Yes- the reality of the holidays. It’s a big holiday and for most of us, a huge part of our fall budget. So I want you to spend a little time budgeting 
what you are going to spend. Here are some areas that you may want to consider:
- Food
- Gifts
- Donations
- Decorations
- Clothes
- Cards
- Shipping
So many ways for us to spend money. So here is what I want you to do: Help me write this post. Tell me one of your best tips on how you save money this season. One of you brilliant commenters will randomly win a $10 Amazon Gift Card to help with your Christmas shopping.
So tell me your secret strategies for stretching a dollar this season!
Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and undeniable improatnce!
My strategy for saving for Christmas begins in January. For several years now I have been using my Discover Card for regular, monthly expenses like groceries, gas and even online tithing because I earn a 2% cashback bonus (and sometimes more). I pay off my balance weekly (YEAH for online banking and automatic payments!) and this way I avoid paying any monthly finance charges. In November I use my accumulated cashback bonus on merchant gift cards purchased through the Discover website, and many times these come at a discount (for example, a $25 gift card for Macy’s costs only $20). I know that gift cards can seem impersonal, but I’ve been able to purchase generous gift cards for my older nieces and nephews this way for many years and they’ve never complained 🙂 This year I was able to accumulate an even larger cashback bonus because I paid for my family’s summer vacation using my Discover Card…HOWEVER, I paid it off immediately since I had saved up for this vacation and thus avoided paying any finances charges. In addition to the usual gift cards, this year I was able to redeem my cashback bonus for Discover gift cards that my husband and I will use to buy gifts for our own kids! If you have consistent spending habits and can make sure that you pay off your monthly balance in full, this is a great way to accumulate FREE money for Christmas gift giving!
My favorite two budget words? Photo calendar! Not the expensive, printed kind, but the Lillian Vernon slide your own photos in the slot kind. It’s the perfect “handmade” gift, both for the craft challenged and the relative that has everything. I order the calenders with the discount I get for purchasing several at once and select and print the photos while I wait for the calendars to arrive. It’s definitely worth pricing different stores printing before you drop off your photos. The calendars even fit inside the USPS one price envlopes to make shipping easy. Our family loves them! It’s been a great way for us to stay connected with our loved ones scattered all over the country.
The other key thing we discovered a few years back was the Advent Conspiracy. (adventconspiracy.org) They challenge gift givers to focus on what Christ gave us for Christmas:himself! Instead of buying all kinds of “stuff” we now focus on giving our children experiences for us to do together. My daughter got a horseback riding lesson and my son got a camping trip with my husband and their favorite father-son amigos. The other part of the challenge is to take some of the money that you would have spent and give to causes that make a difference in people’s lives. Over the last 3 years we have given to fresh water projects in Guatemala, an orphanage that rescues girls from prostitution in India and an orphanage in Brazil. Suddenly, that gadget that I thought I “had to have” pales in comparison to these children’s basic needs! There are also some great videos on youtube if you’d like more information.
I have loved reading all of your excellent ideas!
I sign up for Amazon prime, and it is a super great deal on shipping if you order multiple gifts for Christmas. Also, Amazon prime lasts a full year, so order your family’s birthday gifts from there and the deal just keeps getting better. This year with my extended family, we are doing a Christmas ornament exchange. Inexpensive, everyone gets to save , and the ornament will remind you year after year of he person who gave it to you.
My secret is not really a secret. It’s just discipline. I’ve been on a tight budget for 6 months now, so I created a Christmas budget, keep track of all my receipts, and stay on top off adding them up to make sure I stay within budget. The other thing I find myself doing is something both my grandmothers did–USE, USE, USE everything I already have at home (like unopened boxes of Christmas cards from previous years and Christmas socks and shirts I bought last year on sale)! Nothing is going to waste anymore and I have a better appreciation for things.
We do set a budget and do our best to stick to it.
I also sew for several people.Although, that isn’t always budget friendly.
One other thing I do; when I need a group type gift, like for the worship team/people I serve with at church, is to prepare a meal for them and we eat together. So far, they seem to really like it. Saves on wrapping too. LOL
I do make lots of food gifts in general. 🙂
I added the shopathome.com toolbar to my web browser (which allows pop ups for available discounts on sites you visit) and subscribed to receive notices of special offers in my email. So far I’ve received free shipping on my shutterfly purchases as well as a free custom photo calendar from vistaprints.com. Also, I’m taking advantage of Cyber Monday deals and I bought 15 restaurant.com gift cards for 80% off! I’ve got a list of other offers that I’m thinking about using, just gotta find the right gift!
I went on Pinterest to get cool ideas for nearly no expense. I made washer necklaces for the ladies as well as curly scarves made from old tshirts. The men are all getting fleece blankets since I caught a great fleece sale after Thanksgiving. I’m making super here capes for the little boys in the family out of felt scraps. The entire family will have Christmas for less than $80 and it was all made with love.
With friends, we’re just exchanging an ornament that reminds us of a fun time we’ve had together or something quirky about our personality. Just a couple of bucks each for some of them.
For my 13 year old daughters teachers and friends, we are making homemade gourmet cupcakes. We are putting them in cute boxes that I bought for a $1 each. It gives us time together and yummy treats for her friends. It also cuts costs. We love cupcake wars and it is very trendy right now, too.
I think Shannon W. has it goin’ on! I am changing my perspective as of now!
We don’t exchange gifts with our immediate family. Our kids get plenty spoiled by grandparents, and Grandma & Grandpa are thrilled to be the ones to make their dreams come true. Santa brings one larger gift for the whole family and stuffs our stockings (mostly with shampoo and toothbrushes that I would have to buy for them anyways). Our focus instead is on spending time together.
My siblings and I chose to make donations to World Vision through their catalog or other worthy organizations instead of sending gifts to each other. We enjoy this giving and saving ourselves from the shopping, wrapping, and mailing at Christmas.
We set a certain amount we will spend for each of our children and their spouses. Things will change when they add grandchildren to the equation.
I reuse my decorations throughout the years and when I want new ones I purchase them at the after Christmas sales. I also make regular decor turn into Christmas pieces by adding ribbon, bells,
I’ve cut expensive gift giving to my dear friends and replace them with a useful item in line with my budget.
My husband and I spend less on our own gifts, too.
Bargain shopping can be helpful as long as you are buying from your list and not getting carried away in the moment to purchase unnecessary items.
Shopping on a budget!
My best advice this time of year (which i constantly have to remind myself of) is be patient. I know all of those “sale” signs are enticing but stores generally only offer a few great deals in an attempt to get you in the door. Don’t be tricked into shopping around if you’ve come just for a deal! Otherwise your sure to pay a higher price on those “extras” in your cart then you should have. Obviously this type I shopping is not one stop and takes some time and planning, So start early! Watch for those “get you in the door” deals, cash in on those, and leave.
Money saving tip #2
Home-made Holidays! I find that no matter how beautiful those swarvowski covered ornaments and decorations are, they pale in comparison to the glitter glue crusted paper snowflakes that hang in my windows or the green handprint trees the kids have proudly displayed on the mantel. Home made gifts don’t have to come in the form of construction paper and school glue. They’re are huge amounts of holiday. Raft ideas, both gifts and decorations available online. We typically scour the second hand stores this time of year for cheap craft supplies or items that can be up cycled into something fabulous!! Some of our very best gifts have been homemade and almost free!
I have an awesome budget worksheet that I would like to share with everyone. Where can I post it?
We’re going to Cambodia and skipping Christmas. 🙂 No, seriously, we’ve made a commitment to scale down gift-buying the past few years. None of us need that much stuff. It’s more fun just to hang out and be together.
Wow, these are all great money saving tips! Tracking my spending has never been my strong suit, especially during Christmas. You can save money here and there by using some of these tips:
1) Use pretty magazine pages to wrap small gifts.
2) The comic section of your newspaper also makes nice wrapping paper. (I once saved them up for a few months before Christmas and had enough to make a gift out of a relative’s favorite comic strip. They loved it!)
3) Cut up old Christmas cards make wonderful gift tags!
A couple of my girls are on Pinterest. I went to their boards to look and see if they had anything that I could make! We are making a bunch of things from just scrap wood and sheet metal etc around the house! I’m more excited about the handmade projects than I am about anything I have bought so far!
The other thing is not so much about saving money but about perspective. Which then translates into how we handle our money and how we feel about spending only what we can afford. We try to focus before looking at gift lists and shopping and buying on serving. We’ve taken our kids to serve Christmas lunch at a shelter, and we’ve been broken to bits by how much we really do have under our tree, awaiting our kids, as we looked out at the faces of poor children in our communty (some I recognized from my own children’s classroom – oh my heavens, my heart!). My husband whispered to me that day that he wished he could go to the house and grab some of what we’d wrapped for our kids, and give those things out at the shelter, because our kids really have so much. Even in the leaner years.
And for a couple years now, before I really do much for my own kiddos, I work to find sponsors for each of the kids at Sunshine Center in Ukraine, where my husband and I have a “heart son” and have spent time recently (do to having tackled “The Me Project” – Thank you, Kathi!!!). We’ve had years that money has been plentiful and years it’s been tighter, and God’s faithfulness in providing never changes. We work to buy for and to give to kids who have nothing before we give to our own kids, even in tight years financially, and I’m very motivated, especially when money’s tight, not to cling to “stuff” or money. God’s Word tells us in Proverbs 28:27 that “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing…” We see giving as a way of tangibly displaying our faith in a God who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” and who has promised to provide for all our needs.
So as we’ve changed our budget, we’ve changed also our hearts. I apologize for being so long-winded here, but I just realized that this question you’ve asked strikes a chord with me, and I think there’s so much God is showing me about this stuff, about money, budgeting and perspective. I also remember the words of Jesus, who tells us that whatever we do unto the least of these, we do to Him, and on Jesus’ birthday, I want to prioritize giving to Him.
So, my hubby and I stole this idea, but we love it, because it’s personal AND meaningful AND affordable! One of the company owners’ daughter told my hubby that she had started giving “gifts of time” to her parents, who had everything already (but who didn’t know how to do various things on their computer, which she was able to “gift” them her time in setting up).
Now that we have three kids and I’m staying home, we work hard to be frugal at holidays. So we stole the “gift of time” idea, and it’s been awesome! Three years ago, my husband “gave” his parents the gift of rebuilding their front stairway and doing wiring at their house. I “gave” a family friend a Shellac-ing of her nails (I “retired” from my nail salon, and she’d been a client as well as a friend). We’ve “given” housecleaning to my mom, who works full time and is also finishing her masters.
We’ve also cut significantly who we give gifts to during Christmas. I had some friends whose kids I always bought for, and who always bought for my kids, and we all are using budgets, so one year, we just laid it out there – “How’d you like it if instead of buying gifts, we just exchange cookies?” And we were all relieved! I think sometimes it takes just being willing to be the one to bring it up, and there’s a lot of relief (and my friend has the best secret recipe for ginger bread boys, so I really get the good end of the deal).
Pay cash whenever possible. It is much easier to lose track of your spending and go over budget when using a debit or credit card. It’s also easier to keep your gift to your spouse a secret if you have a joint account by using cash.
Sure, I look for sales on the items I want to buy, but even more than that I like to set aside $50 – $100 a month from the beginning of the year, so that I have a big chunk of money to spend just on Christmas. Some banks even have Christmas savings account. Also, this year, I made homemade vanilla, bought small jars and labels that I’ll be giving to my close friends and family with some chocolate or something. It wasn’t cheap doing all that, but when you consider how many people I can give those jars out to, I’m stretching my dollar and preventing myself from running out to buy a last minute gift that was unbudgeted just because they gave me a gift. and it’s classy!
I shop clearance and sales all year long to prep for Christmas. I also shop black Friday ads.
I was given a budget on how much to spend total. I used Kathi’s nifty lists and binder last night to write down gifts purchased to date. I also need to write down costs this far to make sure I stay within my budget. If idon’twrite it down, then it is extra time and money spent unnecessarily. Love Kathi’s idea who is on the gift list and who is not.
Watch the groupons and see if anything pops up that I can use. Just bought a $20 coupon for $10. This will buy me a couple things when I see a good sale in the next couple weeks. Another idea: was looking for an american girl doll and posted on FB. Friend messaged me that her daughter wanted to sell hers. She’s making money and we got a sweet deal!!! My daughter will not care it was a used one. =)