The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way. All you have to do is make a few changes, follow these financial tips for the holidays, and Christmas shopping can be easy, quick, and might even save you a few bucks along the way. Ready to be a better shopper and tackle your holiday shopping like a boss? Then check out these Holiday Shopping Tips To Save Money and Keep Your Sanity! If you stick to the budget, you’ll be surprised how much harder you’ll look for deals that fit your price range. Those who budget well also find they save money by being under-budget. Then, plan and strategize your trip around saving gas and time rather than driving all over the place. Driving from place to place will only suck up valuable time you could be using for other things. You can easily plot out your trip using Google Maps. Shopping online has the unique benefit of saving you time and gas money. You don’t have to wait in line at the checkout or drive all over the place to find something. Whatever you do, don’t buy something that doesn’t have free shipping. The biggest downside to online shopping is not being able to see the product before you buy it. Sure, product reviews help, but they’re not a sure-fire way to know if its a good product or not. Keep that in mind before you pull the trigger. Anytime you checkout at the store, watch and double check that the prices are scanned correctly. Sometimes it won’t give you the sale price, while other times you might have been bamboozled into thinking you were getting a sale when, in fact, you weren’t. Sometimes they don’t show you an itemized list at checkout but just the total cost; best way to know things are adding up is to add up the prices before you reach the checkout counter.