10 Ways To Save Money While Shopping For Gifts

save money

Need to shop for gifts for Christmas, Mothers Day, Valentines Day, a birthday or maybe a family event? Is the task overwhelming you — and your wallet — somehow?

Just remember that while you’re shopping for gifts, you can still save some money. Here are some ways that you can save money while not appearing cheap:

1. Make a list of people you need or want to give gifts to. Identify the ones that could be given “family gifts” (one big gift for the whole family) and which ones are supposed to be given “individual gifts”. Giving family gifts instead of individual ones will save you money big time.

2. You may create categories according to gender and age. It is a practice of a lot of people to give the same gifts to people in the same gender and age group.

3. Identify your budget for each one. Determine the maximum amount you want to spend on each person or each category.

4. Check the deals I post here on BayAreaMommy and decide whether a deal is a good gift idea for anyone on your list. Almost all of the deals I post here on my blog will save you at least 50%.

5. Take advantage of Black Friday or Cyber Monday or some special day deals. A lot of stores, whether online or brick-and-mortar, have great deals for those days. Some store ads have already leaked on the internet and I’ll post them as I see them so you can scan each ad.

6. Remember that online prices are usually better. Online stores don’t need to pay rent so they have less operating expenses thus they are more able to drop prices lower. The only problem is shipping. But you can…

7. Take advantage of FREE Shipping deals. Some stores have a “Ship to Store” option where you just pick up the item in-store. You can also check ShopRunner.com or FreeShipping.com which give members free shipping at participating online stores. And of course there’s Amazon Prime.

8. Use cash-back sites such as ShopAtHome or Ebates. It would actually be a good idea to sign up for both sites so you can check which one has a better cashback offer for a certain online store.

9. Should you choose to shop in-store, USE COUPONS! Look for store coupons that can be stacked with manufacturer coupons. Target just released a booklet full of store coupons for toys. And there are already some manufacturer coupons out. I will also be on the lookout for toy deals in-store so just check for my updates everyday.

10. Once you’re done buying a gift for a person, CHECK OFF THEIR NAME on your list! Stop buying for the same people just because the next deal is better! I’m actually guilty of this but it’s not helping the budget.

Comments

10 Ways To Save Money While Shopping For Gifts — 4 Comments

  1. I do watch for the free shipping codes or deal whenI shop online and usually find one. You have some great tips, now if I could stick to keeping the budget and not going overboard when buying a gift.