Last-minute shopping? Five tips.

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Last-minute shopping? Five tips.

Last-minute shopping deals won't be as good as Black Friday. But last-minute shopping doesn't mean you have to pay retail, either.

Jim Beckel/The Oklahoman/AP

Guy Peters, dressed as Santa Claus, waves to customers outside a store in northwest Oklahoma City on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Peters is an employee in guest services at the store. A surge of last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve is expected to top off an unexpectedly strong holiday shopping season.

By Contributor

Dec. 24, 2011, 4:10 p.m. ET

Christmas is one day away 鈥� and you鈥檙e still not done with your holiday shopping?

The bad news is that your best chances to save probably came and went with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The good news is that you鈥檙e not doomed to pay retail. While last-minute shoppers have fewer deals to pick from, they can save money at checkout by remembering the basics鈥�

Check the ads.聽Read all of your local Sunday newspaper ads in one place by using ShopLocal.com鈥檚 cool聽聽feature, or go directly to the website of the stores you plan to visit to find their latest ad. If you don鈥檛 see anything that jumps out at you this week, you鈥檒l have one more set of ads to pick from this Sunday, Dec. 18.
Use a price-comparison search engine.聽Once you figure out what to buy, take a minute to run it through websites like聽,听, and聽聽to make sure you get it at the best price currently available 鈥� whether you shop online or in person.
Check for coupons and promo codes.聽To ensure you鈥檙e not overlooking extra savings, first Google for [name of item] + 鈥渃oupon鈥� or 鈥減romo code.鈥� Then check your favorite deals aggregator or our聽.
Look for Cyber Monday deals.聽This past Monday, Dec. 12, I noticed that a few stores offered Cyber Monday deals. So I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised to see several big but short-lived deals this coming Monday, Dec. 19, since it鈥檚 the last Monday before Christmas and Hanukkah.
Shop online.聽To save time and gas, I bought all of my gifts online this year. Just be sure to order ASAP and check a store鈥檚 holiday shipping cut-off date before you place an order with them.