Alright, there is nothing glamorous or pretty in this post, but possibly these tips will leave you with some extra cash in your pocket after the holidays are over. The average American will spend close to $700 this year on holiday purchases. So here are a few tips to help you get the most bang for your buck this year. Our holiday gift guide is coming soon for unique gift ideas at great prices, so stay tuned!
- Make a shopping budget. I know we all hate that word, so call it something else if you must. Take a few minutes to make your list of people and how much you would like to spend on each. If you come in under that amount (let’s say you budget $30 for grandpa and you find a great gift for $20), resist the temptation to find another gift for $10. Keep the cash and consider yourself under budget!
- Follow your favorite stores on Twitter and Facebook. Retailers many times offer special discounts to their cyber friends that you would not want to miss! You can search their recent posts to see if you’ve missed anything.
- Visit giftcardrescue.com and giftcards.com to buy discounted cards (some will give you $100 worth of merchandise for $80). Retailers include Apple Store, Radio Shack, Sears, Home Depot and others are available. Make sure you read the fine print for any limitations.
- Don’t forget to negotiate. We’ve heard of people negotiating deals at retail stores like H.H. Gregg and with various online stores via their “chat” or live help” button! Ask them to check with the manager and if they can’t do it, try somewhere else.
- This is one of my favorites! Find discount codes at retailmenot.com, secretprices.com and freeshipping.org Look up your online retailers first before checking out and see what you find!
- Agree with certain groups of people (like adult family members) that you either don’t exchange at all or do something creative instead. In my family we agree to do “make it, shake it, or bake it.” This means everyone can exchange gifts so long as they are either home-made (“make it”); a performance (this is “shake it” and I’m not joking some of our family members put together dance routines as their gift and they are so hilarious); or home-baked (of course this is the “bake it”). It’s really fun. The other side of our family does a Secret Santa gift exchange where everyone buys one gift for just one other person in the group. Designate a dollar amount and have someone draw names out of a hat.
- Use cash to shop. If you’ve budgeted $500, take out that much from the bank, put it in your wallet or an envelope and DON’T sign up for any credit cards while your shopping! Stay on your budget for each person and hopefully you will have a little extra when you leave!
No comments:
Post a Comment