“With the economy still slow and many Americans on a strict budget, retailers are going to be offering a lot of great deals this holiday season,” said Luke Knowles, co-founder of Coupon Sherpa, a comprehensive resource where consumers can find online coupons, printable coupons and grocery coupons along with a free, downloadable iPhone application that provides access to mobile coupons. Ask Coupon Sherpa is the site’s blog that publishes money-saving tips. “Black Friday is an ideal time to take advantage of deep discounts.”

Among the tips in the Ask Coupon Sherpa article about Black Friday are:

Buy the newspaper: There’s a reason the Thanksgiving Day newspaper is the fattest newspaper of the year. Advertisers annually stuff this paper with coupons and circulars advertising their best sales. You can increase your savings with online coupons. Just make sure they can be used in combination with in-store sales or newspaper coupons.

Do your research: If you have your eye on a particular item, surf the price-comparison Web sites and record the prices for reference while shopping. Don’t forget to add any fees to the price. Some stores allow you to place an order online for in-store pickup the next day. You’ll still want to hit that store pretty early, however, and bring your printed-out receipt as sales clerks may not focus on filling online orders when pressed by throngs of shoppers.

Develop a game-day plan: Draw up your shopping list and establish your priorities before you hit the stores. Decide which stores you want to shop and in what order.

Are all parts included? Is the sale item stripped down or sold with all necessary parts? For example, some stores will low-ball the price on a computer printer but not include a printer cartridge, which can run to a pretty hefty figure. As a matter of fact, you should always check the price of printer cartridges before buying a printer. A $50 printer isn’t a great deal when the cartridges cost $50 each and run out quickly.

Hitch a ride: Parking on Black Friday is a nightmare and can waste precious time. This is one instance, however, when biking or taking the bus doesn’t make sense as your arms will be weighed down with packages at the end of the day. Ask a friend or relative to drop you off and pick you up.

Stick to your list and budget: In the tumult of Black Friday, it’s easy to wander off target, so make sure you stick to your list. And NO personal shopping. Wait for post-Christmas sales to treat yourself.

Coupon Sherpa is a comprehensive resource where consumers can find accurate and up-to-date online coupons, printable coupons and grocery coupons along with a free, downloadable iPhone application that provides access to mobile coupons. With the iPhone application, consumers can present the coupons (on their mobile devices) to the respective store’s cashier and receive the applicable discount. Merchants can post an unlimited amount of coupons on the application for free. For more information, visit www.couponsherpa.com.

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CyberMonday.com is well organized and easily searchable to help you find just what you are looking for. They even have a link in their navigation bar to all of the free shipping offers available on the site. Online retailers are reporting that approximately 57% of them are offering free shipping on all orders while 80% of online retailers will offer some sort of free shipping offer (may include a minimum purchase requirement).

Between now and CyberMonday you have the chance to win amazing gift cards from major retailers just by following @shopcybermonday on Twitter and becoming a fan on Facebook. On November 30th CyberMonday.com will be offering special “Deal of the Hour” items that are only 1 hour specials so make sure that you are checking back regularly to get all of the great deals.

I know on the past a lot of us have done all of our comparing early in the shopping season and then waited for the last minute deals. According to the National Retail Federation, a lot of merchants ordered less inventory this year due to the poor economy so they expect popular items to sell out quickly and for there to be fewer last minute baragins for the consumers.

Happy Shopping!

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