It is official, holiday shopping season has begun. In my house, tis the season of scouting for deals and trying to give meaningful gifts that our friends and family will appreciate while spending as little as possible. Both my husband and I are active players in the holiday shopping game, he finances the venture and often hits the stores after he gets out of work in the hopes that he can snag some great gifts on clearance and I scour store ads and online ads for great prices on things that we were thinking of buying as gifts. Black Friday is, of course, a major undertaking for us and in years past we have gotten some incredible deals for the people on our holiday shopping list and a few for ourselves.
That said, some of the goings on this past weekend have made me aware that we still do not have all of our deal –searching bases covered. I totally missed Super Saturday, I didn’t even realize there was such a thing until yesterday (Sunday) In the interest of helping other families plan their holiday shopping, I thought that it may be worth talking about some sources for sale and deal information as well as the importance of developing a holiday shopping strategy. My fellow blogger Jen Thorpe does a great job of spotting good deals over in the Families.com Deals Blog, so that blog is a must-read at any time of the year, especially right now.
Combine information from store ads (including those all important Black Friday ads), online ads and email list sale alerts, and other sources (like the aforementioned Deals Blog) with a smart shopping strategy to maximize your shopping success and minimize frustration. Basic elements of a smart shopping strategy include making a realistic budget so that you do not incur additional debt by buying gifts, making a list of all of the people that you will be buying gifts for as well as multiple gift ideas for each person, and knowing each store’s sale policy as well as being aware of any price matching or price-beating programs that they may offer. With a smart shopping strategy in hand and a ready list of sources for great deals, you are in a good position to get your holiday shopping done for less.
Photo by cohdra on morguefile.com