Are you looking to stretch your dollars this Christmas? This year it’s possible to buy a lot of really nice gifts for 50% off and sometimes more. All sorts of daily deal companies have sprung up that allow people to purchase deep discount vouchers for restaurants, spas, retail stores, outdoor activities, hotels and a lot more. While most of these companies advertise that you can get up to 90% off, it’s usually closer to 50%. But still if you can get something for half price that you were planning to buy anyway, that’s a great deal.

How it Works

How these companies work is they email you a “deal” every day or two once you sign up to receive their emails. If enough people sign up to buy the deal of the day, then the retailer or service provider allows the daily deal company to issue discount vouchers to everyone who signed up to buy one. The retailer or service provider makes money because this is great advertising, it brings in new customers, and they are able to make money off of the shear volume of people who buy the discount vouchers. The daily deal company makes money because they may get a retailer to agree to give clients a 60% discount, they then offer people a 50% discount, and the retailer pays the daily deal company the difference. So in the end everyone seems to win.

These daily deal companies now seem to be operating in most major Canadian cities. Here are some of them:

• Groupon.com
• LivingSocial.com
• WagJag.com

The Trick to Buying Vouchers and Coupons

So what’s the catch? This almost sounds a little too good to be true. So far I’ve bought four of these vouchers, and everything seems to work fine. Buying these vouchers can be great idea as long as you keep four things in mind:

1. Plan what you are going to buy and stick to your budget
2. Wait until the deal you are planning on becomes available
3. Don’t purchase vouchers on credit unless you are going to pay off your balance at the end of the month
4. If you buy a voucher as a gift, make sure it’s something the person you’re buying it for will use within 3 months because most of these vouchers expire fairly quickly

Enhance Your Life for a Great Price

These discount vouchers not only make great gifts by allowing you to buy nice presents that are often twice as expensive as you can afford, but they are also great for creating affordable dates for couples and less expensive outings for families. If gifts or quality time together speak volumes to your significant other, these vouchers may help you score a home run this year. Just make sure you don’t get carried away and spend beyond your budget.

If you would like to learn how to budget, click here to learn more.

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