‘Saves a lot of money;’ How to make the most of the tax free holiday

With Ohio’s tax-free holiday already saving people a ton of money, could there be ways to save even more?

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:30 p.m., shoppers like Alexia Page-Boyd have already been cashing in on Ohio’s expanded Tax-free holiday.

“It saves a lot of money especially right now it’s hard to get everything that I need. To be able to have everything, including things that I didn’t think would cover it, is really awesome,” Page-Boyd said.

Just about anything under $500 that can be touched, moved, or consumed is tax-free. Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate believes the holiday is worth taking advantage of.

“I believe that Ohio has the most generous sales tax holiday in the whole country. I would really treat this as a discount on everything you buy,” Rossman said.

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There are always ways you can use the tax-free holiday to save even more.

“I’m a big fan of stacking discounts. So whether that’s a store coupon or a rewards credit card or a card linked offer or some kind of app savings, whatever it is, try to combine two or three rounds of savings on the same purchase,” Rossman said.

If there is something you know you’ll need in a few weeks, Rossman says to get it now.

“Maybe that’s for back to school, but maybe that’s just things that you need around the house, or maybe it’s a good time to splurge a little bit on a date night or taking the family out to dinner,” Rossman said.

But you do want to be careful when taking advantage of all those deals.

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“I do want to be cautious about we don’t want to go hog wild and, you know, overspend,” Rossman said.

If your budget wasn’t prepared for extra spending this year, there is the possibility of the same holiday next year.

“If that becomes a regular thing, this could sort of become a fixture on the retail calendar,” Rossman said.

At least for this year, Page-Boyd is using this tax-free holiday to her full advantage.

“Might as well use it here or at Walmart or anywhere to kind of get some extra higher ticket items,” Page-Boyd said.