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10 Ways to Stick to Your Holiday Budget
Take your time pay with cash and shop hard for the best bargains
iStock / Getty Images Doesn’t it seem as if everything is doing its darnedest to bust your holiday shopping budget this year?
There’s , which already seems to be tipping the scales towards pricier gifts this season. There’s the continuing pandemic blowback, which seems to have resulted in a for certain gifts — making some of those that are available more expensive. Finally, most of us are out of practice. After the pandemic turned holiday shopping on its head, we are rusty using the best tricks of the trade to stay within budget this holiday. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Perhaps these 10 tips from retail experts will help remove the rust and set you back on the path to shopping within your 2021 holiday budget . 1 Don t wait until the last minute
Although it may sound slightly contradictory, getting an will ultimately save you money, says David Sykes, head of Klarna US. Even though it might seem like an early start would result in spending more, it actually is the best way to avoid last-minute overspending and impulse buying, he says. Some 27 percent of Gen X ers and 19 percent of boomer s began their holiday shopping before Halloween, which helps to spread out the cost of gift-giving over the course of the season, according to Klarna’s 2021 "Holidays Unwrapped " report. With supply chain issues making some products scarce this year, waiting too long to start shopping can lead to going over budget. 2 Create an email address just for retailers
The last thing you want to do is share your personal email address with every retailer. You’ll wind up with an avalanche of spam that will bury your inbox. But you can create a second email address that’s specifically for this purpose: to share with retailers for updates on discounts and deals, says Kristen Gall, president of Rakuten Rewards. “A lot of deals are sent by emails exclusively from the stores,” Gall says. 3 Price match with gusto
Many retailers — including Target, Walmart and Best Buy — will often when you present them with clear proof of a competitor’s lowball pricing, Gall says. If you have a loyalty to one store — but find a lower price at another — simply bring the proof of pricing, such as a printed ad, into the store you prefer and there’s a reasonably good chance that it will match it, she says. But keep in mind, there’s typically a strict window of time during which stores are willing to match competitor pricing, so make sure you’re familiar with the time limits. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. ($600 for couples) without itemizing on your federal income tax return. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > 5 Ignore retail sales that look too good to be true
If a retailer’s holiday sale looks too good to be true, it probably is, says Brad Godwin, regional vice president , Central-South, at Shopkick. As the holidays get closer, many retailers boast sales of up to 70 percent off, but that’s often because the original price has been marked up so high that 70 percent off is not nearly the bargain that it appears to be. These kinds of fat markups are particularly common at some department store chains. “Don’t be fooled by 70 percent off sales,” he says. Instead, investigate how the 70 percent off pricing compares with other retailers. 6 Make a family decision on gift wrapping
Gift wrapping can be very expensive, particularly if you pay someone to do it for you. Limiting the amount of gift wrapping you do is an easy way to help stay within your holiday budget, Gall says. For example, she never has gifts wrapped that are shipped to friends or family members who live out of town. But her family agrees that gifts they open together over the holidays will be wrapped. (The wrapping should not be done by professional gift wrappers or by retailers who charge for wrapped gifts, but by the family members themselves.) Also, she suggests decorative holiday gift bags as an option for gift wrap, because they can be reused. 7 Check the memberships you have
Don’t rush out to join a new membership club for the holidays , but instead reevaluate the memberships you already have and double-check how you might best use them to save on holiday purchases, Godwin says. For example, all members might not realize the early access they get to Prime deals that general shoppers don’t get, Godwin says. And some “membership” clubs have no fees at all, but can still offer shoppers some holiday budget relief. For example, he says, the CVS loyalty card that he regularly uses at the drugstore features ExtraBucks rewards for many of the things he purchases. Just the other day, a cashier informed Godwin that he had $48 in ExtraBucks sitting on his card. Godwin suggests that holiday shoppers first look for easy money or discounts like this that they might not be aware are sitting on a rewards card. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. come at scattered times. It’s smart to keep track of the coming “deal” days for your favorite retailers (often advertised on their websites) , and those might be the best times to shop online or in person at each of them. Bruce Horovitz is a contributing writer who covers personal finance and caregiving. He previously wrote for The Los Angeles Times and USA TODAY. Horovitz regularly writes for The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, AARP Magazine, AARP Bulletin, Kaiser Health News, and PBS Next Avenue. More on money AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS