Holidays - Money Saving Ideas

[SDSorority]

Hi everyone! So, it's ALMOST that time of year.... the holiday season is slowly approaching. Ok ok, it's not even Halloween yet, but it's never too early to start planning.

What are you doing to save money during the holiday season? Inexpensive recipes, homemade gifts, decorating ideas..... I'd love to hear your tips!!

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Oh my gosh don't remind me! I am planning to cut down on our food spending, both grocery and eating out. I told my DH that I want to try and at least make two crockpot meals a week and eat out only once a week. This way dinner is already made when we get home and they are usually very inexpensive meals. Work is stressful enough and I hate coming home and having to cook dinner. We also don't have a dishwasher so we have to hand wash everything we used to cook dinner with as well as all of our dishes. I use crockpot liners and only need to wipe down the crockpot when it's done. I figure I could save at least $50 a week and at the sometime de-stress at least two of my days!

 

[Eliza32]

I'm not cutting any corners this year.......after several years of tightening our belts, we have recently had a small windfall, and plan to use it to have a wonderful holiday season!

 

[PaulaVonSchweetz]

Were taking a rather expensive family trip to disney in early December..... fully paying for all 6 people going so I wanted to ensure Christmas would break our bank. Ive been santa shopping for like 4 months now and have had some great luck with sales. Im done buying for him other than stocking stuffers and the trip is fully paid for with the exception of our familys APs which ill buy at check in.
Hubby and I had a big christmas last year so we are keeping it very minimal for ourselves. Ill be making chocolates and some yummies for my coworkers as I always do. But thats pretty much it.
We just wanna have an amazing trip and enjoy watching our almost 3yo take in all of disney! This will be his 4th trip there but his first where he will truly enjoy and appreciate. We ca nt wait!!

 

[runwad]

Well a few years ago I started a separate savings account just for Christmas. Every payday I have money transferred to it. This has really helped us stay on budget. Everything is paid in cash from that account and when its gone I'm done.

Plus I no longer do my Christmas shopping early. I used to start in August and buy a little at a time. Ya well i spent twice as much cause I never STOPPED when I was done. There was always another good deal around the corner.

Oh and one more. I have teenagers and its no fun but I'm going to just get them exactly what they want because they never appreciate/use the little extra's I liked to surprise them with. I've already told them how much per kid I'm spending so they can give me a list. That's so not fun but whatever it's their Christmas.

 

[pigletto]

I've been thinking about this for awhile but I haven't started at all.
Our big gift for the family this year is a Surprise trip. We'll be going to Disney from the 13th to the 23rd. We want to be home for the holidays as we love spending it with family.
So Christmas gifts have to be scaled waaaaayyyyy back. Which is fine. I still plan to get the kids 5 or 6 things but there won't be any big ticket items.
Ds really wants Infinity. Dh has some games to trade in which will really knock down the cost of that.
DD really just wants clothes, perfume and make-up. She's turned into the girliest of girly girls.

Aside from that we'll buy for our parents, nephew, BIL and SIL and we'll each get someone in the gift exchange for my side of the family.
I need to be creative to keep these costs low because it ends up being quite a few people. If I could just finish all my ideas now, I could start looking for sales.

 

[Lees3rwe]

I have found some really cute ideas on Etsy and Pinterest. Things that are really nice and different, but really cute and personalized.

I also love to search the homeware sections at Ross and TJ Maxx and Marshall's... you can find really cute coffee mugs, soaps, etc. for those little "extra" gifts for friends or neighbors that you want to give a little something.

 

[MSSANDRA]

It's just a little thing, but so easy we try to do it every year. After Halloween, watch the candy sales at Target. Most years it will for to 70% off. Buy the huge bags of the mini candy bars and fun size packs of candy. The outside bags are Halloween, but the inside candy has the regular wrapper (most of the time, just check to be sure). Buy for Christmas. Use in stockings, candy activities etc.

If you adopt an "angle" for Christmas most years.....shop on back friday for the child, even if you have not chosen the child yet. Most info is very general anyway and will list a toddler toy and size 3T or whatever. Choose the child according to what you have already bought.

Buy baking stables now. Most things are on sale for fall and Thanksgiving baking and often do not go back on sale before Christmas. Most are very shelf stable for much longer than that.

 

[lauradis]

Make a Xmas list of who you want to buy presents for and check it twice. hehe

I also used this list with dollar amts and receipts attached for what to budget for next xmas.

Xmas couple of years ago became stressful and non enjoyable because of all the presents and money and have to parties. When I sat down and took back the control of the money over xmas the stress went away.

To save money now do cheaper meals, dont spend anything uless its towards your goal of xmas shopping.

 

[LadyBeBop]

I'm already saving 4% over previous years on Black Friday shopping. The last few years, we went to my in-laws in Tennessee for Thanksgiving/Black Friday. Their sales tax is 10%. This year, we are staying home in Kentucky. Our sales tax is only 6%.

Every little bit helps there.

We're taking a big Disney vacation in late October, so we are scaling back this year. I think we're getting mostly gift cards for everyone (at Krogers, next time they have their 4X gift card pump rewards). We'll buy a few toys for DGD. Other than that, probably not much more.

 

[mbf]

Extra costs on food for the holidays can be a huge part of the holiday budget so my couponing goes into high gear this time of year.

I start now looking for deals on baking supplies and ingredients for holiday meals and after checking all of the sales as early as possible I go out and look for coupons for the sale items. I stock up on things like sugar, aluminum foil, chocolate chips, flour, butter (just bought 15 lbs last week on sale - should get us through the holiday baking and special meals), paper products, anything shelf stable that I know I will need a lot of for the holidays. That way, when the crazy season hits I have a stockpile of frequently used items and don't end up running last minute to the store, paying full price, and buying 10 more things while I am there.

I have been a big user of Swagbucks this time of year in the past. It has helped me earn a few small gift cards.

I am planning on canning some things to give as gifts this year. Wish me luck on that lol.

 

[mhara]

We're having Christmas dinner at my mum's, so that should save us some cash! Only kidding, we'll probably bring at least 3/4 of the meal with us as sides and dessert and wine.

I always get a few presents bought throughout the year, takes the sting out of it. Then just usual stinginess, using old cut up Christmas card as gift tags, planning all the meals over the holidays to try to prevent us from buying food we won't eat etc.

Every year DH and DD also spend a day collecting evergreens and decorating around the house with them and making a wreath, which saves on decorations and is a nice tradition for them now.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm going to be making a lot of the gifts this year, more than usual. And the kids are getting in on it too. We have a pretty short list but they're mostly people who "have everything" so homemade and edible gifts tend to be great choices anyway. The kids are making chainmail ornaments for the grandmothers, I'm putting together a couple of nice, framed photo collages in frames I've picked up at thrift shops over the years, things like that.

We're doing more traveling than usual this winter - Disney and DC in Dec, Disney again in Jan, Chicago in Feb - so we're keeping the holidays pretty low-key and low-budget this year.

 

[powellrj]

I have already bought my charity gifts this year so thats a huge help. We started doing the same charity every year so we can buy when we see things because we know what they need. I am just giving money to the kids so I have been saving that as I get extra.