3 Ways To Shop Better This Holiday

Tis the season! Holiday shopping has begun and so have those growing balances. With the gifting inevitable how can you be sure you are getting the most for your money?

Cash Back Apps

As more and more shopping is done online you would have to be crazy to not utilize one of the simple cash back sites to earn money from your purchases.

It's sort of simple: When a store or retailer sells their products online they often offer a commission to sites that refer purchases to them. Most of the time that commission falls between 1 and 10 percent of the final transaction. This is how partner sites, shopping apps, bloggers and more make money.

Cash back sites and apps work the same way but instead of pocketing the commission they give most of it back to you in the form of cash back. They can track this by having you click through to the store from their site or app which drops a cookie into your browser that tracks your purchase and awards you the correct amount of cash back.

Sites like Ebates are completely free to use and after a few shopping trips you will start to see the cash back build up. The site also increases the cash back percentage during special promotions which is a great way to save more while also still getting sale prices on the retailers websites themselves.

Good Ol' Sales

You may balk at the notion of shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday but those days so often feature the deepest discounts on the most popular items.

If you can't stomach waiting in line at 1am on Black Friday go later in the day! The crowds tend to dissipate after the initial rush and the savings are the same. Most stores offer rainchecks if they run out of the product advertised or will order it for you online and waive the cost of shipping. For the most part stores will have plenty of everything on-hand.

If you don't want to go to the store Cyber Monday is your best bet. Plenty of retailers offer competitive pricing and you can easily compare and plan when you see it on your screen. Which sites offer coupon codes? Which one has the highest cash back?

Discounted Gift Cards

Yes, discounted gift cards do exist. You can find a selection of discounted gift cards on Raise.com and other sites and stores.

You will find all the big stores like iTunes, Best Buy, Gap, Nordstrom and Target with discounts ranging from 1 to 30 percent. Sometimes you can save more if you spend a certain amount on site in one transaction which is helpful if you like giving gift cards rather than physics gifts.

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