Shopping the tech way

You can use technology to save you money — and reduce your stress.

Each year, the cost of living increases, outpacing the average living wage, and resulting in a slow but steady decrease of our disposable income.

Mitigating the effects of higher inflation is usually achieved by tightening up our purse strings and cutting unnecessary expenses; however, doing so at this time of year poses a huge challenge for many as we often exceed our budgets and end up in the red after the holiday shopping blitz.

Marketers are exceptionally good at knowing what makes us tick and how to trigger impulse buying during the holidays.

Before you throw caution to the wind and venture onsite to do your holiday shopping, let me tell you how to gain the upper hand by leveraging your computing technology.

Not only will you be more likely to stretch your dollar farther and save a bunch of money, but you will save tons of time, be less frustrated, reduce your risk of catching a flu or cold, and minimize your ecological foot print on the environment as well.

I propose that you do the bulk of your holiday shopping this year online in the comfort of your own home or office, and have the products delivered.

Most people are aware that the majority of popular retail stores have websites who’s products can be browsed and ordered online.

What many people may not know is that most online retailers usually offer some discounted price points exclusively for items purchased online.

The typical online discounts can range anywhere from 10-50% off depending on the items. While it’s true that most items will likely fall into the lower range, the time and fuel savings will result in a substantial savings in your overall purchases.

There’s also a bonus: a huge reduction in stress by avoiding busy traffic, hectic packed stores and huge line ups.

I don’t know about you, but being sick over the holidays doesn’t make me overly jolly and of good cheer. Avoiding overly crowded retails outlets will greatly reduce your risk of catching a flu or cold.

This time of year, is one of the busiest times for traffic and accidents. Shopping online will minimize your time in traffic, statistically reducing your likelihood of being involved in an accident and being banged up for the holidays.

During this busy time of year, you may also want to pay your bills online, which will further leverage all the previous mentioned benefits. Another way to use your computing technology to save money over the holidays is to use things such as Skype.

You can communicate with family members who couldn’t make it and reside out of country in areas that aren’t covered in your unlimited North America long distance plans.

Also, if your considering taking in a movie over the holidays, you may want to consider purchasing one from the comfort of your own home from one of the many available streaming services online.

Netflix, Apple and Google all offer streaming services with thousands of movie titles to choose from. Shaw and Telus also offer on demand movie viewing to their subscribers as well.

Most of these services rent movies for between $4-$7 dollars, a fraction of the cost of taking everyone out to the movies and your guaranteed premium seating too.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.