Wondering what you should and should not purchase during the Tax Free Holiday? Here is a complete list of My Kansas City Mommy's tips on how to shop smartly during this Sales Tax Holiday:
Tips:
1. Use savings apps:
•
Checkout 51- Offers rebates you can redeem as soon as you purchase select items.
•
ibotta- Offers rebates you can redeem as soon as you purchase select items.
•
Shopkicks- Offers coupons for many stores even at the mall. Get points for just walking into a store.
•
Target Cartwheel- Offers Target store discounts which can be combined with a manufacturer coupon & a Target Store Coupon.
•Target Mobile Coupons- Text "Offers" to 827438.
2. Shoppers should think outside of the Box:
Try consignment shops, Salvation Army, and even the mall! You can get like-new designer clothing at consignment shops, the Salvation Army, and Good Will – so those are smart places to shop for families without a lot of money, or who have several children to clothe.
At the mall, check clearance racks for previous season discounts.
3. Get some of your Christmas shopping in! Clothes, electronics, and stocking stuffers are a few great buys during the tax holiday.
4. Take advantage of lay-a-ways. Qualifying items placed on or picked up from layaway during the Sales Tax Holiday are exempt from sales tax. This is another great way to get some of your Christmas shopping done.
5. Use coupons to save yourself money, but know the rules. While coupon use is allowed during the tax holiday, coupons are not allowed to be used to reduce the price of an item so it will meet the guidelines of the tax holiday rules. The only exception to this is if the coupon is a store coupon - If a retailer offers a discount to reduce the price of an eligible clothing item to $100 or less, the item will qualify for the exemption. This applies to all discounts even if a retailer's coupon or loyalty card is required to secure the discount.
6. Know your neighbors! In this case, I'm talking about Arkansas & Mississippi. Mississippi Tax Free Holiday is July 25th-26th and the Arkansas tax free holiday is the same weekend as Tennessee (first weekend of August). The interesting thing is that Arkansas allows several items to be purchases tax free that Tennessee does not. For instance, in Arkansas you can get cosmetics, wedding clothing, wigs, hairpieces, and even costumes tax free– but there is no tax discount on computers!!
7. Be sure to make a list and know what you need to get before you go. This will prevent impulse buying.
8. Use websites like My Kansas City Mommy which are designed to find the deals for you so you can spend less time doing the research.
NO-NOs:
1. Do not buy a laptop or computer without knowing exactly what your needs are compared to what the machine you are looking at offers. If you are going to spend a lot of money on a computer it needs to meet your needs.
2. Hold off on purchasing electronics if newer models are about to be release. Unless you do not mind having older versions of electronics like the Kindle Fire or iPhones, you should hold off.
3. Don't assume something is on the allowed tax-free list. Make sure you visit the official state websites and print the list of allowed items. It would be a big disappointment if you spent a lot of time trying to find the best price on a specific item only to realize afterwards that you still had to pay taxes.
Click here to see the 2014 Tax Free Holiday Schedule and links to each states inclusion list.
4. Don't forget, back to school deals are very predictable. The almost 10% tax savings today may not be as great a savings as when the items go on clearance at the start of September.
