Fashion

Holiday Savings Tips: Remember Free Shipping Day, Coupons and Paperless Cards

By Mary Hall | December 9, 2011

Today’s post (aka my daily musings) features a few little holiday saving tips as I look around at the online shopping. The shipping costs are very much on my mind. Why ? Because I don’t want to pay a fortune for shipping and neither should you. So mark your calendars my dear readers, Free Shipping Day is next Friday, Dec. 16,2011. So far over 1,800 merchants have already signed up to participate on FreeShippingDay.com — including Lands’ End, JCPenney, Cabela’s and more. In a recent market research study many consumers said free shipping is so important to them, that they won’t make a purchase without it. According to Comscore, “Throughout the 2011 holiday season, more than half of all transactions have included free shipping with rates increasing later into the season. The week of Thanksgiving (week ending Nov. 27) saw free shipping occur on 64.4 percent of transactions, while Cyber Week has maintained a similar level at 63.2 percent. In each case, these rates were approximately 10 percentage points higher than last year.”

Remember, a lot of the retailers will no longer offer free shipping after Dec. 18th ( or any shipping with a guarantee to arrive by Dec. 24th). To help see where you can get FREE shipping, the folks at do check out FreeShippingDay.com.

Another site that offers free shipping coupons plus coupon codes to over 850 stores is FreeShipping.org. The site includes coupons for over 850 stores including JCPenney, Kohl’s , Macy’s and Gap.

FreeShipping also has some nice tips on their blog about the holiday shipping schedule. Since it’s likely that there are going to be at least a few days of bad weather around the US, its good to know about the shipping deals. It saves you going out, driving in unsafe conditions and waiting in long post office lines.

Coupons for discounts on the merchandise itself can be found over at Coupon Cabin, CouponMountain.com. and RetailME.not. Also, be sure and check the Coupon Widget and deals here on the left side of the blog for some savings. Every little bit helps because it all adds up.

Pictured: A holiday card from Paperless Post, saves trees, card costs and postage.

A final cost saving tip to pass along is FREE Christmas and Hanukkah cards available on line at Paperless Post. Paperless Post has launched a line of holiday cards and invitations that includes collaborations with famed stationers Bernard Maisner and Mr. Boddington’s Studio, as well as photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt. Above is a sample of one of their cards, cute, huh? And you can’t beat the price.