10 Tips to Stay on Budget at Christmas
Christmas can be an extremely stressful time for many families. With the additional demands of activities at school, church, work and youth groups budgets are often tapped out.
I hope the following 10 Tips to Stay on Budget at Christmas will help keep the stress levels lower in your home as they have in mine. These tips will help you use the FREE Christmas Budget and Gift Log which can be downloaded in either excel or pdf versions.
- Make a list of people you plan on purchasing or making gifts for this year. Seems pretty obvious but for years I over spent on some family members and almost forgot others! So making a list is the first item on my Christmas to do list.
- Estimate the amount you can afford to spend. Don’t get bummed if it is only $5.00… because there are really neat gifts that can be made or purchased for under $5.00. Fill in the amount you would like to spend and keep an eye on the total as it will climb quickly. You may have to adjust the amounts if you find that your “hopes” are larger than your “pockets” and this is a good time to make those decisions. Do you remove a couple of people or combine gifts into something for the entire family? Perhaps only offer gifts to the children instead of everyone in a household. Working through your list and budget amounts before you start buying will keep you on track and not stressing over what to purchase.
- Make a list of possible gift ideas or websites for each person. Brainstorm your gift ideas now instead of at the Mall! This will save you hours in time and energy. Not to mention the convenience of shopping online when you can save on shipping or early sales. Gift cards are great for out-of-town family members.
- Consider giving like items to multiple family members. Items such as zoo memberships, museum passes, amusement park tickets or a package of 12 gift cards to local restaurants can save you time and money. If the recipients are local, they might enjoy going out together each month or if for couples your thoughtfulness could be their much-needed date night.
- Start shopping early! Once you have a gift in mind for each person, start watching for sales or discounts on similar items. Start buying early, especially for those family members that live out-of-town and you will have to ship their packages.
- Maintain your purchase list! Write everything down for each person on your list. I seem to have several children that like lots of “little” gifts and others prefer one “large” gift. When you compare the piles of gifts… it doesn’t seem to be fair at all. However, my children know the budget we set and that their gifts are based on the budget and their ages.
- Keep a running tab on your spending by person or family group. Nothing sends you into a tailspin faster than spending too much on someone and then worrying about “making it up” to the next person on the list.
- Look for free or reduced gift wrapping or wrapping materials while you are shopping. Many stores offer free gift wrapping or free wrapping material. You may have to ask for it, or go to the customer service desk to collect…but it is worth your time.
- Mail your packages early! I can’t stress this enough. The later you wait to mail, the more expensive it becomes. Having to ship 2nd day or overnight often will cost you more than the gift inside the box.
- Lastly, once you have completed your shopping for everyone on your list… STOP SHOPPING!!! Last minute trips to the store will only push you over your budget.
Plan your list and work your plan! Start early, finish early…..relax and enjoy the holidays!
Great tips. I try to buy throughout the year so I am not running around doing last minute shopping. Plus, even though it is hard to do, I make a list and I stick to it.
Thank you for these tips, this is definitely something I’m going to put into place this year!
Thank you Sherry for sharing this. We all get bogged down sometimes from all the shopping and planning and then we spend too much. These are excellent tips!!!
Great money saving tips. Also started early also saves you money instead of building up the cost all at once. Thanks for sharing this!!
I must admit that I have a hard time trying to stay frugal at Christmas time- I have relatives who are diabetic so I try to find treats that are Low Glycemic, not easy to do.
Great idea – I’m always looking for ways to save at Christmas. I make a lot of my gifts and make sure our son knows that it’s not about what he gets, but about what Jesus gave!
nice website! I only found you the other day but I like reading this post. Bookmarked.
Great tips! It is important to stick to a budget and think about your purchasing. It’s easy to just keep purchasing!
All great tips!
Great money saving tips. Thanks for sharing.
I like to start my shopping as soon as I possibly can. Sometimes as early as January so that I can get great after Christmas sales!
I love all your tips. I try to do all my shopping about 2 weeks before Christmas so I am not stressed!
Thank you for sharing! My worst habit is not getting to the post office on time during the holidays.
Definitely a great list of tips! This is the first year we have done our Christmas Shopping early, and I must say it is quite nice! There is a lot less stress, and we got everything for much better prices! I swear they start jacking up costs the closer to Christmas!
These are great tips, Thanks
It’s the shipping that always gets me. I am such a procrastinator!
Great list! I need this!
Good tips!!!
I start early in the year shopping for Christmas…but sometimes forget what I bought!!! Pretty tree there.
great tips! I try to stay on my thrifty budget even shopping all year long off clearance racks!
I love the last tip: stop shopping! This is precisely what I need to control, the urge to shop until I spend the last penny. I should be able to do this now with a strong reminder and great drive to ease up on Christmas spending for gifts.
I always go over budget! Thanks for the tips especially the gift wrap one, I always over spend on cute paper!
Thanks for the tips, I trying to be better with out budget:)
These are great ideas on how to reduce costs. We are going the two gift route with our kids this year. They are older and they need more expensive gifts so I am not buying as much!
These are definitely awesome tips! It’s so hard to stay on budget during Christmas time. I always find myself going over – Hopefully this will help me out this year.
Great tips!! I am still trying to figure out what to get my dad and brother so we can send their gifts this month!
Great tips! Thanks for sharing
What wonderful tips! THank you!
Great advice!! Now-if only I could stick to a list–My friends and I do only give to the kids now!
great tips – I try to do most of my shopping on black friday and do my research in advance!