We all know that Christmas can be an incredibly expensive time of year. Not only do you have gifts for all the family to buy, but there is also a lot of food to purchase for Christmas dinner. Replacing old decorations can also end up quite costly as well.
Lots of families find that the festive season can be a huge drain on their bank balance, and it can often leave them with some debt to pay back in January. Thankfully, though, you don’t have to get yourself into debt this festive season.
In fact, there are plenty of ways you can be smart about all your Christmas shopping and food purchases so that you can stretch your cash as far as it will possibly go. Hopefully, all of the following frugal ways and tips can help you enjoy a luxe Christmas holiday on a budget.
Set a Budget for Your Whole Christmas
First and foremost, you will really benefit from setting up a budget for this Christmas. It’s easy to do this. First of all, you just need to figure out how much you normally spend on your gifts, Christmas food, and all the other extras.
This should give you an estimate of how much you will spend. Take a look at your finances and see if you can afford it. If so, make this amount your Christmas spending limit, and try not to go over it. If you have very limited money this year, then work out how much you can afford to spend on anything. And then, you can split up this amount to see how much you can afford to allocate to presents, food, decorations, etc.
No matter how big or small your budget might be, it’s really important that you try and stick to it. Otherwise, you could easily slip into the red.
Online Shopping
If you don’t already do some of your Christmas shopping online, it’s really time to start now. In actual fact, it’s a good idea to try and get it all done online. That’s because there are many online retailers that offer products at much lower prices than what you will find in stores.
Not only that, though, but many e-commerce platforms have special online-only deals and discounts that you will be able to take full advantage of. Don’t worry about expensive shipping costs – some stores will offer you free shipment if you buy over a certain amount.
It’s not just your gifts that you can buy online. Many supermarkets now offer special discounts for their customers who make an online delivery order as well.
Do A Secret Santa
You don’t want to arrange any meetings with the likes of Allstate Debt Consolidation in January, so don’t risk going overboard with your Christmas gift spending. One great way to limit your spending is to organize a secret Santa with your whole family.
To do this, you just need to put all of your names into a hat and then everyone picks a name out at random. Whatever you get, you buy a present for. And you only buy a gift for this one person. But remember not to tell anyone who you are buying for – it’s a secret Santa, after all!
When you do this, everyone knows and understands that they are going to get one gift this year, so there will be no disappointment when it comes to opening presents. But at least it keeps things nice and cheap for everyone!
Make A List
Don’t worry if you don’t want to reduce the number of presents you buy this year. There are still ways you can save some cash on buying everyone gifts. First of all, it’s important that you make a list of who you are buying for and what you are going to get them. Then you need to stick to that list without fail. Not having a list can make it all too easy for you to overspend and lose track of all the things you have bought. So, make a list and stay true to it!
Have a Homemade Christmas
Of course, you don’t have to buy too much new stuff if you don’t want to. Why not have a homemade Christmas this year?
Making your own gifts to give to your nearest and dearest is a really thoughtful and personal touch. There are lots of things you can make, and plenty of them are ideal for novice crafters to get involved with as well. If you are a keen baker, you might like the idea of baking cookies, cakes, and truffles to give out.
You could buy some clear plastic and ribbons so that you can decoratively wrap them up. It’s also really easy to make your own gift hampers to give to others. As well as baked gifts, why not think about making your own flavored gins, bath bombs, and knitted items.
You’ll be able to find guides on how to make a wide variety of things online. It does not just a gift you can make yourself either – how about having a go at making some homemade Christmas decorations as well this year?
Recycle What You Can
If you always replace your Christmas decorations each year, you are going to find that the expense will soon add up. So, it’s a good idea to try and hold onto your decorations for as long as you can. After all, no one is going to remember if you have the same decorations each year!
Plus, keeping hold of them can help you establish some cute Christmas decoration traditions. This is super practical, though, as it means you don’t need to go out each year and face the Christmas shopping crowds so often, and it also means one less expense for your bank account!
Christmas doesn’t have to be an expensive affair. There are plenty of ways you can get into the festive spirit of things even on a budget, as you can tell from all of these great tips in this blog post!