*Every Monday throughout 2014 I will be sharing Money Savings Tips to help stick to and expand your budget!
Recognizing and finding a good deal is important, and with so many marketing ploys and strategies it can sometimes be difficult to recognize a good deal, especially during the holiday season.
Below are a few tips and strategies that I use to help me find a good deal, especially when it comes to holiday shopping.
1. Find the Average Price: Far in advance, I will get a rough idea of the cost of the product from many different retailers, especially for pricy items and/or must-buy items on my list. This will give me an idea of what the going rate is, and when I see it for far less I will know it’s a good price.
2. Look at Sales History: I do this a lot when I find a deal that seems like a great deal but it wasn’t really on my radar to buy and I’m not familiar with price and sales history too much. I will go to large deal site with a huge archives (or sometimes even Google) and put in the item and click on “show expired deals”. I can then see all the sales and deals for product or brand to see how often they run promotions and what the average savings is. Some companies run “A HUGE” sale everyday and some products rarely go on sale, so it’s nice to see the history on products and stores.
3. Put the Item in Your Cart, But Don’t Buy: This trick works especially well on sites like Amazon. I like to put an item that I am interested in but I just leave it in my cart. Amazon will alert you with any price changes in your cart whether it is increases or decreases. This is a great way to keep track of items, and even score a great price when the item drops. It so nice when you get alerted to price drops and you don’t have to do a lot of searching.
4. Talk About it out Loud: I like doing this for an item that may have not been on my radar and/or I’m not sure about. I love running items and deals through my husband to get another perspective. Also, I’m not always the best with tech specs, and I will run a lot of technology deals through him and friends and family who know more than I would and they may do something similar for different types of items.
Last but not least, if I’m not sure if something is truly a good deal or not, I’ll pass on it, especially if I don’t need it. Deals tend to come up again and you may even get a better deal next time it comes around.
Do you have any tips for finding a great deal?
To find more Money Saving Tips from Boston On Budget, please head here.
