5 Tips to Save Money on Christmas Gifts

We all like to save money, right? But Holidays are one of those moments of the year where people tend to spend the most. And while consumerism has little to do with the true meaning of Christmas, we also all like to give and receive gifts. 

Today I'm proposing a set of tips that will help you select and buy all those Christmas gifts while still keeping your budget under control.

 

Here are 5 tips to save money on Christmas gifts:

  
Keep a List & Plan a Budget

Create a running list of all the people you need to buy gifts for, with names, preferences and, if possible, an archive of past gifts bought for that person. This way you (1) will not forget anyone, avoiding the need for last minute purchases, (2) you're more likely to buy something that person really likes or uses and (3) you avoid repeating gifts (receiving the same gift for years in a row becomes kind of boring).

Along with the list, you should also keep notes on the amount of money you want to spend on each person. This will provide you with a budget to compare your actual spendings with and will help you plan what you really can buy.

Update the list along the year with new additions to the circle of family and friends (this year I'm adding a new baby cousin to my list, for example) and make a note when you buy a gift for that person. If you're buying the gifts early you may also want to note where you store the gift. There's nothing worse than having to look all over the house on Christmas eve for that gift you're sure you bought three weeks ago but don't have an idea of where it ended up...

Start Early

This seems obvious, but we all have busy lives and buying Christmas presents in June or July is rarely a priority. But if you keep a list/budget and know what you would like each recipient to get, it becomes a lot easier to save money. Use coupons, look for items on sale, Black Friday deals, etc. If you postpone your Christmas shopping until the last minute, you're more likely to pay more, not to mention deal with crowded stores, sold out items and the like.

Create Homemade Gifts

There's a whole range of homemade gifts and you don't need to be exceptionally talented to make them either. If you sew, crochet or knit, search the web for inspiration and get down to work. But if you don't know how to do any of those things, trust me, homemade (or semi-homemade) is still possible. Bake a batch of cookies, place them in a cute mason jar, tie a ribbon, add a Christmas label and you're on your way. Make fruit jams or preserves and give them as gifts. Use photos to create cute Christmas ornaments for the family. Create a photo album. Gather all your favorite recipes in the computer and print a custom cook book for the couple who just got married...The possibilities are almost endless.

Or, even better, get your kids on board to make Christmas gifts. My kids love to create paintings for both their grandmas, and then love to see those same paintings hanging over the fireplace or on a bookshelf. The cost? One blank canvas, a brush and some kid safe paints. This year I'm having them decorate wood photo frames with their own photos and I'm calling it a day for the grandparents. 

See below some of the handmade gifts I've made in the past:

 

Handmade gifts are made unique and made with love and should make both you and the recipient happy!

Sometimes Packaging Makes a Difference

Have you ever seen those cute Christmas baskets of beauty products, for example? More often than not, if you add up the cost of the individual items in the basket, it's a lot less than the price you pay for the set. Why? Because you are paying for the packaging too, not just the cost of materials but also the time it took the employees to package all those baskets.

The solution: buy the items in separate and create the package yourself. Make gift bags (see a few of my tutorials below; I have another one coming soon) or get an inexpensive basket, bucket, mason jar, etc., and create a unique gift set (reuse what you have at home as much as possible, or hit the dollar store for alternatives). 

Becoming creative with homemade gift packages can help you save a lot of money.

Re-gift

Although I've left it for last, this is something I do a lot. We often are the recipients of gifts we have no use for, either because they don't come in the color or shape we like, or because we already have a lot of similar items around the house. If that is the case, keep the gifts (and/or the packaging) intact and put them aside to be re-gifted.

If you are keeping that list I mentioned in point one above, try to immediately assign them to someone else as a future gift. If you can't immediately think of someone to give them to, then make a note on your list of the items and of who gave them to you (to avoid the risk of giving it back to the same person).

Once a gift is given, it becomes the property of the recipient, so you should not feel ashamed by re-gifting it to someone who will love it more than you. This year, I'm re-gifting a ton of things we got last Christmas. Since right after Christmas I decided 2015 was going to be the year of no clutter, there were lots of items I decided not to keep.

So I actually have a reduced shopping list this year, and I've already started working on fulfilling it. I'm also planning for several homemade gifts, which I expect to start making over the next few weeks.

And remember:

Have a wonderful week,