TULSA, Okla — Every little bit of savings helps when it comes to keeping back-to-school budgets in control. So, doing a little planning before heading out to shop during the Aug 2, 3 & 4 sales tax free weekend could also save you from making a costly mistake.
Take a look at this chart to see how tax free weekend works.
Oklahoma's tax free weekend lets you shop in stores, online or by catalog.
Hope George has six growing boys. Her strategy for maximizing her tax free weekend savings is to shop local and look for extra savings.
"I'm looking for those 50% off discounts," she said.
To keep from losing those big savings, Greg McBride with Bankrate urges caution when paying with credit cards.
"The savings you get from a tax holiday is nice," said McBride, "but you don't want to produce credit card debt that's going to generate interest charges that are a lot higher than what you had saved."
In Tulsa, sales taxes run just over 8.5%.
According to LendingTree, the average interest rate in America as of July 8 is 24.84%, the highest average since 2019 when it began tracking rates each month.
So, if you save 8.5% during the sales tax holiday, but don't pay off your credit card balance at the end of your billing cycle, you wipe out your savings by paying much higher interest on the purchase.
"How you're really gonna save money if is you make purchases you already planned to make anyway, " said McBride.
And, avoid extra impulse credit card purchases that you can't pay off.
It is also a good idea to hold off buying all your kids school clothes during the tax free weekend because those outfits will likely go on deeper discounts during the Labor Day Sales in early September.
Contact the Problem Solvers:
- 918-748-1502
- problemsolvers@kjrh.com
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter