It is easy to get carried away during the holiday season, especially at Christmas. Wouldn't you agree? We spend tons of money buying gifts for everyone we know. Plans to get decorations done, prepare exquisite food, wrap supplies, and new festive outfits add to the apprehensive state.
With this budget, most of us have found that we won't have as much money in our pockets due to extra tax payments, so we must strictly adhere to our budgets.
Here are some ways that you can save money when doing your Christmas shopping:
- Consider making gifts for your loved ones. Not only will your gift be unique, but the recipient will also know that thought and effort have gone into making it. Things like hampers, soaps, candles, personalized picture frame e.t.c., always go down a treat.
- Organizing a Secret Santa is a great way to save lots of money. You can do it with a group of friends or with family members. Pop all names in a hat and each person pick one out and buys just for that person.
- Choose one quality gift over many smaller, cheaper gifts that will probably just get binned anyway. Many of us are guilty of buying numerous small, cheap gifts in the hope of saving money. But we usually end up spending more on things that probably won't be needed.
- Make use of sales and discounts. If you see something that's on your Christmas list in the sale, snap it up! End-of-the-year sales are up, and it's a great opportunity to get some of your gifts at a discounted price. But make sure you stick to your list, otherwise you'll be spending money that you haven't budgeted to spend.
- Make sure you are using cashback sites when you make your purchases. They are free to sign up and when you make your purchase via their site, you'll earn money back. It's essentially free money!
- Plan before you spend. Make a list of all of the people you plan to buy a gift for and what you want to buy them, and stick to it! It's so easy to get carried away when you're out shopping. 'Ooooh mum will love this - I'll get her that too. Ahhh but this is so cute too and she'll really appreciate it, so I'll also get her this'... and so on. Don't do it! Take your list and only buy what's on it 😉
I know we all want to buy lots of lovely things for the people we love and even spoil ourselves a little bit more. It is necessary to evaluate your budget to see how well you stick to your spending limit. Perhaps you were on target for each category. If so, well done to you!
If you went over budget, use this information to help you plan for next year. After all, you now have 12 months to prepare and start stuffing a stocking's worth of cash into next year’s holiday savings account.
