Money for us, like many is tight. It especially was in my first year of living in America when we were getting a little too comfy with our overdraft. Things have picked up, especially with my ebay store but the tips and tricks for getting Christmas in the red pays true regardless of the size of your wallet.
Challenge yourself to keeping to a budget
Me and Joe challenge ourselves to buying each other's presents within a set budget - this year $100. Buying presents for Joe would be fun regardless of a budget but having that limit makes myself really think about just how best and how cost effectively I can spend the money. Take note of deals, free shipping, online coupons and you can get a lot more for your money than you might imagine.
Ebay
The online auction site can be great for selling your old junk that you can get some extra spending money from, but it's also great for buying presents from. If you choose to sell make sure to mention tags in the title like "Christmas" "party" etc etc and you're good to go. There's a tonne of new items on ebay - it's not all used and abused and you can find some great deals if you know how to search that site - in honesty most of my Christmas presents for Joe has come from ebay and I have no issues admitting that.
Do make sure to note your countries postal deadlines though!
Eating
Christmas is as much about the food as anything else, but if you're keeping to a budget, eat to your budget. It's so easy to over buy and over bake too much food, food that sadly gets thrown out. Work out from recipes exactly what you need and stick to it. Ask guests to bring a dish, a bottle. If it's just the two of you - eat to your needs, consider cheaper options - frozen vegetables, ham instead of turkey. Eat what you like, not what you're meant to like.
Vintage Christmas
Stocking up at estate sales/garages sales or second hand stores and even online you can store some perfect Christmas items - especially decorations. You can find Christmas decorations at estate sales year around, just as long as you can remember where you stored said pieces and you're good to go!
Buy Out of Season
Prices rocket when Christmas is around the corner, but as soon as January comes around Christmas stocks gets reduced so grab your bargains. It's a great time to stock up on your wrapping paper, cards to decorations and even a new tree - that's when most of our Christmas decorations and even the tree was purchased as huge discounted prices.
It's easy to be distracted by all the shiny items that seem to appear at Christmas, it's easy to give in and want it all.
How do you manage your money at Christmas time?
Plenty of good tips here. I try to spread my present-buying through the year, which is fine so long as I can remember where I've decided to store things.
ReplyDeleteTell me about it - I spent a good hour last week trying to hunt out everything i'd be buying for the parents from our trips to a couple of states that I'd hidden so well I couldn't remember just where!
DeleteAlso, things like Xmas cards (I usually make most of my cards, but buy a box or so for the guides etc) can be bought very cheaply in the Jan sales and stored away with your decorations for next year.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's always good to keep everything together and then you have that go to place for not only knowing where to dig everything out from but so you know where you can add things in across the year.
DeleteI'm going to buy new decorations for the tree in January. I only put mine up today and I'd completely forgotten how grotesque our decorations are! Some great tips here for saving a bit of dough-ho-ho
ReplyDeleteI always end up breaking a couple every year so It's always good to re-buy while I remember or it'll get to next Christmas and i'll be like "where did all the decorations go?!".
DeleteI buy all my cards and wrapping paper in the sales. I get really fancy paperchase stuff for 75% off. I've made a lot of edible gifts for family and friends this year too which have been pretty cheap.
ReplyDeleteYeah you can't go wrong with Paperchase sales (any time of the year!) - guilt pleasure shopping there! I'm using a couple of the spare jars of caramel apple jam for gifts this year to the in-law - just hope they like them!
DeleteThumbs up for eBay and secondhand. Thrift stores and garage sales are an especially good way to go, because you can find all sorts of crazy decor for pennies. That, and ridiculous novelty mugs from decades past make for amusing stocking stuffers if you're lucky enough to stumble upon some good ones.
ReplyDeleteYou can never go wrong with an instant crazy novelty mug collection can you?! I keep meaning to decorate some of the boring red ones we have that are all plain with my Martha Stewart stencils ... another thing to add onto my to do list!
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