If you’re anything like me, a broke college student that works and goes to school full-time, you want to get great gifts for your friends and family without breaking the bank to do so. Managing expenses can be challenging for college students as we transition from being a kid to taking on never-ending adult responsibilities. With the stress of school, work, and the pressure to save for holiday shopping on top of managing other expenses, getting gifts for people should be the least of your concerns. Compass News has formatted a list of five ways to get excellent gifts this holiday season without breaking the bank.

1. Shop early

When you’re strapped for cash, buying gifts early helps buyers be strategic in-regards to deals before the holiday inflation sets in. The inflation effect is when the price of popular holiday items goes up to curb the demand for gifts; anything can be affected, from video games to headphones and even kitchen appliances, so shop now while you still can.

2. Price matching

More often than not, if you shop at a store with a technology section or just any costly merchandise to avoid losing customers, they do price matching. Most of the time, Amazon prices are lower than the retail price in the store, and if you ask, they will match the price for you, and this isn’t just a financial trick but also a way of shopping near a deadline for those procrastinators who can’t wait for delivery times.

3. Store memberships and rewards

Don’t you think it’s weird that you’re asked if you want to join some rewards program when you shop anywhere these days? The reasoning behind this is so the buyer can save money. So often we say no to these offers because of the time we think it’s going to take to sign up, just to get flooded with more emails from different stores. You think of your time as more valuable, but when trying to save money, signing up for those services can save you tons of money even if all it is is a coupon email service; for example, Target has “Target circle” giving you both discounts and rewards you can use later while you shop ultimately saving you a lot of money in the end.

4. Sale catalogs

Every store that exists has some type of sale catalog that they mail out or put up on their website to inform savvy shoppers of what is on sale or soon to be on sale. Most people don’t know this and find out about deals when they go into stores without a plan on what to do. When you know where to look and how to look for it, you can get some holiday shopping done with ease and at a lower price than you could have possibly hoped for.

5. Browser extensions

Buying early eliminates the stress of waiting on a delivery time that comes with online shopping. If you have been on the internet at all during the last year, you probably have seen at least a million ads for Honey, the browser add-on that searches the internet for promo codes or better deals when shopping. Honey eliminates the work of finding promotion codes so you can sit back and relax while the computer does the job for you.

The truth of the matter is that when shopping for people, it’s hard to know when you can save money, but when you combine all of these five strategies above, you can score big by having a stress-free shopping experience. We hope that you get everyone a great gift at the right price this year. Happy shopping!