With a little bit of planning, you can free yourself from the financial burden that comes with the holidays. Check out our list of 10 Ways to Save Hundreds of Dollars on Christmas Gifts and get ready to have the best holiday season yet!
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October is almost over and you know what that means! Christmas is right around the corner! The last 3 months of the year are always my favorite. All of the decorations and parties and fun activities get me so excited! Up until a couple of years ago, however, these last 3 months were also an extremely stressful time. Jam-packed calendars and money flying out the window for gifts and other holiday necessities were enough to almost send me over the edge. I was determined to change that so I could enjoy this time with my family and decided to cut back. Don’t get me wrong, we still do more than enough activities and buy way too many gifts but we are no longer stressed about spending so much money during the last few weeks of the year. I hope this list of the Top 10 Ways to Save Hundreds of Dollars on Christmas Gifts will help ease your holiday stress as well.
1. Set a budget and stick to it
You absolutely must set a budget if you intend to cut back on holiday gift giving this year. Before we set up our gift budget we would buy whatever we wanted for whomever we wanted. Establishing a set dollar amount that we can spend on our friends and family for Christmas gifts helps keep us on track and streamlines the number of gifts we give each year.
2. Get organized
Once you’ve established your budget, make a list of everyone you need to buy gifts for. Don’t forget to include teachers, neighbors, the mailman and anyone else you normally give gifts to. You will also need to keep track of gifts as you buy them and where they are stored. Does anyone else do this…you buy the perfect gift for someone and then forget all about it? Or you remember you bought something but can’t seem to find it? Come up with a system to keep track of the gifts you’ve purchased and where you store them so you don’t end up buying duplicate gifts. There are free apps you can use to help you stay organized such as Santa Bag or Gift It or you can put together a quick excel spreadsheet or word document. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It just needs to be functional!
3. Shop throughout the year
You’ve figured out your budget and your list of receivers, now it’s time to start shopping. Ideally, you should start doing this the day after Christmas so you have an entire year to be on the lookout for things. Shopping right after Christmas allows you to score deep discounts on gift items that are specifically marketed for the holidays such as gift box sets, candles, and seasonal décor items. In addition, after Christmas sales are the only time you should be buying wrapping paper, tissue paper, bows, cards, and gift bags if you want to save the most money possible.
Shopping throughout the year also allows you to take advantage of seasonal clearance sales, going out of business sales, and snagging the perfect gift that you find during your vacation. I’ve nabbed great deals on ice cream machines after summer and almost stole some toys when Toys R Us went out of business. Ok, I didn’t actually steal them but they were so cheap it made me feel like I did. Anytime you are out shopping during the year is the perfect time to be on the lookout for Christmas gifts. If you haven’t started shopping yet, don’t worry. Just start now. Right, now!
4. Use coupons at stores
You should never, ever, ever shop without first checking to see if there are printable coupons or deals via store apps that you can use in stores. Bonus points if you shop at stores like Kohl’s and Bed, Bath & Beyond which allow you stack deals such as 30% off plus a $10 off of $50 coupon.
You should also take advantage of any of those coupons which allow you to get free items. Kohl’s and JCPenney frequently give their card holders $10 off of $10 coupons throughout the year. I have “purchased” so many gifts this way. Shhh!! Don’t tell my friends and family.
5. Use coupon codes and cashback sites when buying online
You should also never, ever, ever shop online without first searching for a coupon code for your purchase through sites such as Retailmenot and using a cashback site like TopCashback. I’ll admit I wasn’t doing this until a few years ago. Then I discovered TopCashback which gives you a percentage back for qualified purchases. TopCashback is the most generous cashback program out there and they offer a large selection of stores that offer discounts on online purchases. You get paid via PayPal or direct deposit into your bank account or you can choose to get paid with an Amazon gift card, Visa Prepaid card or American Express Reward card and receive an additional payout bonus. Since I’ve been using TopCashback I’ve earned over $100 which is pretty amazing considering I always use coupon codes and get discounts on everything I buy!
6. Make gifts
There are so many talented bloggers out there who share gift ideas that you can make at home. Many are made with dollar store items which look high end but cost just a few dollars. Check out my huge selection of gift ideas on my Christmas DIY Gifts Pinterest board and see if you can find an inexpensive gift that you can make for a loved one.
You can also buy personalized photo gifts from sites like Snapfish and Shutterfly which frequently offer free or discounted calendars, photo books, coffee mugs and more. Each year we give the grandparents photo calendars that we are able to make for free and they always tell us it’s one of their favorite gifts!
7. Shop at thrift stores and garage sales
Yep, I said it! I buy gifts at thrift stores and garage sales all the time. I’m talking quality items that are new in box/packaging that people are selling because they don’t have a use for them. I’ve been able to find toys and games that are still unopened, nice photo albums that are brand new and a set of Pyrex in the original box for $8!
My family loves to hit the garage sales and we’re lucky because here in Arizona there are garage sales year round. For a fun gift-giving twist last Christmas we decided to limit the number of gifts we gave each other to 1 item plus a second item that could only be purchased from a garage sale. It was so fun seeing the kinds of things each person purchased for the others and knowing each of the items cost less than $5 made it even better!
8. Buy discounted gift cards
Let’s face it, gift cards are probably the easiest (and often times, most appreciated) gifts there are. If you’re like me, however, you’d prefer to give a $25 item that didn’t actually cost that much. Enter gift cards that you can buy at a discount. Sam’s Club has a nice selection of $25 restaurant gift cards that are sold in packs of 4 for around $75. That means you get 1 gift card for free!
Amazon is also a good place to check for discounted gift cards. Earlier this summer I was able to get a $50 gift card to Build A Bear for just $39. Their selection and offers vary so check their daily deals often. Be sure to also check out sites like Gift Card Granny where you can always find a variety of gift cards sold at a discount. I’ve been able to buy several different gift cards on that site, some of which were sold at more than a 10% discount!
9. Give services or experiences instead of actual gifts
Consider giving coupons for things like house sitting, babysitting, a home cooked meal, dog walking or any other service you are able to provide. People love things that make their life easier so a gift like this is a perfect way to give of your time instead of spending your money. Draw up a coupon on a piece of paper or use PicMonkey to come up with a certificate that you can give your loved one.
You can also browse through daily deal sites such as Groupon to find discounted activities that you can give (be sure to check for a coupon code to save even more). I’ve received gifts of Groupons for cake decorating lessons, a desert ATV ride, and a zipline tour. They were inexpensive, useful, memorable gifts that I appreciated so much!
10. End early
Set a goal to be finished with all your Christmas shopping right after the Cyber Monday sales. Not only will you enjoy the next few weeks so much more, but you’ll also save a ton of money by not going out and buying a last minute expensive gift in a hurry because you don’t know what else to get someone.
If you have all your gifts purchased early you should then try to get all your gift wrapping done early as well. I’ve started doing this the last couple of years and it’s been so nice not having to hurriedly wrap all my gifts at the very last minute!
It is possible to enjoy the holidays while saving money! With a little bit of planning you can keep more money in your wallet and free yourself from the financial burden that often comes during the holidays. I’d love to hear if you have any other tips on how to save money on Christmas gifts. Please let me know in the comments below!
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I definitely utilize #3 – since kids change their mind so often, it’s hard to start TOO early in the year so I wait until the last two weeks of September then try to buy 1-2 items every week until Christmas. That way I’m not stressed to the max come December wondering how I’m going to afford to spoil my loved ones.
I’m starting #9 this year too. Instead of a bunch of toys that really only 2-3 become favorites & played with often… I want to give them experiences. Money is usually tight so if it’s not free or cheap, we usually can’t participate. So this year, I’m buying them Childrens Museum passes, zoo passes & a couple concert tickets.
Passes to museums and the zoo are great gift ideas! I’d much rather my kids receive things like that than toys. They have way too many as it is! Thanks for checking out our post!
Loved this. Plan to use several of your ideas this Christmas season. Never can start too early they say!
Thanks Beth! No, you can never start too early! Thanks for stopping by!
Awesome tips! A few years ago, my husband and I decided to scale back on Christmas gift buying. It seemed our kids just forgot the things they received because they were overwhelmed with all of the new things. We also stretched Christmas out over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so they can appreciate their gifts before their short little attention spans switch onto another thing.
Spreading it out over 2 days is a great tip and so is scaling back! We’ve also been scaling back on what we our kids. They get more than enough from grandparents and aunts and uncles so they don’t need much from us. When they were younger I used to hide some of the gifts they received and then rotate them out a few weeks later. That kept things “new” and exciting. Now that they are older I can’t get away with doing that but it was nice while it lasted! Thanks for checking out our post!
One of the things I learned to do over the last few years is to save “cash” and credit I’ve obtained at different websites such as Zulily or ebates and use it later to buy Christmas gifts. This year I get to add $100 to that for all the steps I racked up on my Virgin Pulse, made it to 60,000 so far for the year.
Yes!!! Using reward points and credits is a great suggestion! Congrats on your Virgin Pulse steps! I’ve only received $75 so far this year but I do plan on using it to buy gift cards for some of our nieces and nephews. Thank you for stopping by!
I shop all year round for Christmas, if I see something in a sale that is suitable for someone then I buy it and put it away until December, I have to write down what I have bought and for who so I don’t double up on gifts #bestoftheweekend@_karendennis
this is very helpful and great ideas. we have 10 kids so im always trying to do something different. we have a budget so that does help I just kinda hate how the older ones have 1 thing because theirs was the budget and the little ones have 4-6 because theirs are cheap. I love thrift stores and wish I could shop them more I do find stuff there. Love garage sales also another great idea
Sheri,
Great tips for Christmas shopping. Please stop by Over The Moon Party since you are being featured.
https://eclecticredbarn.blogspot.com/2018/11/over-moon-linky-party.html
Hugs,
Bev
Thanks so much, Bev! We are so honored that you featured our post this week. We enjoy Over The Moon each week and appreciate you hosting!