By the time you read this, we will thankfully have waived “good riddance” to 2020! Wishing you and your family a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2021!
Covid-19 has created many behavioral shifts in the year 2020! Some behavioral shifts are temporary, and some could be here to stay. One of those shifts has been toward internet shopping for holidays, tangible gifts, and sometimes large purchases we previously bought at the “brick and mortar” store. Instead of touching, feeling, and trying on, we now click the mouse a few times and “voila,” the item appears. If you are an “Amazon Prime Member,” your purchase is received within 48-72 hours and with FREE Shipping.
2021 could be another difficult year, especially with the uncertainty in the job market. There will always be the need to shop for gifts, seasonal purchases, and necessary items, so heeding these LUCKY 7 TIPS can go a long way to controlling your 2021 expenses:
1. Consider Buying Off-Season: A little bit of internet price studying and patience can go a long way to spot pricing trends. New Year’s Sales are underway and many summer items are now on sale.
2. Consider Setting Up a Gift Closet or Large Draw: A client shared this with me as she turned a little-used hallway closet into a gift closet, which saved her money many times throughout the years. She buys offseason gifts only on deep discount then decides later who gets what.
3. Camel, Camel, Camel: Amazon.com discounts by category. Camel, Camel, Camel (CCC) is an Amazon price tracker. Find the product you are interested in buying, then cut and paste the URL into CCC to look up it’s price history and/or create a “watch-list” for that item.
4. PriceBlink: PriceBlink lets you know when the item you are viewing can be bought for a lower price elsewhere. After Amazon, online stores such as Walmart, Target and Ebay account for the majority of internet sales. PriceBlink searches over 11,000 merchants for lower prices, coupons, and FREE shipping. Give it a try!
5. Download the Rakuten FREE App or Browser Extension: Rakuten (formerly EBATES) works like all cashback sites (like IBOTTA) by sharing the commission that they receive from retailers. You are paid every 3 months for purchases made during the spending-period, and you can get cashback bonuses for joining and shopping.
6. Consider Using Poshmark as an Alternative to Ebay: Poshmark, (founded in 2011), is a website where one can buy and sell new and used clothing, shoes and accessories. It is FREE to list an item for sale on Poshmark. After the item sells, Poshmark deducts a fee from the final order. For sales under $15, a flat rate of $2.95 and for sales above $15 the fee is 20%. On the higher-priced items, EBAY might be the better choice.
7. Add the Honey Google Chrome Extension to Your Computer: On your laptop, IPAD, or desktop click www.JoinHoney.com and add the FREE extension. This extension (not for mobile phones) automatically searches for the best prices (often less than Amazon and eBay) and notifies you immediately at checkout
Since we are headed into the dog days of winter and quarantining is safer than going from store-to-store, these Lucky-7 online shopping Tips can save you big $$$ in 2021, albeit with a little patience. Give these Lucky 7 TIPS a try!
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Be Positive, Test Negative, Happy New Year!!