3 Tips for Buying Last-Minute Gifts Without Spending a Fortune

It happens to the best of us every year. We tell ourselves we're going to get a head start on our holiday shopping -- perhaps by taking advantage of November sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday -- only to find ourselves well into December with many more gifts to purchase.

If you've yet to complete your holiday shopping list, it may be because you wanted to spread out your credit card charges to avoid a giant bill. And that's understandable. But now that you're down to the wire, here are some tips for finding last-minute gifts without utterly depleting your savings account.

1. Shop around even when the price seems fair

When you're shopping under pressure, you may be inclined to just buy something that seems as if it's being sold at a fair price. But a few minutes of shopping around might help you pay even less.

Let's say you have a young reader in your family. You may decide to buy your child Judy Blume's classic Fudge box set, which features five fantastic novels.

Target has it for sale online for $20.99, which is only $4.20 per book. But Amazon has it available for $15.45, which is only $3.09 per book. So even though Target's price was quite reasonable to begin with, a quick Amazon search clearly reveals an even more cost-effective option.

2. Actually go to the store

Many retailers have a clearance section you can look at online. But sometimes, you'll find even bigger discounts in stores.

When retailers get a lot of returns and are understaffed, restocking those items can be overwhelming. What'll sometimes happen is that products will get marked down and thrown onto the clearance rack where you can scoop them up for less.

Also, the idea of searching through the clearance section online can be daunting for a retailer like Target or Walmart, since you could conceivably spend hours browsing through numerous pages. If you go to the store, there might only be a couple of clearance aisles to browse. The downside there is less selection. But the upside is that you might have it in you to look in the first place.

3. Check your local dollar store

Maybe you've managed to buy most of your big-ticket gifts at this point, but you still have some stocking stuffers you need to grab. Amazon has plenty of choices in that regard. But if you don't want to spend more than, well, $1 or $1.25 per item, then the dollar store may be your best bet (though do keep in mind that Amazon sometimes sells multipacks of items that bring their individual price down to roughly $1 apiece, like these lip glosses.)

And remember, you can combine dollar store items with other buys for gifts that are nice and creative. If you see a cute mug at the dollar store your teen might like, you could also pick up their favorite hot cocoa packets at the supermarket for a low-cost but meaningful gift.

It's never fun to feel like you have to rush through your holiday shopping. The good news, though, is that you don't have to spend a small fortune tackling the remainder of your list -- even if you don't have much time to get the job done.