Black Friday is two weeks from this Friday, and if you want to score the best deals on holiday gifts, you’ll need to use every minute to draw up a battle plan by deciding what to buy and researching where to go to get the most bang for your buck.  Shopping and saving expert Jodi Furman offers some tips on how to score the best deals:

 Set a spending limit. Focus on what you need and what you can afford. Furman suggests you figure out how much you can afford to spend, set the budget and stick to it.

 Do your homework. Check sales fliers online (many are already posted) and get the Thanksgiving Day newspaper to see what deals are being offered at what times.

 Let someone else do your homework. Check popular savings sites like TotallyTarget.com and IHeartTheMart.com. They focus on the best sales at Target and Walmart.

 Score free gift cards. Some stores also offer free gift cards with purchase on popular electronics like iPods and video game consoles.

 Find shopping buddies. If you want to get items at more than one store, Furman suggests using the “divide and conquer” method. If there are two or three of you, divide your lists between each person and one goes to each store to get the bargains for everyone.

 Use technology. Sign up for emails and text messages from your favorite retailers so you’ll automatically be notified of special offers.

 Get rebates. Get cash back for online purchases by using sites like Ebates.com, FatWallet.com and Swagbucks.com.

 Use price matching. For the first time, Target is price matching online competitors Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and Toys R Us. Save sales receipts in case you find a better price at a later date.

 Stay away from Black Friday. If you don’t feel like going out in the middle of the night, you’ll still find great bargains. There are great sales offered after Black Friday. There is usually another sales surge December 8-10 and then again around December 22-24.