It's Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year and the best time to start your holiday gift buying! To celebrate and get you started here's a taste of our many fabulous gift guides — also check out these helpful websites and of course Sale Habit. As always check out all of our awesome holiday content on HolidaySugar, from cooking to decorating to survival tips and more! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and now it's time to get into gift-giving mode!
It is a brave shopper who charges through Black Friday on a holiday shopping mission, and not everyone has the patience for tolerating pushy crowds. Hopefully, those determined shoppers are rewarded with heavy discounts that cause them to brush off any annoyances the day may bring. Are you hitting the sales today?
We've procrastinated shopping long enough, and the major holidays are now four weeks away and counting. It's about time we start taking a crack at our lists, but first we need to decide how to pay for all the presents. Consider the easiest way to track all of your gift expenses combined with the most practical method for preventing overspending. Only you can choose which is best for you, but Consumer Reports gives us a place to start by comparing all of our payment options.
Credit cards: The magazine recommends using credit for large purchases as long as you're not already carrying a balance and can pay off the charges each month. Credit offers more protection than other payment forms and it's relatively easy to have charges removed in the event of a legitimate dispute.
Debit cards: You'll escape the interest charges affiliated with credit cards but are susceptible to overdraft fees, and debit doesn't provide as much protection as credit. Your bank isn't required to step in to dispute charges with a merchant.
To see how these compare to paying with a check or cash, read more
When asked what she's most grateful for, guesswho replied with this answer: "To be able to wake up in the morning and do the job that you love? And to be able to live from it, too? I am so grateful."
This Thanksgiving I'm thinking about how grateful I am for all of the good things in my life, especially the fact that I'm employed. This has been one out of control year in terms of the economy, so let's focus on the positives today.
Maybe you didn't get a raise this year, but at least you still have a job when so many others have lost theirs. Or maybe you lost your job but you've had a loving support system to carry you through the hard times. Take this feeling of gratitude and try and apply it each day, especially when it's a particularly rough one.
When Oprah announced there was a twist to her famous favorite things episode this year, I was thrilled to learn the difference was in cost. It seems she is taking a note from TeamSugar members this year and promoting several homemade gifts that are big on thought and easy on the wallet. Oprah said, "Bringing real meaning back to the holidays is my favorite thing." I'm impressed with the ideas presented on the show and took notes for you savvy shoppers looking to save money this holiday season. Start the slideshow to see Oprah's inexpensive favorite things.
Gas is now going for about half of what we paid at the pump through the Summer, and the reduced cost is a welcome retreat from the strain that filling up had been causing consumers. We can hope the days of gas price-induced desperation (remember the new dad who named his baby boy after a radio show for a $100 gas card?!) are behind us, and before we go forgetting the damage gas prices did to our budgets, let's take the opportunity to do something with the extra money we're saving.
We managed to make it when our money was going into the tank instead of staying in our bank accounts, which means we might not miss at least some of that disposable income if it was out of our reach. Figure out how much you've saved in gas this month compared to what you had been spending at the height of gas prices, and apply at least part of the difference to the amount you transfer each month into your savings account. It will feel good to watch your savings grow, rather than burning your cash on the cost of fuel.