Gift giving should be fun, but there always seems to be some stress around it. Whether its finding the perfect gift, or trying to find the best deal, or navigating busy stores, or working with a tight budget, it can be stressful.

Read on for holiday shopping tips that should make your shopping experience a little less stressful and hopefully save you some money!

 

Table of Contents

• Black Friday Shopping Tips
• Cyber Monday Shopping Tips
• Tips for Finding the Best Deals
• Budgeting and Money Shopping Tips
• Miscellaneous Shopping Tips

 

Holiday Shopping Tips

 

 

Disclosure: I may earn money or products from any of the companies mentioned in this post. Purchasing through an affiliate link comes at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Black Friday Shopping Tips (and other in-store shopping tips)

 

• Check to see if you can purchase Black Friday deals online, rather than in stores. (For the past two years, I was able to buy Target Black Friday door-busters online when sales started (Thanksgiving evening), and wait to do in store pick-up until that weekend.)

 

• In busy stores, avoid using carts. Bring a handful of reusable shopping bags so you can maneuver around the store (and crowds)

 

• Wondering if a store will be offering a Black Friday deal? Simply ask. While big chain stores may not be able to give extra info, I’ve had success learning more at smaller local stores.

 

• Make a list. Don’t show up and expect to wonder to find things as you may be extremely overwhelmed and make impulse purchases.

 

• DO YOUR RESEARCH! There are sites solely created to getting you the best Black Friday deals (like blackfriday.com). Use them! Read the circulars. Study the deals ahead of time!

 

• If your trunk is visible from outside your car, bring a blanket to put over the bags. Also, avoid going out to your car to store your gifts and back in again as this may show others that you are storing gifts in your car and will not be around for a while.

 

• Don’t wear red to target on Black Friday. (You may be confused for an employee and bombarded with questions.)

 

• Travel light; bring only the necessities in a small purse, ideally one that is hands-free.

 

• Dress comfortable and wear shoes that won’t hurt after standing on your feet for a while.

Related Post: 5 things to do with unwanted gift cards

Cyber Monday Shopping Tips

 

• Shop “incognito” or in “private” mode to avoid price increases as a result of stores tracking your computer’s cookies.

 

• Follow the stores you want to shop at on social media to know when deals go up and sometimes even receive exclusive deals for followers.

 

• Be sure to check refund policies (especially restocking fees) before making a purchase.

Tips for Finding the Best Deals

 

• Use the Amazon app to price check items in store. (Download the app on your phone. Once in the app, use the scanning feature to scan bar codes in store. It will show you the price of the same item on Amazon.com so you can compare prices.)

 

• If you are shopping on Amazon.com, use camelcamelcamel.com before you buy so you can see the price trends, including high and low-price points, and get alerted to price drops. (Read more Amazon shopping tips within this post: 21 Secrets to Shopping on Amazon)

 

• Look for a coupon for EVERYTHING. Before you buy simply type in “coupon code for INSERT STORE NAME” (for online coupons) or “printable coupon code for INSERT STORE NAME” (for coupons to use in store.) (If you can only find online coupons, check the store’s policies to see if you can purchase online and pick up in store to get the deal.)

 

• Sign up for emails for the stores you want to shop at (ideally at least a week in advance). Many stores send exclusive coupons to their email subscribers. (Tip: Create a new email just for these promotional emails as you will likely be receiving daily emails from many stores.)

Budgeting & Money Shopping Tips

 

• SET A BUDGET! Write down every person who you have to buy for, their individual budget, and add up the total for all gifts. (After adding up our total last year, I realized it was just simply too high for my comfort and I was able to adjust my individual budgets to accommodate.)

 

• If you fear that you won’t be able to stick to the budget in store, take out cash for in-store shopping.

 

• Use Ebates to earn cash back when online shopping. (This is seriously one of the easiest ways to earn cash back…simply sign up for an account, and when you shop online, access the site through the Ebates portal. That’s it! You don’t have to do anything else, but watch your cash back total add up.) (Get $10 when you sign up using the link below.)

• Buy discounted gift cards on sites like Raise, Giftcards.com or Gift Card Granny. (You can save hundreds by purchasing gift cards at a discount!)

 

• Use Swagbucks to earn gift cards by taking surveys, watching videos, and shopping online.

Miscellaneous Shopping Tips

 

• Do you struggle coming up with the perfect gift to buy others? Here are a few tips:
  • Ask them (I know, duh!)
  • Ask them to create a wish list on Amazon (this may also be a good idea for you to do so you can share the specifics of what you want with others)
  • {Sneaky Trick} Tell them that you got them a present and that they have three guesses to see if they can guess what you got them. (While this may be a total fib, now you have three gift ideas from them!)

 

• Ask for gift receipts to avoid uncomfortable requests for returns.

 

• Don’t forget about Small Business Saturday deals! (The Saturday after Thanksgiving)

 

Do you have other holiday shopping tips? Please share in the comments.

 

Related Posts:

20 of the Best Christmas Traditions

Christmas Mad Libs

Where to Buy Matching Holiday Pajamas in 2018

 

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