How to Track Holiday Deals (and Set Price Alerts That Do the Watching for You)

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Welcome to Day 20 of 100 Days to Christmas! The first week of October is when the whole internet starts yelling SALE at you. Walmart’s deals run October 5–11, and Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days and Target’s Circle Deal Days both land on October 6–7. That’s three big sales back to back, and every single one of them wants you to believe that this is the price.

Here’s the thing I’ve learned the hard way: a big red “40% off” badge doesn’t mean you’re getting a deal. Sometimes it just means the price went up a few weeks ago so it could come back down.

So today isn’t about shopping. It’s about learning how to track holiday deals so the deals come to you, and so you can tell the real ones from the fake ones in about ten seconds. Grab your coffee. This is the fun kind of planning.

Early October Sale Calendar

• Walmart Deals: October 5–11. No membership needed, and it runs all week.
• Amazon Prime Big Deal Days: October 6–7. Prime members only. Starts at 12:01 a.m. Pacific on the 6th.
• Target Circle Deal Days: October 6–7. You need Target Circle, but the basic version is free. Paid Circle 360 members get early access to some deals on October 5.

Because Walmart runs longer than the other two, you’ve got room to compare. If an Amazon “deal” isn’t actually a great price, you have until October 11 to see if Walmart or Target does better.

How to Track Holiday Deals Without Losing Your Mind

Tracking deals really comes down to five simple habits: know your price, check the history, let alerts do the watching, know when deals drop, and don’t get stuck with a gift you can’t return. Here’s how to do each one.

Hack #1: Decide Your Price Before the Sale Does

Pull out your family wish lists and your gift list from earlier in the challenge. Pick the bigger items you’re hoping to snag on sale, and write down two things next to each one:

• What it usually costs (we’ll look that up in Hack #2)
• Your “yes” price, the number where you’d happily buy it today

Where to keep it: Grab a sheet of paper and tuck it into the Christmas planning section of your binder. For each gift, jot down who it’s for, the store, the usual price, your “yes” price, whether you’ve set an alert, what you paid, and the return-by date (more on that in Hack #5). Now everything lives in one spot instead of scattered across five apps and a sticky note on the fridge.

Don’t want to DIY it?

The Complete Holiday Collection ($27) includes the Holiday Price Tracker (printable and spreadsheet) plus 150 other printables for the whole season.

Little trick: If you’re using the tracker cards, cut them apart once you buy something and tuck each card in with the gift or clip it to the receipt. Future you will know exactly what you paid and when the return window closes, without digging through your email.

That’s it. That’s your watch list. When you’ve already decided what a good price looks like, a flashy countdown timer can’t talk you into anything. If it hits your number, buy it. If it doesn’t, you walk away and feel zero guilt about it.

Bonus rule for sale days: if it’s not on the list, it sits in your cart overnight. If you still want it in the morning, fine. (You usually won’t. Ask me how I know.)

Hack #2: Check the Price History in 10 Seconds

This is the one that changed how I shop. Before you buy anything “on sale,” look at what it’s actually cost over the last few months.

On Amazon: Amazon now shows a “Price history” link right on a lot of product pages, with up to a year of pricing. Scroll near the price and look for it. If you don’t see it, use one of these free tools:

• CamelCamelCamel: Copy the Amazon product link, paste it into the search bar at camelcamelcamel.com, and you’ll get a chart of the price over time. They also have a browser extension called the Camelizer that pops the chart up while you’re on the Amazon page.
• Keepa: A browser extension that puts the price chart right on the Amazon product page, so you don’t have to go anywhere else.

What you’re looking for:

• Is today’s price lower than the usual price? Compare it to the average over the last 90 days, not to the “list price” Amazon shows crossed out. That crossed-out number is where most of the fake math lives.
• Did the price jump right before the sale? If the chart shows it creeping up a few weeks ago and “dropping” back down now, that’s not a deal. That’s a costume.
• Has it been lower before? If it hit a lower price last November, you might want to wait for Black Friday.

Everywhere else: If you use Chrome, open the product page and look for “Shopping Insights” or a price tag icon in the address bar. When it’s available, it’ll tell you whether today’s price is low, typical, or high, and it works on lots of stores, not just Amazon.

Hack #3: Set Price Alerts So You Can Stop Refreshing

You do not need to sit on your phone for 48 hours. Set it up once and let the alerts do the watching.

Amazon (Alexa for Shopping): In the Amazon app, you can set a target price on a specific item and get a notification when it drops. You can also set a looser deal alert in plain English, like “alert me to deals on kids’ art kits” or “alert me to deals on cozy throw blankets,” and you’ll get daily updates when something matches. That’s perfect for the people on your list where you know the kind of gift but not the exact one.

There’s also an auto-buy option that purchases the item automatically when it hits your price. It’s handy, but I’d only use it for things you’re 100% sure about. Otherwise you might wake up to a surprise air fryer you forgot you tracked.

CamelCamelCamel: On any product’s price chart, enter the price you want to pay plus your email, and they’ll email you when it drops to that number. It’s free, and it works even when you’re not signed in anywhere.

Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and everywhere else (Chrome): On a computer, open the product page in Chrome and click the bookmark star in the address bar. If the item is trackable, “Track price” turns on automatically. On your phone, tap the three dots and choose “Track prices.” You’ll need to be signed into Chrome with your Google account, and you can turn on email or phone alerts in Chrome’s settings under Google services.

My suggestion: Don’t track 60 things. Pick your top 5 to 10 gifts from your watch list. Too many alerts just turn into noise you ignore.

Hack #4: Know When Amazon Drops New Deals

During Prime Big Deal Days, Amazon releases new limited-time deals three times a day: at midnight, 8 a.m., and 1 p.m. Pacific. That’s 1 a.m., 9 a.m., and 2 p.m. Mountain, or 3 a.m., 11 a.m., and 4 p.m. Eastern.

These deals last only while supplies last, so if something on your list tends to sell out, set a phone alarm for the drop times that fit your day. (I’m skipping the midnight one. I love a deal, but I love sleep more.)

Hack #5: Check the Return Window Before You Buy

This is the sneaky one nobody talks about. When you shop early, you’re holding onto gifts a lot longer than usual, and not every early purchase gets a holiday return window.

• Amazon: The last few years, Amazon’s extended holiday return window has covered purchases starting November 1, not October. That means something you buy during Prime Big Deal Days may only have the standard 30-day return window, which could close before your kiddo even opens it. Check the “return by” date in your order before you assume.
• Target: Target stopped matching competitors’ prices in 2025. They still adjust if Target’s own price drops shortly after you buy, and last year their extended holiday price guarantee started November 1.
• Best Buy: Still matches eligible prices from Amazon, Walmart, and Target on identical items. Last year, purchases starting October 31 could be adjusted through mid-January.

The easy fix: When you buy a gift early, write the return-by date right next to it on your list (or on the Return By line of your Price Tracker card). Future you, sitting on the floor surrounded by wrapping paper in December, will be so grateful.

And for big-ticket, maybe-they’ll-hate-it gifts, it’s okay to wait until November when the return windows get friendlier. Early shopping is great. Early shopping you can’t undo is a little less great.

Today’s To-Dos

• Make your watch list: your top gifts, what they usually cost, and your “yes” price. Keep it on a sheet of paper in the Christmas planning section of your binder, or use the Holiday Price Tracker from the Complete Holiday Collection
• Check the price history on anything you’re planning to buy during the October sales
• Set price alerts on your top 5–10 items
• Jot down what you paid and the return-by date for anything you buy early

Once your alerts are set, you can go live your life. Let the deals come to you instead of the other way around.

You’re Not Late — Jump In Anytime

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Ten minutes today saves you hours later. Go grab those lists, pass them around, and let future you enjoy the payoff.