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I will be starting my FRUGAL HOLIDAY SHOPPING Series tonight with a couple of tips to get you ready to start saving big during the holidays!
The most important thing is to STAY ON TRACK and under budget. It is actually much easier than you think if you shop strategically and know who you have to buy for, who you have already bought for and how much you plan to spend. If you are shopping blindly you will spend a lot more money, you will end up buying more gifts than necessary for one or two people and needlessly spend money at the last minute trying to buy random gifts for those that you forgot to buy for. Trust me, I’ve done it hundreds of times! Here are some basic strategies to help you stay on track and spend a fraction of what you usually do during the holidays:
STEP ONE (very important), MAKE A LIST and check it twice:
Make a list with everyone’s name on it that you have to buy for including teachers, bosses, secret santa groups that you usually participate in and anyone else that comes to mind. I use a spiral notebook and leave three lines between each person’s name which gives me room to write things under that name. To the immediate right of their name put a dollar amount that you would like to stay BELOW. Underneath their name on the first line write in a few ideas (if you have them) of what might be a good gift for that person. Once you purchase a gift that will fit for that person, write what you bought underneath their name with a star on each side of the item that you bought. This will make it easy to see at a quick glance that you already have their gift taken care of! When a super deal pops up all you have to do is glance at your list and see if there is anyone left that you might want to buy that item for!
STEP TWO – sign up for free shipping and money back promotions while available:
Plan to do as much shopping online as possible. This will prevent you from purchasing other items that you did not intend to buy. One of the best ways to save big by shopping online is to sign up for any online rebate programs such as Ebates and discount shipping promotions that are available such as AMAZON MOM, AMAZON STUDENT or AMAZON PRIME. With Amazon, you can usually sign up for the free three month trial period BEFORE the major holiday shopping period starts. If you sign up now, you will get free 2-3 day shipping during the holidays! This will save you a ton of money in the long run, plus with online shopping you usually don’t have to pay tax as long as the retailer doesn’t have a stand alone store in your state.
EBATES IS A MUST!!!
EBATES is an awesome program to participate in during the holidays! If you haven’t heard of Ebates before and you plan to follow the awesome deals that I will be posting, make sure you sign up RIGHT AWAY!!
What is EBATES?
Ebates is a website that helps you earn up to 25% (but usually more
like 4-6%) cash back when you shop from any of their participating
online retailers. All you have to do is sign up with EBATES
for an account, then
begin your shopping session from their site.
So let’s say I decide I’m going to order something from Kohl’s,
I know that Kohl’s is one of the
companies that partners with Ebates and that I’ll get a whopping 10% in
cash back if I just 1) go to Ebates.com, 2) sift through their drop-down
menu of stores or go straight to my Favorite Stores list, and
3) click on the Kohl’s link from there.
Clicking on Kohl’s from Ebates simply opens a new window in which
the Kohl’s site loads, and when I place my Kohl’s order from it
as usual, my order is assigned an Ebates tracking ticket and my account
gets credited for the appropriate amount of cash back. If I spend 20
bucks on my order, I get 2 bucks back! Okay so it’s not a HUGE amount of
money, but in my opinion it’s a really small effort on my part to
occasionally get a few bucks back here and there. During the holidays this can really add up! For me its a no brainer!
CLICK HERE to sign up, its FREE!
JUMP on the HOT Online Deals that I post!
There have been several really HOT deals that I have posted about that many of you were able to get in on. I post a LOT thru the day and evening on our facebook page, but during the holidays, you will find these deals posted on our blog and twitter as well (they will automatically show up on our facebook page as well). Again, these deals are fast, HOT and super cheap discount deals! An example of a few of the deals that I have scored online are:
(These deals are no longer available, just showing an example)
Hello Kitty Watch $3.46 SHIPPED!
FREE Transformers Dark of the Moon Charactors
Wii DJ Hero Game $10.00
Operation Toy Story 3 – $1.00!
Yeah, you read those right! Those are just a FEW of the good deals that we have found already this year. If you missed out on the deals, don’t fret, there will be PLENTY more to come, trust me! Last year one of the BEST gifts that I got the girls was a VTech Video Camera for kids that I got on a lightening deal for $6.38 and they play with it EVERY time that they are at my house! You can believe, I will be shopping online and waiting for the super deals to pop up and jumping on them immediately. Who wants to join me?!
Next time we will talk about Black Friday and how to plan ahead for the most exhausting yet thrilling day of shopping for many! Stay tuned!
