5 Easy ways to Save Money Buying Christmas Gifts

If you are like me this year, you don’t have a bunch of extra cash, but you still want to have a nice holiday.  Finding ways to buy Inexpensive Christmas Gifts can be difficult, if you’re not being creative.  Here a few ways that you can cut down on costs with out really even noticing the difference:

1. Use Your Air miles - So many of us collect all of these points.  It seems like every single store we go into, has some sort of card that you need to use to collect the points.  But what are we collecting them for?  Many of us NEVER end up using them.  I had a friend this year that got smart about it.  She logged into her air miles.  And with the points she had accumulated, was able to by six great gifts for the people on her list.  Didn’t cost her a thing.  It doesn’t have to be just with air miles either… many stores and credit cards have a catalog of things you can buy with the points you have earned.
2. Use your discount if you are in a direct sales company - Giving gifts that are from the product line you sell (allowing you to use the discount) saves you money, and gives you possible clients in the future if they love the product.  And let’s face it, you wouldn’t be selling the stuff yourself if you didn’t believe it was a great product, so people will be very happy to get that as a gift.
3. Talk to you extended family and friends –   Many of them are also looking for ways to save money.  Why don’t you talk about doing a gift exchange for the family instead of for each individual person in that family.  Or draw names for the adults.  In our family my brother, sister, and I still buy gifts for our children, but we ourselves do not exchange anymore between the siblings.  That saves us all time and money.
4. Set Limits – Again talking with your family and friends.  Set a limit on how much is appropriate to spend on a gift.  Everybody decide on the amount, and then stick to it.
5. Try doing some homemade presents. They are often appreciated.  For example, I always give presents to the teachers, assistants, co-workers, that sort of thing.  Try doing something homemade, and of value.  One year (using our tag-team method) we made three different kinds of jelly and jam.  Wrapped them up in a festive wrap, put a bow on top, and voila!  Done.  I had teachers asking me for the recipes for months.  They didn’t feel cheated out of a gift, and I saved a bunch of cash.

These are just a few really simple but effective ways to save money this year with your gift giving.  What do you do to save money, while still trying to get it all covered?  We’re all looking for ways to save on the green!!

Merry Christmas,

Heather

Tagged as: christmas gifts, christmas on a budget, save money