Now that some of you brave souls are about to delve into the mouth of shopping madness, let's talk about those of you who would rather -or also!- enjoy a shopping spree from the comfort of your own home or office.
And I don't advocate you shopping during working hours, either! But hey, if by giving you these helpful hints and ideas I get you to save time doing it, well, you'll be more productive the rest of the day, right?
So let's get to it.
Prepare over the weekend and Sunday night
Like with Black Friday, make a list of the items you want to buy. Once you have that, start your research as to who has the best prices now, and check the store policies on returns. Some retailers have a limited return time, or none at all in the case of closeout Cyber Monday deals.
S&H
Shipping and handling is a huge part of the criteria that will make you save more or less on Cyber Monday.
Consider setting a prepaid shipping service
This came to be after Amazon created its Amazon Prime service, where you pay a flat monthly or yearly fee for all your shipments from them. Well now you can buy the same service for a variety of online stores -and when I say variety I mean hundreds of stores- and you get all the shipping from them starting at $9 a month. Check out ShopRunner, NOTE: this doesn't work for international shipments.
Get help online
As it turns out there are loads of free applications and browser extensions that will help you save while shopping not just on Cyber Monday but other times of the year. Here are the two best ideas I found so far:
Free price comparison apps.
Free Browser Add-ons. The most popular one seems to be PriceBlink (for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox). When this extension is enabled and you are looking at a product, it scans online retailers for the best price on that very item. It also locates coupons. But additionally this tool searches price trends and can tell you if now is or isn't the best time to buy. If you can afford to wait, this would be a great tool to use. You can also wish-list things and be informed of when prices drop. There are other extensions that work this way, feel free to look around.
Coupon locators. Honey for Google Chrome, Coupon Helper for Firefox (to be found at your browser's extensions section- are some of the best add-ons of their kind. They scan the online stores while you shop and if there are discount coupons to be used, they give them to you at checkout. Coupon Sherpa works online, as well as on Android and iOS. It scans for coupons as well, but with the added advantage that an actual team of people are constantly upgrading the system to make sure that all the coupons found are up to date and valid for your purchases.
Gift cards
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| Gift Card Nanny |
Smile
To end, a reminder for free kindness. if you shop on Amazon.com remember that their Amazon Smile program runs constantly. It donates 0.5% of your purchase to a charity of your choice. All you need to do is select the organization of your choice with Amazon Smile on this page their website , and when you shop VERY IMPORTANT,always start your Amazon shopping using this website: "smile.amazon.com". Be sure to bookmark this Smile starting page because the donations won't work if you simply go to amazon.com.
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