How to Double Your Savings on Christmas Shopping Deals

Looking for some deals this Christmas? Understanding the strategy behind retailer’s sales can help you save twice as much!

Retail Strategies
The reason retailers have sales is to convince us to buy from them. The promotions they run have two main goals:

1) Get us into the store

2) Convince us to spend the most money once we’re there

The first goal is more difficult to accomplish than the second. Once we’re in the store, it is easier to sell to us. This means that the promotions they offer to get us into the store must be more enticing than the in-store sales.

Choosing the Right Offer
If we can take advantage of the more lucrative offers, then we can save more money. A common way retailers try and get us into the store is by sending us coupons by mail or email. These coupons frequently offer better savings than the sales you find in the store.

I Doubled My Savings
We got a coupon in the mail for a buy one get one free deal. I stopped into the store today to do some Christmas shopping and left with the best deal.

The items I wanted to buy were $9.50 each. They had an in-store offer, buy 3 get 1 free. Instead I used two of my buy one, get one free coupons that I had brought along.

I left the store with 4 items, having paid $19. Had I used the in-store offer I would have gotten 4 items for $28.50.

Full price would have been $38. By using the coupons I was mailed I saved 50%, if I would have gone with the in-store sale I would have only saved 25%. I doubled my savings! Not only that, I saved a little more by paying sales tax on a smaller purchase price.

Shop Smart this Christmas
Of course my example was only one purchase. But these savings can add up with all the gifts we buy at Christmas time. The key here, as it is with most personal finance success, is doing your research and planning ahead.

If you can’t score a great coupon the best place I’ve found for getting Christmas deals is eBay. Happy Shopping!

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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