Six of my favorite ways to save money during the most expensive time of the year

December can be an expensive month.  From buying a Christmas tree and decorations to getting presents for everyone on our list. December costs a lot of money.  Add to that the three birthdays in our family, property tax, holiday parties, and our regular bills and suddenly we are way over budget.  OVer the years I have found ways to spend less money during the holidays.

Personalized Photo cards

I have been doing this for a few years now.  I use shutterfly to make a variety of folded  cards for different occasions including Mothers Day, Fathers Day, birthdays, thank you, and Christmas.  I personalize the cards with different photos and a simple message inside.  They come out really nice and and I notice that people hold on to them since they are so unique.  Shutterfly has coupon codes a few times a year for 10 free cards so I normally get the first 10 cards for free and just pay shipping.  With the coupon code I normally get them for less than $1 each which is less than I would pay at the store for a card of similar quality.  If you missed the 10 free cards, there are always coupons and sales going on. Don’t limit yourself to cards though, you can make calendars, playing cards, coffee cups, mouse pads, and more.  Check out Shutterfly here

Gift exchange

I have a family of my own to buy presents for at Christmas so it limits the amount of money I have to spend on other members of the family.  That is why last year I started doing a gift exchange.  This way I can buy one person a nice gift instead of everyone a cheap gift.  I talk to all my siblings and their significant others(if they have one) and make each person a index card with the rules, their name, and a short list of things they want.  Then all the index cards are put into a hat or bowl and everyone draws a card.  You buy a gift for the person whose name is on the card you drew from the list of things they want and give it to them at Christmas.  This idea can be used for everyone including kids and friends.

White Elephant

I go to a few holiday parties that do a white elephant gift exchange.  It is a lot of fun.  Normally I am asked to bring a gift with a $25 price limit.  I know its only $25 each but with three different ones that is $75.  Last year I went through my house and found some items that hadn’t been opened and used them for the white elephant.  There was nothing wrong with the items, I just hadn’t used them and felt that I probably wasn’t going to if I had bought them six months ago and they hadn’t even been opened yet.  One of my gifts last year was The Santa Clause 3 Movie Collection and an unopened box of Boy Scout popcorn.  This year I also made some personalized calendars to put in the extended family white elephant gift exchange.  It’s kinda a gag gift since has the birthdays of my kids already written in but the family gift exchange is really laid back.  There tend to be lots of gag gifts with gift cards attached.

Shop after holiday Clearance

After the holidays, lots of leftover merchandise from the holidays goes on sale.  This is a great time to stock up.  You can buy it while it is on clearance and store it until next year.  I used to work in retail and i can tell you, they get a lot of the same stuff every year.  Buy it on clearance for 50-90% off and put it away until next year, no one will know you didn’t pay full price.  You can also do this for gift exchange items like the annoying singing stuffed animals.  I buy gift bags this way and pay 20 cents for bag.  There is so much that doesn’t even look christmasy.  My oldest has a birthday in January.  I made his birthday theme winter and bought plates and napkins with snowflakes and snowmen.

Useful Items

I buy certain items in bulk.  Paper plates, paper towels, toilet paper, kleenex baby wipes, plastic cups, and plastic cutlery.  These sound like boring household items but will almost certainly be used by everyone.  Wrap some of them up and give as a gift.  People may look at you funny but then they have the money they would have used to purchase these items to spend on other things.  You may even get a thank you later since it will be used.  These can also be funny white elephant gifts.  You might be surprised how popular it can be.

Buy gift cards with bonuses

There are some places I go to alot.  Since I know I will be spending money there I will buy the gift cards during the holidays when there are specials going on such as get a free $5 gift card for every $25 gift card you buy.  I know it is meant to be a gift for someone and something for you but that is 20% more for me.  One year I bought $100 in Dennys gift cards and got four $5 gift cards.  Then I spent all $120 myself over the next few months.  It seems counteractive because you have to spend the money now to use it later but if you frequent the restaurant a lot that is a free meal.  Costco always have gift cards at a discount but you have to spend $85 to get two $50 cards.  It is still a savings of 15%.  I have also seen other stores have sales on gift cards so be sure to watch ads.

These are ways I save. What do you do to save?  

Did you like this post? Check out my gift ideas on Fresno Frugalista.