Deals Archives | Kids Ain't Cheap

Christmas can be expensive. As well as trying to put money aside for Christmas parties, food, cards and wrapping paper, there are the Christmas presents to think about. Shops now try and provide us with as many offers as possible to make it easier and cheaper to give people the gifts they want.

Understand Your Credit Card

There are a few ways you can save a bit of money when shopping for Christmas presents. One of these is Section 75. It is a piece of legislation that basically states that you should buy things with your credit card and not a debit card. With a credit card, you can get your money back for things you buy if they have broken or there is something wrong with them. It also guaranteed you get your money back if they don’t turn up. For example if you’re buying tickets for something and they don’t turn up or the show gets cancelled, you are entitled to your money back. It also works alongside issues such as if the retailer becomes out of business. It is a definite stress saver!

Find The Deals

A lot of websites that provide online shopping now also give a gift wrapping service. Sometimes it is thrown in as a free extra, other times you pay a small amount for it. In the long run it can save you a fortune in wrapping paper, bows, bags and boxes. It also means if you aren’t that great of a wrapper – you can count on it being professionally done! Bargain.

Supermarkets make the most of deals and provide us with many offers, so make sure you shop around. The supermarkets are all competing against each other, so finding the best deals for you is important. Often they do BOGOF (Buy one get one free) or Three for Two deals which are handy when making Christmas dinners as you need a lot of food. Look for things that can be frozen or saved so that you aren’t wasting the food. Wine and spirits often go on offer at Christmas which will save you money. Aldi sell a lot of unbranded alcohol that tasted just as good – it’s the best place to stock up if you are expecting a lot of guests.

How else do you shop for Christmas to find the deals?

With a title like that, I would be remiss to mention that I love the features on KidsAintCheap and use both the family coupon directory and parents shopping directory regularly but this article is not about my own site. This article is about other sites that I use. It’s about the Best Deal Sites that I know of.

Groupon.com

Groupon.com – It’s tough to have not heard of one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. While much of the rest of corporate America is standing still, this company is growing at an unbelievable rate and it’s not hard to see why. Groupon specializes in local deals. You sign up and every day Groupon delivers a new deal directly to you for your local area. Most of the deals end up being 40% – 60% off.

The service is addictive and the savings can be HUGE. Ever since I missed out on a huge savings on movie tickets at my local theater(the deal had sold out) I have become obsessed with checking to see what my local daily deal is first thing in the morning on my iphone. The trick is to not jump on something just because it’s exciting, the trick is to jump on something you would have spent money on even if you didn’t have the coupon. Of all of the new sites that have cropped up, this is most certainly one of the best daily deal sites.

You can check them out at Groupon.com

Living Social

LivingSocial.com – Living Social is similar to Groupon. It’s not as big so it isn’t as available in as many areas but they are still a major player and as such have some great local bargains. I make it a habit to check Groupon and Living Social every morning. I must admit, I have purchased more from Groupon than I have from Living Social but it’s still a great site to get a good deal. The key, as with all of these places, is to not buy something you don’t need or can’t use. While not as big as Groupon, it is still impressive and deserves to be on the best deal sites list.

You can check them out at LivingSocial.com

Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com – We don’t go out to eat very often, it’s one of the things we eliminated as we work todays becoming debt free. When we do splurge and go out to someplace night, we almost always refer to Restaurant.com first. The savings are amazing and there are a lot of participating restaurants. The way it works is you find the restaurant you want to eat at and you purchase a gift certificate to that restaurant at a significant discount. Most of the discounts I have come across are 50% – 60%. The thing to be careful about is the fine print. There are almost always stipulations, the most common being a minimum amount that must be spent at the restaurant in order to use the coupon. Choose your deal carefully. As long as you pay attention to the conditions, it is one of the best deal sites online. I have had some really great meals, really cheaply.

You can check them out at Restaurant.com

Woot!

Kids.Woot.com – Woot has several different sites but the one I check regularly is their kids web site. It’s an Ecommerce site but it’s unique in that they only sell one item per day. Each day they post an item at a set price and you have the opportunity to buy it until they run out. I have only ever jumped on a deal from Woot once so I can’t say I have a lot of experience with them but the experience I had was good. They were selling something I had already planned on buying for a gift but I got it cheaper than I would have been able to get elsewhere.

You can check them out at Kids.Woot.com

Craigslist

Craigslist – Okay, so this one is a no-brainer. I have had mixed results with Craigslist but for the most part, my experience has been positive with both buying and selling. Whenever I am looking for a larger item I look to Craigslist first. It’s the monster of all classifieds site and you can get a great deal if you are smart.

You can check it out at Craigslist

ebay

ebay.com – This one is another no-brainer. You would have to be living in a very remote corner of the world to not know about ebay. It’s the biggest and best auction web site online and there is a massive amount of product being sold on ebay every day. You can find some great deals as long as you don’t get carried away with the bidding. The key is to not bid until you have a concrete number you aren’t willing to go over. ebay works so well because it works people up into bidding frenzy and inevitably some people will spend more than an item is worth because of it.

You can check it out at ebay.com

Other Coupon Sites

If the KidsAintCheap family coupons directory doesn’t have a coupon for a site that I want to buy something at, I do a search to see if one of the other coupons sites does. It’s fairly easy and a good percentage of the time I find a coupon I can use. I simply search for SITE NAME coupon in google to see what comes up. Obviously, I replace SITE NAME with the actual web site name so if I am looking for a coupon to use on Amazon I search for Amazon coupon or Amazon coupon code. Try it out before you hit the check out button next time you buy something online.

Okay, those are the best deal sites that I check and use on a regular basis.

What is your favorite coupon or deal site?