Tips To Reign In Christmas Spending

Tips to Reign In Christmas Spending

There’s no need to go into massive amounts of debt for a happy Christmas. In fact, that’s one of the worst reasons to go into debt! We’re not a big Christmas household – in fact, we don’t own a Christmas tree! While I prep my gift guides for the coming weeks, I wanted to start with a bit of responsibility and how to reign in your Christmas spending.

 

Tips To Reign In Christmas Spending

 

Secret Santa

Once thought of only as that awkward time of year that you need to buy a $10 gift for a anonymous colleague, Secret Santa is a legitimate way of making the present purchasing costs smaller. It doesn’t have to be a $10 bargain basement present for your family; choose a limit that suits all of the members of your family who are participating. The challenge in secret santa is twofold – one, making sure it stays SECRET, and two, making sure that people actually draw their names. Sometimes this necessitate a family get together before Christmas to do the name drawing. If you’re spending Christmas together, but live too far away to do this, then make one (trustworthy) person responsible for dishing out names.

 

Bring a plate

Again, something that might be a bit reminiscent of a small town dinner – but can be really nice to do. And it makes Christmas day (or Boxing day, or any get togethers around this time) a lot more affordable. The other year I made a fantastic Asian-inspired salad that I found on Pinterest. It was a great hit on Christmas day. Unfortunately, I lost the pin and haven’t found it again.

 

Tips to Reign In Christmas Spending

 

Make Gifts

One of the reasons I like to do gift guides, despite not being a huge Christmas person, is that I like to discover unique or uncommon products. It’s also why I like garage sales – it provides a nice break from seeing the same things in chain stores. However, you don’t always want to give something that is second hand as a present. Some people don’t appreciate it or think that second hand is bad. This is when I would look to make a gift. This is easier for those who are crafty or have an area of hand made interest, but even if you have no special skills in this area, you can still get great ideas online. I would highly recommend doing some searching on Pinterest and I’m sure you’ll find something that you are capable of making.

 

Make/Buy Gifts

My favourite thing to do is a combination of making and buying gifts. I love to make my own gift baskets for people as presents. Some I’ve made in the past include the New Mother Kit, Emergency Brownies and Quick Present: Popcorn. I’ve made more than those before, but they are the only ones I have blogged.

 

What are your tips to make Christmas a bit easier on the hip-pocket? 

 

 

 

17 Replies to “Tips To Reign In Christmas Spending”

  1. Love your cost saving tips Vanessa. We’ve been doing the Secret Santa thing for the adults in our family for years now. It really helps save on cost, and we’re not buying lots of gifts just for the sake of it (and wasting money). I’m also a big fan of the ‘Bring a plate’ concept too! 🙂

    1. It really does save on money and (honestly) often pointless presents.

  2. I’m actually really fortunately Vanessa as I have very few people to buy for. And this year will be better as my bro, SIL and niece are away (so I’m not spending Xmas with my SIL’s family) and it’s just mum and I.

    My besties and I stopped pressies years ago and we usually take ourselves out to some fabulous restaurant instead and I think it’s a far better idea than gifts. Even though we know each other well, our tastes are VERY different!

    1. I have a pretty small group of inlaws so it’s not like ours would be big anyway! I think experiences are always better than gifts, but it seems that many people just don’t put the effort into them for some reason. Intangible vs tangible?

  3. Nice ideas! If ever there was a time to reign in temptation, Christmas is it.

    1. Sure is!

  4. These are fantastic tips and I’m gonna bookmark it for next year because…. I’m pretty sure the horse has already bolted for me this year.. Eeek. Was trying to be organised…

    1. Too much damage already done? 🙂

  5. Great cost saving tips! We have a conservative Christmas by the standards of others, but to be honest we think we spoil our kids rotten. Other than sporting fees we don’t spend much on the children all year round, so Christmas is a bit of a treat. We do make a lot of our presents though.

    1. I think it’s nice to have a bit of a treat at Christmas!

  6. Great tips to save some money at Christmas! I need all the tips I can get because I have SO many people to buy for!!

    1. Oh that must make it so hard! It is certainly a lot easier with only a few to buy for.

  7. We do secret santa for the kids in mothers group which saves a lot of money as there are 7 kids so we all just pick one name and each kid gets one present. I also like to spread out buying Christmas gifts over a few months so its not a huge expense in December. #teamIBOT

    1. That’s a great tip – especially if you can buy stuff in the sales as they come around all year.

  8. I do a bit of shopping over the year so it doesn’t all got the credit card at the same time….

    1. Good plan!

  9. Definitely agree with spending less and home-made gifts are so much nicer.

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