{"id":3053,"date":"2011-11-15T11:14:29","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=3053"},"modified":"2011-11-15T11:15:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:15:52","slug":"its-the-time-of-the-year-to-shop-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/3053","title":{"rendered":"It’s the time of the year to shop smart"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Meghanne Adams —<\/strong>
\nNow that Halloween is over, stores don\u2019t waste time before playing Christmas music and putting up those holiday decorations. This, of course, is a hopeful ploy of the stores to try to get consumers in the gift-buying, holiday mood earlier and earlier each year.<\/p>\n

With the coming of the holidays, comes shopping for the family and friends in your life. While giving gifts is fun and rewarding, staying in your budget is also important. So, here are a few helpful tips on how to get gifts for everyone on your list without busting your budget.<\/p>\n

The average American spends $700 dollars on Christmas gifts each year, according to Carolyn M. Brown’s\u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s Go Shopping!\u201d Brown emphasizes comparing, comparing, comparing! Comparison-shopping can be important and helpful, and will save you a lot of money if you do the leg-work and find the best price for a gift you know you want to buy.<\/p>\n

Brown suggests some sites like bizrate.com, shopzilla.com, and shopping.com for comparison-shopping. Also, pay attention to television commercials and newspaper ads to find the best deal.<\/p>\n

Now, while this isn\u2019t a suggestion for consumers to go all “extreme couponing” on their Christmas shopping, Brown does encourage finding coupons. Brown suggests looking on savings.com or in their local newspaper for these coupons.<\/p>\n

There couldn\u2019t be an article about Christmas shopping without mentioning BLACK FRIDAY! Brown suggests staying away from the chaos and to shop online. A lot of stores will offer the same deal online that they are offering in their stores.<\/p>\n

Also, while online shopping specifically for the items that made the list, it will help prevent consumers from impulse buying in the stores. You aren\u2019t saving any money on sale items if they weren\u2019t items you needed or really wanted.<\/p>\n

Speaking of items that made the list, actually making a list is very helpful and important for staying on budget. By finding coupons, comparison-shopping and making lists, you\u2019ll have better luck with staying within your budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meghanne Adams — Now that Halloween is over, stores don\u2019t waste time before playing Christmas music and putting up those holiday decorations. This, of course, is a hopeful ploy of the stores to try to get consumers in the gift-buying, holiday mood earlier and earlier each year. With the coming of the holidays, comes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3055,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}