These Christmas shopping tips don’t take much effort, but they can save you a bundle on all your holiday shopping this season!
With a little nervous excitement, I checked my purse one more time.
It was early on Black Friday morning. The only day of the year I happily get up before the sun.
Part of it is my love for a good bargain.
I can’t help but love that I get to spend the day with my Mom. (Girl time!)
But there’s also some pride to the fact that a lot of my spending today will be done using tricks I’ve carefully worked on all year long.
Sure, I’ll dig into the savings I held back for buying gifts.
But there’s so much more to it than that!
In fact, over the years I’ve created a whole bag of tricks when it comes to saving and spending on Christmas gifts.
And after you read this post, you’ll have a whole bag full of tricks when it comes to saving on Christmas…
…and being better prepared than we were.
5 Proven Holiday Shopping Tips You’ll Love To Use!
Coupons. (Yes, I’m Seriously Starting with This.)
Coupons are such an obvious thing that they barely need discussing. But the days of grabbing a coupon or two from the paper are over.
How can we make sure we’re getting all the coupons available before we shop?
Become BFFs with your favorite stores. Join their savings clubs, get their savings cards.
(Do not confuse that with using their store credit cards. Most of those have obscene interest rates, so if you do use them always pay them immediately.)
Believe it or not, stores still send coupons via snail mail. That’s a lot more fun to get than a bill!
They also send plenty of deals through email.
Don’t want your inbox clogged with emails from all those stores? Set up a separate email just for deals. Check it when you’re ready to shop.
For online shopping, you’ll find the best coupons and deals at Rakutan.
They also give you cash back every time you shop! So always go to Rakutan first.
Know Them
It’s always good to have more than one gift idea for the person you’re shopping for.
You can run into a Christmas list of problems if you are focused on buying only one specific thing!
(Remember Jingle All the Way?)
But there’s always that one person that has us stumped.
Maybe you’re better off thinking about categories of gifts instead.
Does he love to cook? Into prepping? Is she an avid reader?
What things come to mind immediately when you think of this person? Write down a couple of things they are well known for.
If you shop by category, it’s easier to find a deal on a gift. Don’t force an amazing deal to work if you aren’t confident the person will love it.
But most of the time, you’ll find something they’ll enjoy.
(Drop the gift receipt into the package just in case.)
Buy Multiples When You Can
We don’t always have to strain your brain to come up with the perfect gift.
Sometimes a deal can be good for several people on your list.
Last year I found a great deal on a beautiful 5-year journal.
You want to have a record of your days with your kids…but who has the time?
With a 5 year journal, you just record a line or two each day.
That’s appealing to a busy Mom!
And so I bought it for all the Moms on my list. Done!
If you stumble across a deal on something you would truly love to receive yourself, why not grab it for a few of the people on your list?
Compare Prices
I’m probably not the only one to stand in a store with a box in my hand while I quickly check Amazon to see if they can beat the price I’m seeing.
It’s not always practical to do this, but when you can, do a quick search to see if you can do any better on price.
Here’s one of my favorite savings hacks that’s not well known…
Go to CamelCamelCamel…and save that link to your phone or computer.
The next time you’re checking Amazon for a price, and thinking “Yeah, but if I buy this today, it will probably go on sale tomorrow”, pull up this site.
There you can find out when any link was on sale last, and how much it cost.
There’s no guarantee that the price will go that low again. Or that it will happen on the same date.
But this information gives you an intelligent guess on if you’re getting the best price.
Gift Cards and Rebates
Gift cards can be a great way to get some bonus savings on your purchase!
And I’m not talking about using the gift card your aunt gave you for your birthday to buy presents for someone else.
For instance, Kroger stores sometimes give you extra fuel points when you buy gift cards.
So why not stop at Kroger on your way to the mall and grab a Kohl’s gift card? You know you’ll be buying something there anyway, so now you can save on gas at the same time.
And that key ring you have that’s so full of rewards cards that the guy at the oil change place laughs at you every time?
It’s time to use up some of those rewards!
Check and see how many of those rewards programs offer you free gift cards for your points.
Don’t forget to see if you have enough money saved up on Ibotta to cash out.
Redeem your Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards and be ready for the next deal.
These strategies are guaranteed to save you a bundle of cash this year.
You can stack these ideas together now to save a ton of cash.
And just imagine how much more you’ll save next Christmas after a whole year of savvy moves?
Like buying amazing gifts they won’t believe cost less than $10!
Looking for more ways to save up cash?
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How do you save the most on gifts?
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
I like my gift cards from Ibotta and Swagbucks, and we always have a fair amount of rewards from our Amazon credit card since we use it for pretty much everything and save the points each year. We also bargain hunt, track our holiday spending and use coupons when we can.
Finally, we try to do at least a few DIY gifts…mostly baked goods, but also cheese balls for my stepmom (it’s her one request) and photos for my dad. A good supply of cookies, fudge, homemade bread, etc to give takes care of friends and extended family pretty well.
I just cashed in my Swagbucks just last night!
Some great ideas and always needing tips for saving $$ this time of year! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Love Ibotta, it’s great to use it all year round and then cash in for Christmas! Yeah! We also use CheckOut 51 and SavingStar. I recently heard about a new (to Me) service for purchasing gift cards for less than their face value through raise.com, I haven’t used them, but thought I’d pass it on.
I have also never heard of camelcamelcamel but will be checking them out.
We’ve had those years where we were checking out the gifts and I’ve either lost some, hid them too well, or we didn’t have equal amounts for the kids. Those are some horrible feelings! I need to be more organized!
ha! Yes, we’ve had to have Easter egg hunts with well hidden Christmas gifts, too. Not a fun feeling when you’ve already spent that money!
I have tried Swagbucks and I’m wondering how much time you guys spend doing that each day. It seemed to be very time consuming and if there’s an easier way to reap those benefits, I would sure love to know it!
I don’t spend a lot of time with it. I run videos while I’m doing chores and reach over to click it as needed. I like to do the simple daily poll, too.
Jamie,
Another silly question from me! What is swagbucks? Is it like Kohl’s cash?
Thanks for this interesting read!
Tessie
That’s not a silly question at all!
Swagbucks is a website that pays you for doing little things in points they call “swagbucks”. Each day you can take a quick survey, watch a couple of videos, or do other small tasks to earn those bucks. Then you can trade them in for Amazon gift cards. I don’t spend a ton of time there, but it’s worth doing just a few easy things each day!
Great tips! I love gift card tip. People seem to forget that one!
And the Gift Certificate Gift Bundle is incredible! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for this post! I have the shakes and shpilkas just thinking about christmas and hannukah shopping and being a frugalista by force. 🙁 You have helped us! #FridayFrivolity
I worry every year about having more gifts for one child than the other. It’s so much easier for me to find things my daughter will love, so her pile grows quickly. Then, I’m scrambling to get more presents for my son. These are all great tips for saving! I especially love to use gift cards I’ve gotten for free to buy gifts.
Your so right on the multiples of gifts. It’s so easy when you think of it like that. Yesterday I was in Sam’s and they had a box filled with 5 thermal cups filled with hot chocolate and marshmallows for $20. I grabbed it right up. Postman, teacher, neighbor. etc! done!
Nice tips to save on your holiday gift list. I always compare prices before buying, but I’ve only just started with rebate and gift card sites.
Hi Jamie! As always, this post is fantastic and so full of useful tips! My favorite tip that you mention is the A Very Merry Gift Certificate Bundle! Hello! Love this! I hope you’re having a blessed weekend! ????
I’m a big fan of the multiples idea. Usually I do some theme for each year and everyone pretty much gets one and then people like my parents get some bonus stuff. So happy you joined us again for #FridayFrivolity!
For kid gift giving we adopted (not invented) the 4 gifts rule
Something they want – self explanatory.
Something they need – this kinda leans toward wants sometimes but other years there is something more practical that they want that we put in this category (fitness trackers this year since they all asked for those – used Amazon points and a gift card and got these for free!)
Something to wear – I don’t really go for socks and undies as gifts – those feel like needs and no little bums or toes should be chilly til Christmas! So we mean new shoes, a new dress, etc that isn’t so much a basic need but a want to wear.
Something to read – When the kids were smaller, we read the books they got on Christmas Eve (we open one gift then). Now that the are older and want novels, etc we just enjoy the books through the school break
It makes expectations and budgets align much better and we just enjoy the break instead of break the bank. Thanks for so many good ideas. Will be checking into several of these!
I’ve heard of that idea, and I love it! It’s good to simplify the celebration, because when you give them too much it just overwhelms everyone.