With the festive season upon us, you are probably looking for the best Christmas deals on gifts. Whilst we love buying the most perfect presents for our loved ones, we don't always have the cash to spend on gifts. Lots of us want to find the cheapest prices, make our money stretch further and enjoy the festive season without debt. Let's take a look at how to find the best Christmas deals this year.
Make A Christmas Shopping List
One of the best ways to find the best Christmas deals is to be focused. You can focus what you are looking for, in a world of retail designed to pull you into thing you don't want, by writing a Christmas shopping list. Not only do you write it, you then stick to the list. When you stray from what you have written down, that is when you lose focus. This is when you spend more than you want. Suddenly you find yourself outside a shop with bags full of stuff you didn't go in for. Furthermore, you have no money left over for the things you needed.
If you'd like some flexibility in what you are buying, perhaps so you could buy a cheaper version of a gift for someone, split your list into who you need to buy for. If you write down your list in this way, you can detail the type of gifts you are looking for, with maybe the amount you'd like to spend. This gives you some spontaneity when you are at the shops and allows you to buy the Christmas deals that are on offer.
How to do Christmas on a budget
Shop Around
When you are looking for the best priced Christmas deals, you need to shop around. There are hundreds of retailers out there, all vying for your attention. One of the ways they do this is with marketing and the price for products you need. They won't be selling at a loss, so the price they advertise is still giving them a profit. You need to shop around. There is often the thought with customers that loyalty will get you something good. It gets you nothing as the retailers aren't loyal to you. They just want to make as much profit from you as they can. Whilst flogging popular products during the festive season.
This gives you the power. You can find the best prices for the items you want, meaning you get the most value for your money. Be sure to compare prices between shops and see what else is included. Some shops offer extended warranties and others will give you vouchers or points on your purchases. When you shop around, even between just a couple of shops, you can be sure of saving a few quid by getting yourself the best possible Christmas deals.
Shop Online
Another way to get great prices and find Christmas deals is by shopping online. It saves you being drawn in by in store deals. It also lets you search directly for the things you are looking for, those things on your list. You can discover the prices of the products with just a couple of clicks and find the best price. Be sure to take into account the full price of things, as some of the sites you buy from might charge you delivery.
If you are going to be charged delivery, see if there is any of your other items on the same site. If you are close to the free delivery price, you might be able to another product to get you to the free delivery price, so you actually get something for your money. You could use this as a present for a friend from the gym or perhaps the delivery person who always collects your parcels.
When you shop online for Christmas deals you can also click through cashback sites like Quidco. When you click to the retailer via a cashback site, your journey will track. You then purchase, you'll get a percentage of what you spend back as cashback. The amount can vary from retailer to retailer and even day to day. At the time of writing this you can get 7% cashback when yo shop at Made.com or up to 25% cashback when you shop at Currys. Keep an eye out for special offers, like the one at the time of writing this where you can get 50% cashback when you buy from Portal by Facebook. Shopping online gives you even more power when you purchase.
How to make money during Christmas season
Shop After Christmas
Some people think there are fantastic Christmas deals before Christmas Day. However, a lot of the stuff you buy before Christmas drops in price in the Boxing Day & January sales. There are lots of ways you can save money here. Rather than buy your main presents for family and friends before Christmas, how about getting them a £5 mini gift? Then getting their real present when it is reduced in price after Christmas. We're not saying to do this for kids where you can ruin the magic of the festive season. But with your spouse, partner, boyfriend, parents, in laws. Maybe even with people you won't see until a few days after Christmas Day.
One of the great things about the post-Christmas sales is that, because of online shopping, many of them start before Christmas! Sure, you might not be able to get the product delivered in time for Christmas. Simply order it a few days before Christmas Day & print out the order. Then pop it in a card for your loved one. They will then know their gift is on the way. You can find amazing Christmas deals this way and save lots of cash!
When you take control of your spending and perhaps even play the retailers at their own game, you can save money at Christmas time. Shop around, shop online, look for a better price and search out Christmas deals which are proper deals.
