With those crisp fall mornings becoming more commonplace, and Christmas just two months away, it’s time for every self-proclaimed real man to begin preparing for the deed he hates most in life.  Shopping!

I hate Christmas shopping!  I loathe it!

So much in fact, that I generally start making my gift list in late summer so that I can plan ahead, buy what I need as early as possible, so I avoid the temptation of beating some poor guy over his cranium because he somehow got the last Callaway Big Bertha Driver that I wanted.

However, I do love giving some really awesome Christmas gifts.  If I can’t get a get a tear of happiness out of Grandma or a “Hell Yeah” from my Dad as they open their gifts, my Christmas is essentially ruined in the giving sense.

So today, as I’m doing some online shopping, I find a decent bargain but I’m stopped dead in my tracks when I get to the Paypal checkout menu.

Why?  The shipping charges were outrageously high!

My gift was approximately $120 and only weighed 4 to 5 pounds, but the cheapest shipping choice available was an additional $20.  Effectively creating a mark up of 17% on what I thought was a bargain.

Sorry.  No sale!

As I later found out, I unknowingly became a statistic.  According to Paypal, the leading cause of online shoppers abandoning their online purchase is the high cost of shipping.

Doing a quick search to circumvent this problem, I came upon some interesting advice from Consumer Reports detailing the benefits of FreeShipping.org.

Apparently, this is a constantly updated site which only includes retailers who are currently running “Free Shipping” promotions.  It’s got tons of different retailers like Macy’s, The Gap, Best Buy, etc., which essentially gives you free shipping coupon codes to enter as you complete your online purchase.

If you’re feeling even more thrifty, you could try to combine the deals from Freeshipping.org with my last cost cutting article detailing Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback Promotion that saved me over $240 on a new laptop.

Hopefully, these two articles can help you do more with your money going into this holiday season.

…

SUBSCRIBE:  If you enjoyed this article, please sign up for new article alerts by RSS feed or Email.

…

Got a comment?