As the holiday shopping season settles upon us, you may find yourself facing some unique challenges when it comes to checking off all those items on your holiday gift giving list.
While COVID has may make holiday shopping a little more challenging this year (between limiting in-store visits, shortages in some product categories, and retailers kicking their deals off at different times this year), there are still some tips that can help you save the most money!
Start Early
Starting your shopping early this year will be even more important because deals are kicking off earlier than ever, and also because many of the hottest products are likely to sell out quickly.
A couple of retailers that are kicking off online deals early this are Wal-Mart (which is hosting its “Deals for Days” event, which staggers deals throughout the month of November) and Target (with its “Deal Days” promotion which also spans the entire month of November).
Do most of your shopping online.
There is likely to be fewer big in-store promotions this year due to the pandemic, and most retailers are going to be focusing on online shopping, offereing free delivery or ship-to-store options.
Use Price Comparison Websites and Apps.
To ensure that you are always getting the best deal possible, you can use websites like Google Shopping, PriceGrabber, and Shopzilla to compare prices of items at various retailers before you buy. Or, if you are in-store, apps like BuyVia, Shopkick, ShopSavvy, and Shopular allow you to scan bar codes to compare prices, as well as get discounts and coupons.
Check the ads ahead of time.
There are numerous websites that post leaked Black Friday ads well before Black Friday. A couple that you can check out are BestBlackFriday.com, DealNews, TheBlackFriday.com, Deals Plus/Black Friday and GottaDeal.
Get Social.
If you check out the Facebook pages, Instagram posts, and Twitter feeds of your favorite retailers, you may be able to score exclusive deals and promotions during the holiday shopping season. Retailers love to reward their loyal customers!
Stick to your budget!
It is really easy to get caught up in the excitement of Black Friday shopping and get sucked into those doorbuster deals that you weren’t even planning on buying! But that can lead you to way overspend. Make sure you go into Black Friday shopping with an idea of what you need to buy a budget of how much you can spend. Then stick to it.
Utilize Price-Match policies.
It’s a good idea to know your favorite retailer’s price-match policy. They may be willing to price-match only specific deals. Some stores suspend their price-match guarantees on certain items during Black Friday Shopping, so read the fine print!
Shop using Discounted Gift Cards.
Obviously, Black Friday is known for its already deep discounts, but what if I told you there was a way to save EVEN MORE!? That is to shop with discounted gift cards! Before you plan of doing your shopping, you can check out websites like Raise.com or ________ to find discounted gift cards to some of the retailers you are likely to find Black Friday Deals. The discount on the gift card then can stack on top of the great deals you find on Black Friday!
Remember that Not Everything is Really a Deal on Black Friday.
Many times, retailers don’t offer their lowest prices until closer to December 25th. So, just because something is on sale for 30% off, doesn’t mean you should buy it now. If it is not one of the “hottest” items, you may be able to hold out and see if you can get an even deeper discount.
Sign up for emails.
Think about which stores you want to do you holiday shopping at this year. Then, visit each of their websites and sign up for email newsletters (if you aren’t already signed up). Make sure you do this a couple weeks ahead of time if you can, because it can take some time for the emails to start to generate. By being subscribed to their emails, you are sure to stay in-the-know of all the special promotions they are running, not only on Black Friday, but throughout the entire holiday shopping season!
I hope these tips help you make the most of your Black Friday shopping experience! Now, go get ‘em! And happy shopping! 🙂
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*This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and purchase something, I may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you.) You can read my disclosure policy HERE.
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