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Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
Holiday shopping is inevitable, but going deeply into debt doesn't have to be part of it. We have some ways to help you get those presents without overspending. Don't Go into Debt for Holiday Shopping By Britt Erica Tunick Regardless of which holidays you may celebrate, one thing everyone can agree on is the holidays are a time for spreading good cheer. Just don’t get so caught up in your gift giving that you end up spreading yourself and your finances way too thin. From Black Friday to countless holiday sales, everyone from department stores to car dealers will be touting sales inevitably billed as featuring the lowest prices of the year. But no matter how great a deal you get on the purchases you make, approaching holiday shopping without a set budget and a good idea about what you plan to buy can add up to big long term problems if the result is maxed out credit cards and more debt than you can immediately pay off. So before you begin your holiday shopping, take the time to figure out your overall budget and how much you are prepared to spend on each person on your list and write it all down on a list you can bring along with you, whether on your phone or an old fashioned paper and pencil list. Don’t forget to embrace technology. Before you go slapping your credit card down for any item simply because it is on sale, regardless of how big or small, take a minute to go online and check what price competitors may be charging for the same item. Just because a store’s tag may indicate the price has been slashed drastically it doesn’t mean that better prices for the same item aren’t available, especially since many stores inflate the original amount they place on price tags in order to be able to indicate that they have dramatically cut the cost for a sale. A quick search online, even from wherever you’re shopping, can result in significant savings. There are also mobile phone apps available that let you scan any item’s bar code and then automatically pull up the cheapest price that item is available for online. If giving into the temptation of sales is something you have historically proven bad at, one approach to consider is to simply leave your credit cards at home. Instead, try heading out of the stores with a wallet full of cash just be sure not to bring any more cash than the grand total of your holiday spending budget. Even if you do decide to use credit cards, make sure not to get sucked into promises of an additional 15% or 20% off in exchange for opening a store branded credit cards. Don’t forget, the cards offered by department stores tend to have higher interest rates that the average credit card and they can also negatively impact your credit score if you already have a high number of cards. Whenever possible, it is also best to get holiday shopping out of the way as early as possible. Not only does doing this give you more time to comparison shop, but it eliminates that possibility of making poor decisions regarding last-minute purchases because of stress. If you already know what you’re planning to buy for everyone on your list, it may make sense to avoid the malls and department stores outright. Not only does online shopping tend to be less stressful, it eliminates the holiday ambiance stores are hoping consumers will get caught up in from decorations to holiday music, and it means the ability to simultaneously compare the cost of individual items from multiple sellers through sites such as PriceGrabber.com and shopsavvy.com. |
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