Christmas on a super budget!

[TinkGirl09]

In light of the economy and such I (as many of you, I'm sure) am looking for deep deep discounts on items that can be used for C'mas gifts. Photo gifts, toys, etc... I'm a single mom and really need to do C'mas this year as cheaply as possible thanks to a costly divorce! Anyone have anything???

 

[crazelion]

I am doing surverys on quickwards.com, and swagbucks. com to amazon gift cards and using simplegpt to pay for my three foster kids Christmas. This first time I sign up for santa for all seasons for foster kids. They been eligbe for years but I never did it. But this year I am unenployed and I need help with them.

 

[gillenkl]

I know Walgreens.com has the free 8x10 photo collage available until tomorrow - code 8x10Treat - if you pickup in store there is no shipping cost - so FREE. Frame this and it makes a nice gift for relatives, etc...

 

[luvmy3]

Definitely check slickdeals every day for deals.
Also check out groupon, tada, tippr, and living social and check every city because sometimes there are national deals available for web retailers. If its really good you'll find a post about it on slickdeals too

 

[butterflygirl3]

Last year the majority of my girl's Christmas gifts I bought off of Craigslist I don't know if it's popular in your area, but if not maybe in a friend or relative's area it might be... I never paid shipping cause I would always meet the seller somewhere populated. This year I shopped clearance in July that alot of the stores are doing now.. maybe an idea for next year Hope this helps...

I just kept my eyes open and most of the things I purchased were new or barely used...

 

[ah1126]

Check out www.southernsavers.com. She posts lots of great deals!

 

[Amii]

I would also say keep checking slick deals.

Gottadeal has good forums. If you go to their site and check out the Online Hot Deals forum there is a thread titled "Amazon Toy Clearance/Sale Thread." It is a little early still but there are a few toy deals there. Usually the Amazon toy deals pick up in a few weeks and go all the way till Christmas. There are tons of toys that are insanely cheap between now and Christmas.

 

[DVCBELLE]

My husband lost his job and so money is tight for Christmas this year - my sister called and told me about the American Express Pass deal...

For American Express cardholders only, get a new American Express PASS Card with a minimum balance of $25 and receive a $50 credit for free after your first recharge of $25 or more via coupon code "PASS50". With free shipping, that's essentially 50% off the cost of a $100 card. The credit is $25 more than in our August mention. The new PASS card will take five to 10 days to arrive, and in order to receive the free credit, it must be recharged by November 30. It must also be active when the credit is applied, which will take approximately two to four weeks. The American Express PASS Card is meant to be purchased by a parent for his or her children, ages 13 or older. It can be used like a debit card, however there is an additional $1.50 fee for ATM usage. Of note, this card is not available for sale in AK, CA, NH, or VT.
Be sure to spend all PASS card credit and cancel your account before November 30, 2011, or a $3.95 monthly service fee will be deducted from your balance thereafter.


It says for AmEx cardholders only but there are reports that this is not the case - there is a discussion about it on fatwallet -

Basically each adult can get 3 cards - it has to be in the name of someone older than 13 and each child can only have one card...they do not verify birthdates and there is no credit check involved. I ordered one for each of my kids and one for my DH. That's $150 in free money!!

 

[crazelion]

I would also say keep checking slick deals.

Slickdeals has some excellent deals on it. That is where found out about zoombucks at. I also got free software from them to. I am addict slickdeals. LOL

 

[happydisneyfamily]

Check out Target every so often because a lot of times they mark things down to 75% off and that includes toys.

Also Amazon is a great place to buy toys. Just make sure you get your total to $25 for items that say Free Super Shipper savings(or something like that) and they ship for free. I've done a lot of shopping this way through the years. Definitely check slickdeals and gottadeal because a lot of times there will be posts on what toy on Amazon is at a really good discount.

Last year I got from Amazon:
Vtech Vsmile Cyber Pocket for $24.99
Connect Four $4.99
Scrabble $5.99
Monopoly $4.99
Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box $9.99
Pink Radio Flyer Scooter $25.00
Fisher Price Little People Spin 'n Fly Airplane $7.99
Play Doh Barnyard Pals Bucket $4.98

 

[orbrian]

keep checking slick deals.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

You might not have the time/inclination, but I've handmade gifts for tight Christmases. Last year, I made everyone "heaties" -- those neck-warmer thingies filled with buckwheat seed hulls. I've also made themed fleece blankets. I'm no crafter by any stretch, so they were very basic and low-effort, but they turned out well.

 

[disneydreamersx4]

I am doing surverys on quickwards.com, and swagbucks. com to amazon gift cards and using simplegpt to pay for my three foster kids Christmas. This first time I sign up for santa for all seasons for foster kids. They been eligbe for years but I never did it. But this year I am unenployed and I need help with them.

Is it quickwards.com?? I am not finding anything under that.

 

[dougsmom98]

I would highly recommend that you focus your shopping on your children. The adults in your life will understand if you can't exchange gifts this year. I did really well for stocking stuffers at Walgreens last year. They have great coupons and I got a lot of small, cute items for 4/$1 using the coupons. If you can get someone to watch your children and do some black Friday shopping, I really can do well on that day. While it's not the coolest Christmas present, my kids always get pjs, slippers, and clothes that I get for less than $5 on Black Friday. Those items are needed anyway and it helps to fill in under the tree. Good luck.

 

[mollybug2]

Is it quickwards.com?? I am not finding anything under that.

Try www.quickrewards.net

 

[Suz725]

Sears has an in-store coupon..$10 off of a $20 apparel purchase...It's good on almost everything including sale and clearance. I used the coupon 4 times the other day

 

[ilovejack02]

I sold all my old gold yesterday and got 407.00 wooo hoo!

Do you have any of that laying around ?

I marched myself to the Apple store and bought DS8 an Ipod Touch for xmas. The rest left will buy him his Harry potter legos from Santa and DH some hunting gear he wants.

When my Christmas Club account check comes in , we wont need it, I will prob just put it in savings account.

 

[TLuvsD]

Check gottadeal.com Yesterday I got a finger puppet giraffee (odd, but D will love it) for $3 shipped, today wall decals for $4 shipped. It takes some time to read the postings, but you can find good deals. (Check MERITLINE.COM for the above, there are a lot of items on sale with free shipping, just be careful to read the details. For the giraffee, buying one was free ship and cheap, buying the multi-pack was pricey and no free shipping. If you need several, order one at a time.)
I've also received several Kohl's stick-ons on the local paper recently, $10 off any purchase of $10 or more....look for clearance items and that $10 can go a long way at Kohls. You can combine it with the Kohls Credit Card discounts, too. For the kids, that $10 will buy one of the books and a stuffy of the Kohls Cares for Kids (right now it's Dr Suess). That's two fun gifts for free. If you need to, add a small clearance item (socks or something).

 

[happily single]

How old are the children? I just got two Last Airbender Swords from Target gor $3.74 each which was 75% off. the kids aren't into Last Airbender , but they like swords, and for $3.74 each I couldn't pass it up. Target has had a lot of girlie toys on clearance, but since I don't have a little girl I didn't look too much.

I saw on this board that Kmart had/has a $5.00 off any toy purchase. Might want to try that. Also, Black Friday usually has lots of board games for less than $10. Might want to stock up on those.

 

[justbishop]

In light of the economy and such I (as many of you, I'm sure) am looking for deep deep discounts on items that can be used for C'mas gifts. Photo gifts, toys, etc... I'm a single mom and really need to do C'mas this year as cheaply as possible thanks to a costly divorce! Anyone have anything???

How old are your kids? Younger kids will love handmade toys just as much as store bought ones. I'm making my DD (who will be 20 mo. by Xmas) a set of Memory cards and a version of "go away monster!"

For older kids, can you knit or crochet? Ravelry.com has hundreds (if not thousands) of free patterns for really trendy hats, scarves, fingerless gloves, etc. Knitting and crocheting need not produce the kind of things our Grandmothers made any more, lol!

For store bought stuff, I've done Swagbucks all year and have enough in Amazon gift cards from that to pretty much cover a Fisher Price iXL for DD's big gift. Not sure how far you'd get with that starting this close to Xmas, though, unless you geot a ton of referrals and did a ton of searching. For adult family members, I've taken advantage of a couple of invite-only shopping sites' sign up and referral promotions...OneKingsLane.com had one where you got $15 to sign up and then $15 for each referral, and RueLaLa.com has one now where you get $20 to sign up and $10 for each referral til 10/25. I bought lots of things on OKL for $5 out of pocket (bamboo kitchen utensil set, amber glass deco bowl, enameled roasting pan, set of 4 Japanese tea cups) and just bought a set of 2 philosophy bath products for $5 OOP and DH a pair of Puma "The Suede" shoes for $25 OOP on RueLaLa.

OH! And if you can't get out of exchanging gifts with adults, try watching for the Restaurant.com codes. I used the recent 90% off one to buy all of the adults in our family gift certificates to the site, so that they can choose their own restaurants. I got maybe 7-8 $25 ones, 3 $50 ones, and 3 $100 ones for a pretty insane price (maybe like $25 altogether)!

ETA: and if you're crafty at all, you might try finding other crafty people to trade with! I've accumulated several gifts that way before.