I always get the best deal, you might call me cheap. I, however like frugal, because I am not afraid to spend, I just like to get the best value. Recently I needed a new laptop and wanted to find the best one at the best possible price I could. I researched the brands and models that were available and after much thought and comparison, I settled on the HP Pavilion dv9700t series laptop from HP.

com. It was a great deal, the best price available, by far the best way to buy a new laptop. The HP Pavilion dv9700t had all the features I wanted. The ones that did not come standard with it, I could upgrade to. The base price was $999, which for what it had was a great deal. After looking at the possible upgrades, I selected to go with the 17.

0" WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050) upgrade, which would give me a brighter screen and a higher resolution possibility. The laptop already came with 2GB of memory so I decided that would be good for now. I next selected the free imprint upgrade to make my laptop look "cool.

" The 256mb video card was more than enough as was the included wireless network setup. Lo and behold they were offering a free hard drive upgrade from 250GB to 320GB so naturally I selected that. The next step was the DVD drive option, so for $75 I upgraded from the standard LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support to the HD DVD ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer. One of my favorite upgrades was to the high capacity 8 cell lithium battery. Longer battery life on my laptop was definitely worth $39. I highly recommend doing this on any laptop purchase.

I next added a System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) for $19. I like the ability to have access to the operating system and recovery on a disk instead of just the hard drive. Personally I am not a big fan of extended warranties, however I did add the 1 year plan that covers pretty much everything including spills and accidents.

I will be ready for a new laptop after a year anyway. So, for $109 I figured it was good insurance. I felt I didn't need anything else they offered and was ready to go. My total at this point was $1332.

99 and they are including free shipping, a nice bonus. As I am ready to check out, I noticed a field for a coupon code. Now I was definitely getting excited.

I have a great source for online coupons and I quickly headed to www.whatsyourdeal.com to check out their HP coupons. I applied the coupon code to the cart and my total was now only $1032.

99. Am I good or what? There is nothing like finding free money. I could have paid the price HP had listed for the laptop and been happy as it was a good deal already. I was able to get the same exact HP laptop from the same exact place for $300 less.

Kim Sunshine Shopping Expert resources: http://www.whatsyourdeal.com http://www.whatsyourdeal.com/forums/hp-coupon.html