Holiday shopping can be difficult. It can cause copious amounts of stress, whether that stress is over your budget, too many people in the stores or not knowing what to get. There are many questions to ask when Christmas shopping regarding pricing, how to save the most money and even some good things to get for your friends and family members. I compiled a few good tips on how to save money and how to find the best deals.

Shopping for men versus shopping for women is a very different domain of gift giving, making holiday shopping even more stressful if you don’t know exactly what the person wants. When shopping for men, you can always go for the basic and traditional gifts, like socks, video games, shoes, sportswear and other sports items, or just go for whatever the person wants instead of trying to guess. Holiday shopping for women however, can be more difficult. You can buy beauty products, but then you have to figure out the shades of those products, or buy clothes and you need to know exactly what the person wants. But, buying some clothing basics, and beauty sets would be a good bet because of how versatile and personalized they can be. 

If you are looking into getting a gift that is beauty related, Ulta Beauty and Sephora gift sets have been popular around the holiday season. The insane deals make them hard to pass up, but which beauty stores gift sets will give you the most bang for your buck? Both Ulta Beauty and Sephora have some very similar gift sets, I compared both of their fragrance sets and both of their skincare/makeup sets. Sephora’s Perfume Sampler set comes in at $72 with a $107 value, it contains 13 samples and a scent certificate to redeem in store for a full sized perfume. Ulta Beauty’s Fragrance Faves set is $30 with a $59 value and contains 11 samples with a $15 gift card. The Sephora set may be significantly more pricey, but it includes a redeemable card that gets you a full sized fragrance for free. When you compare $72 for the set versus up to $150 for fragrances, I would say that set is more worth the money if you are planning to buy a full size right away, but if you just wanted to have a couple little samples for fun, the Ulta Beauty set is a lot cheaper with a lot of the same products. There are many other holiday sets like this from Ulta Beauty that are much more affordable than their competitors at Sephora, but at the end of the day it comes down to exactly what products you want. Not everyone is going to be into these sets, but it does show how the same products from different stores differ dramatically in price, and this situation can be applied to almost any retail store today. 

If you want to shop for men within the category of beauty or self care, Ulta Beauty and Sephora both have some fragrance sets and skincare sets targeted more towards men, at very affordable prices considering the amount of product you are purchasing. The Ulta Beauty Scents of the Season set has 13 samplers and a $15 gift card, this set retails for $30. They also have multiple other sets for skincare and haircare. Another thing to get would be something video game related, for example an XBox controller, at GameStop a basic Xbox controller would be about $50, whereas at Target it is also $50. I have found that most gaming stuff is going to be the same prices, unless you are buying it used, or from a wholesale place, so that would be a good way to save money if you are choosing these things. 

Clothes and shoes can also be super expensive, and the most popular clothing stores have pretty expensive items. Some good ways to save money while shopping in these places is to start shopping super early. A lot of times as the holiday season approaches certain popular or trendy products can be marked up in price, while other products are being put on sale. Another tip is to look in the clearance section, you can find a lot of good products for lower prices, and it seems a bit strange but sometimes the best products are hidden away in the back.

Another thing to consider while trying to stay within your budget and save money, is online shopping. Although the products online may be the same price as in store, you also need to think about how you have to pay for shipping on most products. After you’ve paid for the product and shipping, you also have to add the tax on that item, which can put you pretty far over budget. Most retailers do offer special deals around the holidays that say things along the lines of “ Free shipping with any purchase over $50,” or any price, and while these deals can definitely help you save money, they can also be deceiving and make you spend more money than you thought you were going to, and thinking you are saving because you don’t pay for shipping. 

If you’ve gotten behind on your holiday shopping, and need to do some last minute gift buying, a good time to go would be on Green Monday, which is on Dec. 15 this year. Green Monday may be a busy shopping day, but you can do it online and get a handful of different deals to finish up the Christmas list. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are also good ways to save, but they are both very busy and things sell out very quickly.

With all of this information, saving money should be a bit less stressful, and overall make shopping for the holidays more enjoyable.