Coupons and gift cards

It's time to start thinking about Christmas shopping--and if you have friends and family that want something nice, something brand name or something from a mall store, you can STILL get it for less.

Gift cards are the way to go. When you decide what you want to get, give yourself plenty of time to buy it and then look for coupons online. Many times you will find 10-20% off coupons for almost every mall store, whether it be Bath and Body Works or any of the other chic places to buy gifts.

Start on Google and look for free coupons. Then head over to eBay to get the gift cards. Remember to buy a gift card for UNDER the amount you want to pay, or you are going to have a balance left and that isn't a savings.

Combining gift card and coupons will allow you to get the hot gifts for less.

Also, January is gift card month on eBay; people who got gift cards that they didn't want for Christmas are going to put them all up on eBay, so if you have birthdays coming up or even if you want to prepare for next Christmas--you can get some good deals.

One of the best buys in gift certificates is for Home Depot. I have always been able to get one for less than the value left on the card, and with my house being a constant work in progress, it sure helps.

Beware of $1000 ONLINE SHOPPING SPREES, they are scams. The way they work is by charging cash for the shipping, with the shipping based on the price of the item. When it's all said and done, you haven't saved a thing by using the $1000 shopping spree. I have had several over the years given to me, but when I went online, I found that the cheap made-in-china items that they are selling were actually less on eBay than they were to just pay for the "shipping."

When buying gift certificates on eBay, I use Gixen, the
eBay Sniper



. You can put a group bid out, which is really cool. The way it works is that once you decide what item you want and the price you want to pay for it, you can bid on several auctions by using Gixen, and, once you win one of the auctions in the group you selected it stops bidding on any of the other ones.

If you get to buying in time you can be assured of getting all of your shopping done for less than anyone else without having to compromise on quality.

And of course, I can't stress enough the greatness of eBay when it comes to gift shopping. Go and find what you want to get in the malls and then write down the specs and item name or number, then when you go online you can compare apples to apples and get the exact item you want without having to blow your budget or skimp on gifts.

For instance, I wanted to get someone a nice pen from a high end pen manufacturer. I really wanted to get them a $150-$200 pen, but I didnt want to spend anywhere near that much. I wanted something classic, yet classy, something heavy and with the type of writing mechanism that the person preferred; so with much searching, I landed on a brand I wanted, and a style and color. When it was all said and done I got a $195 pen (which is price controlled by the manufacturer) for only $50, and even though the pen didn't say it came with an expensive $10 gift box, by wording an email to the seller perfectly, I was able to get him to throw it in for free.

Now someone is going to get a fantastic pen that will last them the rest of their lives for only $50--can't beat it.

Make your decisions later, do your research earlier. This will make sure you have the most information before making your final purchase decision, and if you are an old pro with bargain hunting, you will be able to identify deals that have to be grabbed on the spot.

Happy Bargain Hunting.