbuster. So I signed up for a handful of other offers, saved more money, and got a gift card to Walmart to boot.

Now go and save some cash and start Googling for coupon codes and make sure to take advantage of this Walmart gift card offer.