The holiday season is quickly approaching and to ease the stress associated with seasonal spending, consumers are eyeing big sales events like Black Friday to stretch their dollars. According to the Holiday Quicktake report from Bread Financial, 76% of shoppers plan to seek out deals and shop sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday to help ease holiday costs.
If you’re also eyeing doorbuster sales days as a chance to save on gifts and other seasonal purchases, there’s no time to wait—preparing your holiday budget and creating your gift game plan now is key to surviving the season debt free. If inflation is making it difficult to find any extra cash to put away for holiday purchases, a little creativity and spending hacks can go a long way in helping you save.
Here are 7 simple tricks just about anyone can follow to stash away over $800 by Black Friday.
- Cancel unused subscriptions ($25 in savings).
Subscription services are convenient, but can lead to wasteful spending under the radar. In fact, data analyzed by Self Financial found that 30 percent of subscriptions are unused, amounting to around $25 in wasted costs each month. For some consumers, this can much higher.
Take some time to scrutinize your services, canceling subscriptions, memberships or even bill extras you don’t need or use. Since some subscriptions get buried under other expenses in credit card and bank bills, use apps like Trim to help dig up each recurring expense. The service will even help you cancel whichever services you don’t use.
- Find a better cash-back credit card ($283 in savings).
Data collected by credit card matching service Gigapoints found that cardholders miss out on free cash back each year to the tune of $1,000 ($83 per month) by using the wrong type of rewards card. This is why it’s a good idea to get a new credit card that rewards you for the categories you spend the most especially ahead of the holidays. Plus, many credit cards offer sign up bonuses to new cardholders which can give your Black Friday budget a big boost.
For example, the Capital One Quicksilver Credit Card offers $200 when you spend $500 in the first 90 days of account opening, which can cover a good portion of your holiday purchases all for free. There are also flat-rate cash back cards like the Bread Cashback American Express card that get you even more money back on holiday purchases with will an unlimited 2% back on everything you buy with no spending limit.
Before committing to any new card, do your research to find one with the best rewards program. Here are the 7 best cashback cards for 2023 to consider at CardRates.com.
- Cut back on food waste ($252 in savings).
Did you know, the average person wastes $63 worth of groceries each week? Tossing spoiled food or unwanted leftovers may not seem like a big deal until you add up just how much it’s costing you. Setting up a meal plan, looking for recipes that use the same ingredients, and limiting how much fresh food you buy in bulk will trim your food waste, helping you save another $252 to use during holiday sales events.
Save even more on groceries by using cash back apps like Fetch. Just snap a picture of each receipt to earn points good towards free gift cards to stores like Target, Walmart and Amazon and use them to stretch your Black Friday budget even further.
- Unplug unused gadgets ($23 in savings).
Electricity prices have surged with the average household paying around $117 per month for this utility.
One quick and easy way to trim this bill is to unplug unused gadgets which continue consuming energy even in the off mode. According to Duke Energy, such energy vampires consume accounts for up to 20% of your monthly electricity bill, offering a big opportunity for savings.
- Trim your auto insurance bill ($16 or more in savings).
Car insurance costs are up in the U.S., at average of $81 per month for minimal coverage. This fee can be much higher if you live in a more expensive city, have new car or poor credit score.
The good news is, you can save up to 20 percent off this bill by using a few simple strategies, such as, bundling multiple insurance policies with a single provider, increasing your deductible and simply shopping around to see if a competitor has a discount for the same coverage.
- Tame impulse shopping temptations ($151 in savings).
According to the Impulse Spending Report from SlickDeals, consumers blow around $151 per month on spontaneous purchases. But just think about how far that extra cash could go towards paying for things you actually need and all your holiday gifts.
Think about how you can avoid sale temptations–unsubscribe from store emails and turn off push notifications in deal apps, and find other ways to deal with your emotions rather than indulging in retail therapy.
- Never skip the promo code box ($122 in savings).
There’s a coupon for everything these days, from online grocery and take out orders to dental services to car rentals, and spending just a few minutes looking for a deal could help put more money in your pocket for Black Friday. In fact, a report from Coupon Follow found that the average U.S. household stands to save around $122 per month by using online and mobile coupons.
Since hunting down deals can be time consuming and tedious, use a coupon tracking tool like Sidekick for help: this browser tool alerts you when it detects a coupon for a site you’re already browsing and will test each code and apply the deal with with the biggest discount to your online cart for instant savings.
Andrea Woroch is a nationally recognized money-saving expert, writer, speaker and frequent on-air contributor who is passionate about helping American families find simple ways to save more without radically changing their lifestyle. Andrea has appeared on hundreds of popular shows across the country including Today, Good Morning America, Dr. Oz, CNN, Inside Edition and ABC World News, plus hundreds of regional shows across the country. Her advice and articles have been featured in the New York Times, Time, Money, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, Huffington Post and many more. When Andrea is sharing advice on budgeting or smart shopping, she’s busy chasing after her two young daughters. Read more about Andrea at andreaworoch.com and follow her on Instagram for daily money tips.Â