Ahh…the holidays. Time for family, food…and shopping!
Yes, ‘Tis the season for full parking lots, crowds and trying to find the perfect gift at a great price. This will be the fourth year that our family has cash at Christmas so it is very important that we find the best deals.
One way we discover sales is through email.
Prior to this year, I stayed away from signing up with store email blasts. I didn’t like all the emails that collected in my inbox. However, I found that I was missing out on great deals for items I was buying. My husband actually discovered this phenomenon when he received an email from Aeropostle for deeply discounted jeans. He has lost 20 lbs. in the last few months and buying him clothes that fit was becoming costly. Rather than buying $30-$35 jeans, the sale was for $15 jeans! My only issue was the multiple emails I would receive in a day. I discovered a few ways to keep my inbox under control.
1. Create a separate email account.
When a store asks for my email address I give them a junk email address. I use Yahoo! It is perfect because I only check it when I need to. I also use it when I am on a site that is giving away a freebie, but needs an email address.
2. Create a separate folder in Outlook.
There are times that I want to receive sale notices from certain stores, but I don’t want the multiple emails in my inbox all.day.long. Recently, I figured out a solution that makes me wonder why I never thought of it before. I created a separate folder and created a rule for each store to send their items to that folder.
Now all of my sales emails go into that folder and I can quickly glance at the subject line to see if I want to open it.
I also save money through BigCrumbs.
You may or may not have heard of this website. I find I use it the most during the holidays. BigCrumbs has a list of stores that offer a percentage back on your purchases. I recently made purchases through Aeropostle and Home Depot. The money I earn will be deposited directly to my Paypal account.
There are many online stores on this site. One of my favorite stores that does not offer cash back is Amazon.com. Bummer!
Buy from Mompreneurs.
This year I bought quite a few unique items through moms that own their own businesses. I love shopping at craft/holiday shops. I can find a lot of unique gifts for that hard-to-buy-for person on my list. In my case it would be my mother-in-law. Recently, I started a Facebook page for Atlanta area mompreneurs. Many of them ran specials and offered discounts on a lot of their items. They would put a link on my page and then I would repost it so that followers would see the deals being offered. It worked out fabulously! They got free advertising and I got some great deals!
These are just a few techniques I use to save money holiday shopping. I’m sure there are a lot more tips and tricks out there. If you've got any secrets, let me in on it. I’m all for keeping cash in my pocket!
Thank you Anna for those great tips! I really like the one about supporting moms in business. It's a win-win. Visit Anna and say hi! Here are some of my favorite posts from My Debt Free Road:
I love the idea of having a separate "junk" email address. I always hate giving out my email for stuff like that. I'm a new follower. I hope you'll find some time to check out my sites! www.learningtolimit.com and www.touristmom.com.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read more from you!!
That separate email is brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI am a man but I like my mails being organized. So I always create several different folders for different listing. They are worth it,as I always scan my email listing many times a day.
ReplyDelete