We begin our series on a something that can make you look years younger, become the envy of your friends, and make you feel like...well, like smiling all day long: Teeth Whitening.

Who likes yellow teeth? Right, nobody. Not only having yellow teeth is embarrasing, it can also affect your personal life and your career as well. What can be done about it? For years the answer has been simple: if you want white teeth, you have to be willing to spend some serious coin at the dentist. Now, finally, there is an alternative.

With the recession in full swing, many consumers are turning to the internet to take advantage of special trial offers allowing them to save hundreds of dollars.

Cathy, an ordinary mom - if there is such a thing - from Santa Cruz, CA is one such consumer. Cathy recently discovered a clever way of combining two different teeth whitening product trials from two different companies--Smile Whites Pro and AltaWhite--to get one full "super" whitening.

In fact, Cathys own dentist says that the whitening this gave Cathy's teeth is comparable to what you might attain at a dentist's office for $400 or more, using nothing but trial offers and paying less than $4 in shipping charges.

Cathy's story has been written up in a number of sites all over the internet, and we thought it would be a great example of how you too can beat this recession. If you haven't already read about Cathy, how she wound up with yellow teeth sounds all too familiar to many of us:

Well, honestly, I did quite a few things that probably contributed to my yellow teeth. I have an occasional glass of red wine, I’m an avid coffee drinker, and, most regrettably, I started smoking way back in college when I was about 21 years old. I smoked for just over 10 years before finally quitting, and although I’m very happy I did quit, I was disappointed that my teeth really didn’t recover. Finally, I was self employed for many years and had little or no dental coverage. I can’t claim to have brushed twice a day every single day, but I honestly think I was usually pretty good about it… and I didn’t see any improvement, no matter how many “whitening toothpastes” I tried. Anyway, long story short, the coffee (couple cups a day), red wine here and there, and about ten years of smoking made my teeth something I was ashamed of.

...I’m certainly not a rich woman and didn’t think I could afford it. But after looking around and reading what had actually worked for other people, I found the two products others had said had worked so well for them. Then I looked all over the internet and found special offers (and promo codes) where you could try the products by only paying a few dollars for shipping. That allowed me to get these two different products–completely free!* :). I followed the suggestions of people that this worked for and used one product first, and once I ran out, switched to the other. The results were really good with just the first product alone, but what I hadn’t expected was that when I followed it with the second product, I saw dramatic improvements in parts of my teeth that the other product had only slightly improved. Like I said, I’m no doctor or medical expert, but it was pretty clear that each of the separate products focused on DIFFERENT parts of the problem, or that the second product gave the teeth whitening enough of a “boost” that it completely finished the job! By using them both in a row I was able to get better results than I ever thought I could, and because they both had trials AND I found promo codes for them, I was able to do the whole thing by just paying less than $4 in shipping charges.

Cathy: “I not only found products that produced a result as good as or better than what I would have expected from the dentist, but I found out that these teeth whitening companies are DESPERATE for new customers in this recession and are currently offering trials of their products.”

But Cathy didn’t stop there—after finding the special offers, Cathy made use of the kind of ingenuity many consumers have turned to during this recession, and obtained special discount codes ("promo codes") that reduce the shipping charges on each of the trials to a couple dollars--making it possible to get them both delivered for under $4 total.

As Cathy describes it, “I was surprised by the results after the very first day – but once I saw my teeth after a week, I was totally blown away… I knew I was onto something.”

Most clever, perhaps, is the fact that combining two different trial products, and using them one after another, allowed Cathy to get what could effectively be described as a “super whitening” without breaking the bank.

When we asked Cathy more about her discovery, she explained that “The trick is to use TWO products that compliment each other TOGETHER to give yourself a whitening that’s better than you ever could have expected.”

Thank you to Cathy for this week’s consumer tip. Cathy has shared her discovery with thousands of people over the internet. If you’re interested in using Cathy’s trick, we’ve provided links and coupon code information below. Remember, to get results like Cathy’s, you will want to use BOTH products together. The coupon codes reduce shipping costs to under $4 total:

Step 1: Click here for Smile Whites Pro (Use Promo Code: "SAVE")
(expires on EST )

Step 2: Click here for AltaWhite (Use Promo Code: "WHITE")
(expires on EST )

Would you like to share a consumer tip for next week? If so, please send us an email.