Plan Early, Wait to Buy: The Best Way to Save on Holiday Shopping

With the holiday shopping season inching earlier every year, one of the biggest questions for shoppers comes down to timing: When should you start buying gifts?

If you start too soon, you could miss out on some of the best sales. But if you start too late, you could pass up your chance at discounts and free shipping offers before the cutoff dates. And if you shop all season long, you risk racking up spending over three months.

To strike the right balance, money experts say plan early, but wait until prices drop to buy items on your list. That means having a conversation with friends and family about your holiday budget and expectations now.

“Budgets can be a great tool for communication,” says Daniel Goodman, certified financial planner and founder of Good Better Best Financial Planning in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

He suggests talking early with the entire family, including children, about everyone’s values and priorities for the holidays. Then set reasonable gift budgets.

“When families can identify what’s most important to them, it becomes easier to make intentional financial decisions and ensure their holiday spending reflects those values,” he adds.

Here are more ways to get an early start on holiday planning without overspending.

“It’s really good to look at your credit card statement from [last] January,” says Trae Bodge, a shopping expert at TrueTrae.com who is based in the New York area.

That reminder can motivate you to scale back spending this year.

“Revisit your gift-giving budget and make some tweaks. Also, look for spending traps,” Bodge says, such as overspending on coworkers or hosting too many holiday parties.

Andrea Woroch, a consumer savings expert in Bakersfield, California, likes to start her holiday shopping by taking inventory of what her family already has at home.

“It’s such a good reminder to see all the toy clutter that I don’t have to go overboard,” she says.

Making a list upfront of what you want to buy each person and how much you plan to spend can help keep you on track.

“If you’re organized and have a list, you can just look for those sales and respond accordingly,” Bodge says.

For example, when you see prices on electronics dip during Black Friday sales, you’ll be ready to buy, while you can wait on winter-related items such as sweaters that aren’t likely to fall in price until further into winter.

Toys tend to fluctuate in price in the months leading up to the holidays, so it can pay to wait for a specific deal, Bodge adds. You can use a tool like CamelCamelCamel or the PayPal Honey browser extension to track prices.

When you’re shopping early, it’s worth checking the return and price-matching policies of stores, Woroch says.

“You don’t want to get stuck with something you can’t return,” she adds, or get hit with a surprise restocking fee.

When it comes to price-matching policies, many retailers offer price adjustments for up to two weeks after purchases. That means if the price drops after you buy, you could be eligible for a refund. Just be sure to save your receipts and follow the store policy, Woroch says. Special sales such as Black Friday prices are often excluded from price matching.

“We are settling into a new normal where we’re doing a lot of holiday shopping in October,” Bodge says, partly because retailers host early sales.

One benefit of that approach, Bodge says, is that you can spread your holiday shopping across multiple months, making the expenses easier to bear. But it’s still important to take time to shop around and make sure you’re actually getting a good deal, she adds.

Bodge says that even though her business has grown, she hasn’t upped her holiday spending to reflect that increased cash flow. In other words, she resists the urge to give in to the impulse to overspend at the holidays.

NerdWallet’s Holiday Spending report found that 10% of holiday shoppers will likely need to use some of their emergency savings to buy holiday gifts this year and 9% will prioritize gift buying over some of their regular bills.

Scaling back can lead to a more financially joyous start to the New Year.