Holiday shopping can get very expensive very quickly. While searching for just the right gifts for friends and family is fun, not having a plan made ahead of time can result in you spending much more than you intend. To help you keep your spending under control, try these five sneaky ways to save on holiday shopping this year.
Take Inventory Of Your Unwanted Stuff
One of the best ways to save on holiday shopping is to re-purpose things you don’t want. Many people have stuff lying around the house in new condition that they probably won’t use, typically given to them as a gift or purchased as a too-good-too-pass-up sales item. Give these items a new home by re-gifting them to those who will actually use them.
Redeem Your Credit Card Points
Many rewards-focused credit cards give you points for purchases that you can use for cash back or can trade for gift cards. Save up your credit card points throughout the year and redeem them close to the holidays for extra spending money or for gift cards you can give instead of presents. Many people prefer gift cards that they can use to get what they want anyway.
Set Up A Secret Santa Exchange
If you have a large group of people giving gifts to each other, see if they would be interested in doing a Secret Santa exchange instead. Pull names out of a hat and have each person buy a gift only for their selected recipient. You can put a price limit on the gifts to ensure that everyone is spending roughly the same amount.
Order Online For Far-Away Recipients
Shipping gifts to people that live far away can be expensive. You can reduce or even eliminate this cost by buying their gifts online and having them shipped directly to the recipients’ home. Amazon has a feature that lets you ship items to locations other than your home and will even include a gift receipt so the person can return the item if they want.
Take Advantage Of Price Matching
Many stores will match the prices of their competitors to ensure that they get the sale. Take the sales flyer for the item you want to match to your local store and ask them to honor the price. You can also price match items after you have already purchased them. Simply scan your receipts into the Paribus app and the app will watch for price reductions for you. When it finds one within the right time period, it applies for a refund of the difference for you and deposits the cash into your account.
If you are thinking about shopping on Black Friday, you can find out everything you need to know at The Penny Hoarder.