How To Save Major $$$ Holiday Shopping Online

As you may know, I am not a shopper (remember that year I didn’t shop at all? And how much I learned). At all. And when I do have to shop, I want to save as much money as possible. I’ve blogged about how I love consignment shopping because I always get great deals, but my favorite shop is miles away from me now that I’m not at school, and I haven’t found a comparable place since. Yet, I still have to shop for some staples and wanted to share with you the ways that I maximize my savings through three recent examples. These are great tips to use when you’re doing your holiday shopping and want to give a nice gift without breaking the bank!

I’d been wearing the same winter coats since high school, so I figured it was time for a change now that I am out in the working world. I knew that I wanted a wool toggle coat and was willing to invest in something that was high quality and would last for years…so I went straight to Brooks Brothers.

Enter this beauty:

I immediately fell in love with this dark green coat for $278. But you probably already know that’s not the price I ended up paying.

My first stop is always Gift Card Granny. I cannot stress how important it is to always look for discounted gift cards, and even mentioned this method in a post earlier this year. When you go to Gift Card Granny and search for the store of your choice, you will be presented with a variety of gift card denominations and percentages off. Often, you’ll be sent to other sites and my experience has been positive with all of them. I was able to get a gift card for 14% off, taking about $40 off my total.

Then, when it came to shipping, I signed up for the 30 day trial of Shop Runner. Shop Runner is a membership site (complimentary for Amex and MasterCard) that gives you benefits like unlimited free 2 day shipping at select sites, free return shipping, and other members only deals. You can check out more info here. I was able to avoid the shipping charge and get my lovely coat in 2 days. Score!

Next example uses one more of my tricks. I needed a new sweater and after loving this one in Express (but not the original price), I set off to find how I could get discounts.

Before even going to the site, I went to my Chase rewards home page. I use the Chase Freedom Unlimited card that gives me 1.5% cash back on all purchases, but has special rewards for certain sites (like 6% back at JCrew). I just have to click on the link for Express and I automatically get 2% cash back. Then on top of that I got free shipping through Shop Runner and used discounted gift cards that gave me 16% off. Another win. You can check out this comparison of Chase Credit Cards to see which may be best for you.

Lastly, I was in the market for some new riding boots (my other ones had been worn into the ground) and found this pair from DSW.

I didn’t use any discount gift cards because if I don’t like them, I didn’t want to be saddled with $100 worth of gift cards for a place I don’t shop at that often. But I did get automatic free shipping plus $20 off my order thanks to an awesome web browser extension called Honey. Honey will automatically scan the web for discount codes and special deals that you can apply to your final order. It takes the work out of looking around for deals and you don’t even have to visit any other sites.

There you have it! This is how when I do inevitably have to shop I make sure that I am saving the maximum amount of money.

Recap of steps