--- title: 3 Smart Ways to Save Big on Holiday Shopping description: Black Friday isn't necessarily the best time to get great prices on holiday gifts. Try these tips to save money online or at the mall. authors: - name: Jill Schlesinger url: https://money.com/author/jill-schlesinger/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 24 covers: - Personal Finance - Career Advice - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Retirement - Taxes social: - https://x.com/jillonmoney former_staff: true published: '2015-11-19T15:45:31.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T07:38:45.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - Black Friday - Holidays - Shopping - Thanksgiving word_count: 338 canonical: https://money.com/save-money-holiday-shopping/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![Kara Brandeisky and Jill Schlesinger](https://img.money.com/2015/11/screen-shot-2015-11-17-at-7-01-56-pm.png) We’re just days away from the heart of the holiday shopping season, and a little bit of preparation will help you save big during the season. Use these three steps to make sure you're spending the least to get what you want for your loved ones. **1\. Create a Budget** Before you hit the stores, online or off, make sure you know who you're buying for and how much you can spend. I suggest you use one of several digital tools to keep holiday spending under control. In addition to budgeting favorites like [Mint](https://www.mint.com/), [You Need a Budget](https://www.youneedabudget.com/), and [Wally](http://wally.me/), there are holiday-specific apps, like [Santa’s Bag](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/santas-bag-christmas-gift/id397698040?mt=8) (iOS) and [Christmas List Snowball](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=iwuana.xmaslist&hl=en) (Android), which allow you to manage your holiday shopping budgets with a variety of breakdowns. **2\. Assemble Your List** There’s an app for this, too. Check out [List Ease](http://www.shoppinglistapp.com/), which allows you to invite family members to opt into holiday shopping lists, or [Slice](https://www.slice.com/), which keeps tabs on your online purchases by monitoring your email and extracting online order details. The app also notifies you about price drops on recent purchases and helps you get a refund when possible. **3\. Get the Timing Right** Research shows that shopping early can pay off. According to Adobe Digital [research](https://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2015/10/retailers-rejoice-online-sales-to-hit-new-record-this-holiday-season.html), online prices should hit rock bottom on Thanksgiving Day, where consumers will snag an average price discount of 27%. So if you are one of the [45% of consumers](https://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2015/consumers-find-steals-deals-holiday-shopping.aspx) who can sneak away in between football games and family time to click away, you’ll be rewarded. If shopping on Thanksgiving -- even from home -- doesn’t sit well with you, try the Monday before Thanksgiving, which has been a good time to beat the rush and still get deals. Adobe also found that the best time to buy varies because of both discounts and product availability, especially for hot-selling gifts. In fact, this weekend is the best time to shop for toys and Monday is good for electronics. **Read Next: [Stores Realize It's Dumb to Open Earlier Each Thanksgiving](https://money.com/black-friday-thanksgiving-day-hours-sales-2015/)** ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/save-money-holiday-shopping/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Saving Money", "item": "https://money.com/saving-money/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "3 Smart Ways to Save Big on Holiday Shopping" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/save-money-holiday-shopping/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/save-money-holiday-shopping/", "name": "3 Smart Ways to Save Big on Holiday Shopping", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-11-19T15:45:31.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/save-money-holiday-shopping/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/save-money-holiday-shopping/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T07:38:45.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "3 Smart Ways to Save Big on Holiday Shopping", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/11/screen-shot-2015-11-17-at-7-01-56-pm.png", "width": 1913, "height": 1076, "caption": "Screen Shot 2015-11-17 at 7.01.56 PM" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jill Schlesinger", "url": "https://money.com/author/jill-schlesinger/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/jill-schlesinger/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2015/11/151119_bio_author_schlesinger.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/jillonmoney" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-11-19T15:45:31.000Z", "description": "Black Friday isn't necessarily the best time to get great prices on holiday gifts. 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