Geeks on a Budget: Holiday Shopping on a Budget
Jamie has been very busy these past few weeks, so I thought I would step in and help with her column.
As you may have guessed by my column, I love fashion — but fashion isn’t always cheap. The same goes for holiday shopping. Sometimes you really want to buy something for someone, but it’s way too expensive. How can you still get that present without breaking the bank? Sometimes you can, with patience and thrifty spending techniques; and, well, sometimes you just have to go for the next best thing. Let’s take a look at some ways you can save a few dollars this holiday season.
Sign Up For Every Daily Deal Site Under The Sun
The Skinny
There are a lot of daily deal sites out there, and they’re bound to offer you something you want for less than what you might expect to pay. These can spam your inbox, however, so I suggest making a separate email account with something like Gmail or Ymail to register to receive your daily deal emails. Here is a list of different daily deal sites you can subscribe to:
Groupon – http://www.groupon.com
SaveMore – http://www.savemore.com
Living Social – http://www.livingsocial.com
Google Offers – http://www.google.com/offers/
Dealster – http://www.dealster.com/
Moolala – http://www.moolala.com
Woot – http://www.woot.com
The Savings
Sifting through these deals may seem like a lot of work, but remember: a penny saved is a penny earned. A few days ago, through SaveMore, I was able to buy a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card for $15 and Dan was able to get two Fandango movie tickets for $12. Since I usually buy one of my friends who loves books a $25 B&N gift card for the holidays, I not only managed to get that gift checked off my list, but save $10 at the same time.
Research In-Store Sales VS Online Sales
The Skinny
Many of your favorite stores have websites where you can purchase the same items you’d find in person from the comfort of your Man Cave™. Many times, when these stores have sales, the sales are available on their websites as well — and sometimes they have special sales for online only, or in-store only. If you have an idea of what you want to buy from a certain store, keep an eye out for in-store and online sales, and see where you can save the most.
The Savings
In their pre-Black Friday event the week before Thanksgiving, Old Navy had sales on different items every day. On that particular Sunday, they had 75% off of all of their sweaters, in-store only. I had originally bought a bunch of sweaters from their website, but was able to go back to the store for the 75% off sale and purchase the same $140 worth of sweaters for $35. I went back when it wasn’t as busy and returned the sweaters I bought online (huzzah for in-store returns of online purchases!) in a matter of minutes.
As you may have seen in our Holiday Gift Guide, I sell t-shirts online through Zazzle. Last week, Zazzle had a few days where their t-shirts were 50% off. So that means a $16.95 Doctor Who t-shirt was only $8.48! Plus Zazzle offers free shipping on orders over $50, so I was able to buy five different custom t-shirts for $57 — That’s an average of $11 per shirt, which is just a dollar more than what I’d pay for a Woot shirt!
Shop On A Budget
The Skinny
One of the biggest ways to save is to create a budget and stick to it. The easiest way to do this is to start by making a list. Make a list of everyone you want to buy a gift for, the ideas you have for a gift, and the budget you have for that person. Stick to that budget! If you budget $10 for a gift for your office friend, then that means you can spend up to $10. $10 does not mean $12! It’s those little overages that will add up the quickest in holiday spending.
The Savings
If you give yourself a budget and stick to it, you’re more likely than you realize to come out ahead. Use the techniques mentioned above to help with staying at or under budget, and if all else fails, give gift cards; gift cards allow you to spend exactly the amount that you’ve budgeted for a person’s gift and let them choose what they want to spend the money on. It tough economic times like this, a $20 Visa gift card may very well be much more appreciated by someone on a tight budget themselves than $20 on a t-shirt (even if it is a cool t-shirt).
One last bit of advice, pay with cash or debit card instead of credit card. When you’re paying with cash or debit, there’s a set amount of money that you can spend, so you’re less likely to go over budget by putting your purchases on a credit card. Plus, cash and debit don’t have fees attached to them (in most cases), so that’s one way to save money by avoiding credit card interest fees.
Shop smart this winter and have a great holiday season!
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