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Christmas season is just around the corner and pretty sure we all love the seasonal festive vibes and get-togethers it brings.
From planning to shop the best gifts for your loved ones to throwing dinners and extravagant parties, it is perhaps the most memorable time of the year.
But on a more realistic and serious side, it can be a bit daunting to your bank account and gurl… you do NOT want to hurt your finances.
To avoid your bank account taking a toll, I have gathered 7 effective ways you can save money during Christmas despite all the shopping and gifts.
7 Ways to save money during Christmas
1. Make a budget and don’t exceed it
Planning beforehand can save you in a lot of situations but especially this one! If you just go to a store and start buying whatever you like mindlessly, chances are that you would end up overspending and then regretting later.
To avoid this mess, the best thing to do is taking some time to make a budget and then sticking to it. Plan out how much you can afford and then add a little extra for emergency (unplanned) purchases/ travel expenses.
2. Make a list or take some notes on your phone
After deciding how much you can afford without breaking your bank, create a rough list of everyone you’re shopping for and how much you are willing to spend on their gifts.
Go through it thrice and scribble out all the extra people or just buy them something more affordable. It is preferable to do this a few weeks before actually shopping so you have enough time to brainstorm gift ideas for everyone that you will eventually buy for them.
Related: Noteworthy Holiday Gift Ideas for every type of woman you know
3. Put aside some money every month
Immediately having to take out money to spend on gifts can be a bit hard if you already have a tight budget. To make it a bit easy, put aside a few bucks every month e.g starting from May, so by the time we reach the holiday season, you have enough money to shop without disturbing that month’s budget.
Since the holidays are starting now and if you couldn’t do it before, another way is to cut back spending in some other areas e.g. see if you’re really availing that gym membership and switch it to a cheaper one, etc.
4. Shop online
Implying that you already made a list, shop online instead of going in person. Walmart, Target, Amazon, etc. basically have everything that you could possibly need. You can see the reviews to see if the item is worth it or not and this would also help you to avoid holiday traffic, and picking other things that you don’t really need.
You can get unlimited 2-day free shipping on Amazon if you are a member of Amazon Prime. However, if you don’t have that, you can try a 30-day free trial here with the option to cancel it later if you don’t want it without any charges.
5. Re-Gift old presents
Ok, but how many times it has happened that someone bought us a gift and we never actually used it. Instead of just throwing them away. repack them and gift it to someone who would like that. You don’t always have to shop for new gifts for everyone.
Another thing you can do is to not waste your gift wraps and just use it to pack others gifts. They wouldn’t know and you would save some bucks there.
6. Use coupon and cash-back sites
Coupon sites like retailmenot have coupons available that you can apply at checkout while shopping online. This comes very handily during Christmas sales, as well as the Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales.
Similarly, cashback sites are a great way to earn some money just by shopping at your favorite stores. I have only used Rakuten in the past as it automatically enables cashback and coupons with its browser extension and you don’t need to add in your credit card information for that.
Although you wouldn’t make thousands by it, it still will make you some extra cash that you can utilize later. You can join Rakuten here and after spending $40, you’ll get $40 back. Isn’t that great?!
7. Give Gift Cards or Cash
You can shop the best gifts for someone and they could end up never touching it because maybe they didn’t needed it in the first place.
If you don’t have an idea of what to gift someone and want to save money, give them a gift card or some cash as a present. They’d thank you, plus they can use it for whatever they want as most physical gifts go unused anyway.
This was it for this post. If you find it helpful, please pin it or if you have any other tips, please share them in the comments down below(:
Will talk soon!
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