For Holiday Shopping Savings, 'Online Is The Answer'
BOSTON (CBS) - As you get ready to hit the stores, or their websites, you may be looking for ways to stretch your holiday shopping budget.
WBZ-TV's Paula Ebben spoke to Jon Lal, the CEO of BeFrugal.com, about some tips on saving money.
Q: What is the number one way people should be looking to save money this year?
"For a lot of people, shopping is a social activity. You want to go shopping with your mom, your daughter, your cousin and hit the stores and have fun with it. But if you're really looking to save money, online is the answer. It's going to be easier to find deals, easier to find coupons, cash back, all of those things if you go online."
Q: Are you seeing any new trends this year?
"Cyber Monday has always been big with apparel because people tend to get that online now on Monday, having looked at stores on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The other big thing online are video game consoles, because unlike TV's where people want to look at the picture quality, hear the sound, maybe play with the remote and all that, with a video game, another electronic, people are happy to buy it online."
Read: How To Prepare For Black Friday And Get The Best Deals
"It's watching the retailers and ideally you'll do it through a coupon or cash back site then you'll be informed of what's going on or sign up to the retailer's email list or follow their Facebook page and you'll know what's going on and that's the best way."
Q. How can you get around heavy-duty shipping costs?
"That's the one disadvantage of online (is) to pay for that. You either want to hit the minimum order amount – it might be $100 or $150 before you get free shipping, get a code for free shipping, you can do it through BeFrugal or another site, or you can use a ship-to-store option if it's a big box retailer with a store nearby and many times they'll give you free shipping if you're picking up at the store."
Q. These days, there should be no excuses, if you're online and you're savvy, you should be able to save yourself a lot of money.
"Yes, unless you're going to have fun with your aunt or your daughter or your family member. If it's a social thing, online can't compare to that."
COUPON AND CASH BACK SITES:
