I want to buy a domain for the cheapest price possible and that it is legit and safe.
I have always bought from namecheap, so I want to know an alternative.
One website is going to be a portfolio, the other will be some kind of social media
I wouldn't use 1and1, register.com or Yahoo domains which sometimes offer big discounts. You have to pay pricey renewal fees and they make it hard to transfer away.
Name.com, Godaddy and Namecheap are the only registers that I have/ currently use. Godaddy sometimes have big discounts. This: http://x.co/30rYf gives you $1.99 .com at Godaddy.
Since you always use Namecheap (which I do) I would suggest you stick with them as they are honestly great.
I am not sure if you are aware but there is a discount coupon site for Namecheap - http://www.namecheapcoupons.com/ which could make your purchases cheaper.
I usually buy my domains from the service I host with. Some disagree with that but in the 10+ years that I have been doing it, I've never had any issues doing it...
I use Dreamhost myself. However, I had also purchased domains at Name Cheap, Host Gator, 1 and 1 and Go Daddy. I hear a lot of good thing as far as Go Daddy when it comes to domain names, not so much for hosting though.
Cheapest? If you can't spend $12 a year on a domain name, then you might consider another hobby.