Here are some very simple ways to save money at Christmas.
Christmas Money Saving Tips
It’s very easy for finances to get completely out of hand at Christmas.
We are constantly bombarded with Christmas messaging from as early as September until Christmas Eve.
Buy more!
Buy more!
Is essentially what the messaging is telling us to do.
Even if the messages do come gift-wrapped in beautifully made extended television adverts from the nation’s favourite department stores.
But does spending more money equal having a better Christmas?
I think we all know the real answer to that.
But still it is so easy to be seduced each year.
So how best to save money at Christmas time without feeling like Scrooge incarnate?
Here’s a list of some simple ways you can save money this Christmas.
Christmas Money Saving Tips
- Work out a maximum budget and stick to it!
- Split budget between main areas of spend e.g. food, presents, decorations
- Define a maximum spend for main items in each area
- Keep tally of my spend and constantly calculate how much I’ve got left
- Go through each item in my shopping list and find cheaper alternatives
- Agree gift opt out with other grown ups
- Or agree to make a charity donation rather than exchange gifts
- And agree present price cap with everyone else in family
- Get a cash back credit card but DON’T use card to increase budget!
- Cut daily spend in run up to Christmas e.g. coffee, newspapers, treats
- Write a food shopping list & look for offers & coupons on everything on it
- Look for new or gently used items on e.g. eBay, Freecycle or CraigsList
- Skype the family on Christmas day rather than calling them!
- Recycle gift tags from last year’s cards
- Christmas cards … make our own Christmas cards
- Send electronic Christmas cards
- Only wrap a few of kids presents … put rest in pillow case sack
- Make gift bags from scraps of fabrics
- Use cheap alternatives to wrapping paper e.g. brown paper, newspaper, kids pictures, butcher’s paper, wrapping paper scraps
- Create gift boxes from painted cardboard boxes, food tins
- Make our own lovely stocking stuffers
- Make beautiful handmade decorations
- Collect pine cones to make decorations, garlands and wreaths
- Forage for holly and pine for wreaths, mantels and picture frames
- Chocolates … make own own chocolates as gifts
- Home made gifts … I’m not a brilliant crafter but there are still hundreds of lovely home made gifts that we can make ourselves
- Organise our own santa’s grotto with neighbours
- Go to free Christmas carol concerts rather than expensive shows
- Buy a Christmas tree with roots so it can be used again next year
- Sell unused clutter … free up space AND earn cash by selling clutter
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Preparing for Christmas with Mums Make Lists
Want more life hacks and great Christmas ideas? Scroll through our Christmas posts below, click on an image or link to be taken to a post.
Christmas Posts on Mums Make Lists
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Christmas Washi Tape Craft Ideas
Brilliantly Simple Christmas Wreath Video Tutorials
Christmas Food and Drink
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Christmas Candy and Chocolates Recipes
Gift Ideas
Thrifty but Fabulous Stocking Stuffers
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Great tips, I like to save a few extra dollars!! Would love for you to come and share at my link party http://mommyondemand.com/create-bake-6/
Tons of GREAT tips!!! Thanks for sharing with us at Fancy This Fridays!!! We featured your post today!! 🙂
This is a great list! Now, to stick with it! I find I buy early to save and then keep finding stuff, especially for the grandkids! I need to learn to stop shopping!
I have always been sad that Christmas is associated with spending too much money — I know there’s a lot of pressure to buy things for EVERYONE!
We limit our purchases to pretty much our family, and every member of the family, from the time they were young children, bought a gift, and we encouraged the budget to be low. The main thing for us is Christmas morning, when we sit around in the living room, and one by one, open up each person’s gift. It’s as much fun for the giver as it is for the one receiving the gift, and as the years go by, we still use, and remember, the presents that we have given one another. (It takes a couple hours, when you’ve got 6-some people, but the process itself is the gift!)