Frugal Christmas Shopping Ideas

I am so much more on it with Christmas shopping this year than I have ever been.  It started by shopping the Target and K-mart clearanced toys sales.  I definitely use blogs to alert me of good sales.  Then I remembered an idea I had read on Money Saving Mom.   Someone had written in a tip about Amazon's Trade-In Program.  It happened that I was able to get a free Iphone 4 from Sprint because I am guessing they were wanting to get rid of them because the Iphone 5 was coming out.  I did have to re-sign a 2-year contract but we were planning to do that anyway.

I was able to trade in my HTC Evo for $103 in Amazon gift cards automatically loaded to my account.  My phone was newer and in very good condition so I believe that is why I was able to do it.  Go to Amazon, search for your item and then look on the right hand side and scroll down until you see this:

It takes about a week but you may get a good deal.  I did check the box that said that they would send it back to you if they didn't find it to be in as good condition as you think it is.  Make sure you check that box otherwise they could give you a lot less money.

Don't forget Swagbucks too - I use this search engine to earn points and trade them in for Amazon gift cards as well.





Another thing to try is points from your bank.  My bank gives us points for using our debit cards.  They are ending this program at the end of the year but I was able to cash in those points for Target and Amazon gift cards.

Also, use Ebates to shop online and get cash back at different stores!  I have used them and get cash  back.  It isn't a ton of cash but every little bit helps!

Don't forget Retail Me Not!   Use it to search for store sales and coupon codes and for food too!  I once was able to get 50% off my Papa John's order so always use it when buying online or going to a store.

Use any other incentives from stores you may get.  I bought something at Kohl's and was able to get Kohl's cash plus I got $15 extra from them for signing up for alterts and for having my Kohl's charge statements e-mailed instead of mailed.  **Side note - I don't love credit cards but I do have a couple store cards to get greater discounts.  With Kohl's charge you can pay it off immediately with cash or check right after you charge it.

If you are interested, here are some of my favorite blogs to get deals from are:

Money Saving Mom
Money Saving Madness
Bargain Briana

What about you?  What are your Christmas money saving tips?

*Some of the links above are affiliate links.