Five Tips to Save Money This Holiday Season

If you've been in any retail store in the past couple of weeks, you know that Christmas is next week. Oh, wait, it isn't. Then why is all the Christmas stuff already out? Yep, it comes earlier and earlier every year.

So despite the fact that this drives me crazy in stores, I'm going to go with the flow and start posting holiday-related ideas so you can save as much money as possible this season. I'm starting by offering five insider tips on how to shop smarter this holiday season from Money magazine:

• Shop after 6 p.m. the day BEFORE the big sale. In other words, if the ad says the storewide holiday discounts kick off on a Wednesday, don't wait until Wednesday to rush to the store. "Usually the special discounts get put into the system after 6 p.m. the day before and you can beat the crowds," said Dan Butler, vice president of retail operations and merchandising with the National Retail Federation.

• There's nothing wrong about a "me-too" gift.

• Pause and investigate before you click "Buy." Essentially how it works is when you get to the checkout on an etailer's Web site and you're prompted to enter a coupon or promotions code, this signals that there are extra discounts available on that product. Dworsky said he usually takes the product code and name of merchant and enters it at coupon sites like couponcabin.com or fatwallets.com.

• Make money while you shop. Said Dworsky, "Some Web sites like Ebates give customers two to five percent of their money back on purchases."

• Ask for the "hidden" discounts. Don't be shy about getting friendly - within limits - with the store staff, said Britt Beemer, retail analysts and chairman of America's Research Group. "Ask an employee about any unadvertised coupons or sales going on that week," said Beemer.

My thoughts on these:

1. I'm not so sure about this. The piece says that not all retailers do this, so you have to check them out in advance. Has anyone ever done this (gotten the discount a day early)?

2. Ha! This is a real budget-buster -- people go out for shopping for others and buy stuff for themselves. I suggest giving the "free" gifts you get to someone who barely made your gift list. ;-)

3. Good tip! I never thought of this but it makes great sense!

4. Anyone use Ebates? Seems like the products would be more expensive if they're giving part of the cost back to you.

5. Asking for hidden discounts is good. Besides, what's it hurt to ask?

Comments

[Barry]

The following web page (from 2004) claims that eBates sometimes installs software without the user's knowledge.

http://www.benedelman.org/news/121504-1.html

I don't know whether to believe it, but internet commerce can be pretty shady so it makes me wary of signing up.

[QUAZIE]

FatWallet does some cash back as well. Buy from a store after getting there from fatwallet.com and you can get cash back. I just got $18 back on my xbox 360, 4% from overstock.com. It isn't anything huge, but when i get that money back, I'll be happy.

[DC]

Regarding #1, its often easier to go shopping a couple of days before the sale. A lot of retailers will refund you the difference if an item goes on sale up to 7 or 30 days after you purchased it (it varies). The only trick is you have to remember to go back to the store to the customer service desk to get your refund. But hey, at least you already have the merchandise, and hopefully the customer service line is shorter than the checkout line.

[Andy]

I use both ebates and fatwallet. The prices are any different when you go through them. A couple percent back isn't much but if you're going to buy it anyway you might as well get the cash back.

[Amanda]

I use eBates as well, and to success. The prices are not higher, you are routed to the regular site through eBates, so it's no different. Each month, they cut you a "big fat check" for your cash back.

It's a particularly good service to use for big ticket online purchases, like airfare.

[dePriest]

I do take things back to receive the price difference if the item costs more than $20, and my local KMart is very good about refunding this difference. I like shopping on line because I often get things cheaper at the virtual store than I can at the local bricks and mortar version of the same store, and I always check several sites to see if there are any discounts.

[Cathy]

A quick google search with the store name and words "promotion code" or "coupon code" will often yield a code that can be entered at checkout. I haven't found a single site that regularly updates all retailers' codes and have found it best to do a general search when making a purchase. I routinely get free shipping this way, or at least 10 to 15% off.

[WH]

#1- Thanks, never even thought about that OR about going back to get the price adjusted.

#4- This can be done several ways, e.g. Citi Merchants Network, LuckyMag.com. They require some kind of membership, but it beats paying to save!

[Lorajean]

I agree, many coupon sites are not kept up to speed. I have found that http://www.stoorz.com is the most up to date site that I use to find coupons for online retailers.