I have been asked quite a lot about how I do what I do, especially now during the holidays. I posted on Facebook a few days ago about getting $106 worth of products for only $19 and now I'm going to tell you how I did it.
First of all, you absolutely HAVE to give yourself a budget. Make it reasonable for yourself. This is a goal to be reached and not exceeded. This year I set my budget at $200 for 10 people. Pretty reasonable overall. If you don't like coming up with a large amount of money than decide exactly what you want to spend on each person on your list. Include everyone from family, friends, teachers, delivery people, postmen, whoever it is that you buy for every year. My list of 10 people, however, does not include my husband or my children. That's a different budget. Once you make out your budget start making a list. Have an idea of what you would like to get people for Christmas and start to keep your eyes open for those items to go on sale.
Now, the key to great Christmas shopping is to not wait until last minute and start early. I actually started Christmas shopping way back in July! I know, who's thinking about Christmas in July? Well, I do! I always have my eyes open for good deals or something for someone while I'm traveling that I KNOW I can't get in my area.
The second key is to get in with all the Rewards programs that stores have out now. For example, Toys R Us has a rewards program where they will have exclusive member only sales where you can get incredible deals! Go
here to sign up online for their rewards program. Toys R Us is known to have stuff go on sale with gift cards back and sometimes there are even MIR that go along with them too. One of the deals I was able to get since I was a rewards member was on an XBox 360 game. Here's the breakdown:
XBox 360 game- $59.99 or $62 after tax
I had $33 in rebate money which I used towards this purchase.
I got $20 gift card back for being a rewards member.
So OOP I was able to get the game for $9.
I also picked up 4 board games (on a seperate transaction) that were on sale for $29.95.
Used the $20 gift card that I got back from the Xbox game.
I got a $10 gift card back for the purchase of the board games.
So I had NOTHING OOP since they GAVE me a $10 gift card back!
Now how will I get the Xbox game for free? Well, because I bought the board games I will get a $10 rebate in the mail which will make the XBox 360 game free with a $1 profit.
So when you break it down and look at all I got back and will receive in the mail, I was able to get both purchases for nothing out of my pocket. Now don't be confused, I did pay for stuff OOP BUT Toys R Us handed me gift cards back which is like putting money in my pocket. For example, on my receipt it shows that I paid $62. Now, minus the rebate money I had of $33 means I paid out of my budget, $29. Take the $29 and minus the $20 gift card they gave to me takes the total for the game down to $9. Confused yet? LOL
I had $33 in rebate money that I got in the mail from other purchases so when using that money that is not money that I had to take out of my budget or as I usually say out of my pocket. Once you get swifter with the rebate programs out there, you can almost "get paid" to shop for all the potential rebates you could get back.
Another deal I just got was on a grill. I bought it at Ace Hardware for $42, BUT there is a $20 rebate that goes along with it. Which is like paying $22, once I get the rebate back.
Unfortunately, rebates can take 6-8 weeks to be processed and for you to see the check but its still money you can look forward to and minus from your overall budget.
You'll notice in a lot of my posts about gift card deals from places like Target. These deals are on certain items and when you buy a certain amount. When shopping, attempt to match these items to coupons to lessen your overall OOP expense and then at the end of the transaction they will hand you a gift card which is like putting money back in your pocket instantly! Remember, gift cards are just like money only you can't spend it anywhere else except at that store; but, if you're like me, you'll use the gift card anyway so its not that big of a deal. I still have a $10 gift card from Toys R Us that I'll be using to get stocking stuffers for the kids. Which again is money that won't be coming out of my pocket since the gift card was given back to me for purchasing the board games earlier. Be careful with the Toys R Us gift cards, they generally expire within 2 months. The gift cards from Target don't usually come with an expiration date but always check to make sure!
Another way to get FREE gifts is by using
Swagbucks.com. This is a special search engine site that will give you "swag bucks" for searching. These special "swag bucks" can be used on gift cards once you accumulate enough. Between my husband and I, we accumulated enough swag bucks to get 3-$5 Amazon.com gift cards absolutely FREE. I used those gift cards to get another Christmas present for FREE, which lowers my overall OOP expense and keeps me within my Christmas present budget! Great thing with Amazon.com right now is you can sign up for their Amazon Prime program for free for one month
here. With the Amazon Prime program you can get free 2 day shipping on items sold by Amazon (not personal sellers). *Note: if you sign up for the Amazon Prime program be sure to go into your account and set it to not renew automatically so that you don't get charged when your one month trial period is over.*
Another program I also took advantage of this year was Kodaks 1 million free $15 dollar gifts. I was able to get 2 of these codes since I used my email address and my husbands email address. This promotion is still going on, go
here to get your FREE $15 code. If you do get multiple codes, you must use them one at a time so you will have to put in multiple orders. These codes do NOT apply to shipping but I can tell you that the small photo book ($9.99) is $2.99 shipping and the porcelain ornament ($14.99) is $1.99 shipping. All in all you pay for shipping and that's it.
For all my checks and address labels I use
VistaPrint.com. They always have stuff that you can get for free (less shipping). If you watch their website they will have all kinds of things go on sale or "free" where all you have to pay is shipping. Sometimes shipping can be a little steep but if you look at what the price WOULD have been if you paid for the product too it turns out to be a great deal! I've never paid more than $6.99 for my address labels or bank checks.
So there, that's a little insight as to how I do what I do. I hope this post was some what helpful to everyone and if you ever have suggestions or would like to know about something please don't be afraid to email me at shab0151@aol.com. I will be sure to answer your question within 24 hours directly or with a blog post. If you ever find a great deal, please email me with all the details and I will be sure to pass it on to my readers! Thanks for reading my blog!!
