Tips For An Inexpensive Christmas

[many houseapes]

Just another question that I though I'd throw at everyone...What do you do to keep your Christmas inexpensive? I think that some of my ideas may make people think that I'm a big Scrooge.lol...but here goes:
I regift...there are things that might be passed to me throughout the year from Freecycle, or whatever & some of the stuff is like new & could be regifted.
I turn in my reward points for 'free" merchandise that can be given as gifts..
I shop at thrift stores & garage sales..lots of good stuff..
I make about 1/2 of the gifts that I give...I am usually given gift cards from craft stores..so my craft supplies are "free"...
I wait for about a week after Christmas to browse the "after Christmas specials".....sometimes I find .10 cent deals....
I usually use reusable cloth bags ( 1 for each person to put all of their gifts in) instead of wrapping paper -but I had to wrap presents this year b/c of a certain snoopy 10 yr old found my hiding stash.lol
I bake our Christmas treats(except for candy canes)
I use candy canes and Christmas cards for tree ornaments...
The kids make ornaments out of whatever I have on hand...this year, they're making garland from colorful bread bag twist ties.(twisting them into chains)
For entertainment,we take the kids to the Christmas play at church. Pile all of us into the van & go riding around to look at other people's Christmas light displays, and there are always the Christmas dvds to watch at home.
I make my own Christmas cards from recycling the ones from the year before,or from cards that someone saves me from their Christmas. I use to send out at least 20 every year...now I have that list down to about 6 - 2 of them I can just put in with gifts(parents & Grandma) & save a little on postage.
What are your ideas?

[mikandmari]

Even if I was good all year, at Christmastime I've always had a tendency to go overboard. This year I'm doing much better... but I would say that ~Christmas~ is the one of the biggest things of the year that I can improve on. So I will be watching this thread closely and taking notes

I know one thing I'm going to do in 2008: plan ahead! I won't wait until November to start looking for ideas & bargains.

[staceyy]

I use airline and hotel points for Christmas travel and for merchandise. I use free internet samples and drugstore free after rebate items for stocking stuffers. I bake cakes and cookies for gifts and treats. I make holiday cards and ornaments. My cell phone company gives us 3 free phones each year. I wait until December to collect them and hand them to my family as Christmas gifts. I save our change all year and generally have about $500 at Christmas which can be used for gifts. I recycle our tree, decorations and ornaments each year. I find inexpensive but high quality gifts on Ebay.

[FrugalWitch]

The credit union I bank with offers reward points whenever you use your debit card. I save them all year then use them for Christmas. This year I had enough points saved to get $150.00 on Visa Dreamcards. (can be used anywhere that accepts Visa). So my reward points paid for Christmas this year! I do expect to have to add roughly $50 of our money for a couple of more items.

eBay can be great for some items, always factor in the shipping and handling to be sure you're getting your item cheaper than retail.

I have on occasion found some great yardsale items....new with tags.

[Momto2Boyz]

Instead of buying snacks for my son's lunch, I make homemade goodies year round. So at least once a week, I am making snack crackers, cookies, brownies, etc. If it sits around, we eat it all. But I've found that if I start in October and freeze half of each batch of cookies, brownies, etc., we don't even notice that they are gone (which is good for our waistlines), and by the time Christmas rolls around, our freezer is full of giftable goodies AT NO EXTRA cost to us, because we would have eaten them anyways! Granted, you can't freeze all baked goods, but if you package them properly, most of them are still great right out of the freezer. Just don't try to eat a frozen brownie, because they are soooo good frozen, you'll be addicted instantly!

Otherwise, we set strict limits on each person and we stick to them. This year, I had a $10 limit per person. And after scouring for deals, I have everyone done and I found some really good deals. One of my gifts is $120 gift that I was able to find for $10! So, I just have to keep my eyes open all year.

I make about half of our gifts, and my kids love to give, so they make gifts for the relatives too. I'm also a Trash to Treasure junkie, so alot of the stuff we make is totally free because it is recycled from other things (old ties into belts, sweatshirts into handbag/totebags, old jars painted and made into candle holders, etc.).

We also limit the gifts for the kids, which helps. They get so much stuff from the grandparents, that we normally only gift them the top gift on their list (if it is reasonable) and they get 1 gift and a stocking from Santa. So far, they haven't complained!

As for stocking stuffers, when I was young, we had a few things left in our stocking, but mostly Santa stocked our stockings with fresh fruit. Oranges, apples, and bananas. We then took our fresh fruit and made a fruit salad for Christmas breakfast. I realize that it also saved my parents money from having to stuff our entire stocking with presents. So we do the same for our kids!

[TheRootedNomad]

~ I try to shop all year

~ I will use yardsale or thrift store finds if they're a great match for a specific person

~ I make things myself (Watching the Wal-mart fabric section all year for that fleece stuff to drop to a dollar a yard for cool prints is one of my have-to's in Wal-mart. There isn't a kid I know that has a piece of that stuff with the fringes cut in it that doesn't drag it all over.)

~ I do lots of from scratch cooking

~ I'll use this time to replace necessities for my kids so they feel like they're getting more ....even though it's something they had to have anyway.....like a new or new/used winter coat, pjs, blankets, pillows, undies, shoes, yada yada.

~ I regift

~ I keep cutting down my list

~ I fix things up (I just bout a beat up SOLID wood desk for five bucks. I'll sand it completely, buff out the gouges, restain and poly it for DS#2 as a gift) DS#1 got his desk this way as a gift as well. (Except I paid $40.00 for it....and I think it might be an antique) I love refrinishing furniture. I've redone mom's footstools (covers and frame) as well.

~ I use my Christmas cards as decorations

~ I make my own tags out of scraps

~ I reuse all my Christmas decorations


I'm sure there's more but that's what I can think of for now.

[cmerth]

Made homemade gifts-- journals, mommy notebooks and bought the kids new clothes at the local consignment store.

Don't buy new decorations- accept lots of hand me downs from my mom (family heirlooms).

Make cookies and "gift" breads from scratch.

[Darlene]

For those who don't know, we have a really nice siter site called Budget Christmas that has all kinds of tips for you too.
http://www.budgetchristmas.com/

[Michelle68]

1.A few months ago I found a lot of very nice Christmas tree ornaments for CHEAP at a moving sale. Like others, I don't buy new ornaments because we already have such a great stock from years past and that we've received as gifts.

2. I also will regift if I get something new or in great condition. My spendthrift mom bought many very nice gift sets at WalMart last year after Christmas because they were on sale. Well, she just stuck them up in a closet and then started giving them to me to use when she ran out of space. I kept them until now and I'll give them as gifts this year. (But not to my mom, of course! )

3. We set a budget for each person and stick to that budget. My kids will get three Santa gifts this year and, per family tradition, a set of pajamas and slippers from DH and I.

4. I shop sales, garage sales and Craigslist for gifts and try to find the best bargains.

--Michelle

[kaykwilts]

When I was little my mother used to buy my Christmas for the next year the week after Christmas. She's store the gifts in the closet. She saved a lot of money that way. Since my birthday was in January she'd buy my birthday gift this way too. I learned most of my frugality from my mother. I'm trying to teach my girls frugality also.

The week after Christmas you can really save on wrapping paper, decorations and Christmas themed candy. Red and Green M&Ms can be used at Valentines and St. Patricks day. Red for Valentines and green for St. Patricks.
I'm still using wrapping paper I purchased at Target five years ago when it was 90 percent off.

[Hardy1]

Thanks for the budget Christmas site Darlene - I'm off to have a look at it!
W

[Daisygirl]

~ I use the envelope method for gift buying. This year I have budgeted $200 per kid, and $150 for miscellaneous gifts (includes giftwrap and decorations). If I have some left over in miscellaneous I may use it for useful stocking stuffers.
~ I don't buy useless stocking stuffers. I get useful stuff: makeup, toothbrushes, socks, jewelry, I do NOT get any of those crappy throwawy things that my kids will play with for 15 minutes and then break
~ I also get "necessities." This year both of my kids are getting robes, pjs, slippers and polar fleece sheets sets because we are trying to keep the heat turned down more.
~ We make 90% of the gifts that go outside the house. Cookies, scarves, dishclothes, jewelry etc.

[Dancing Lotus]

I am lucky enough to have some great natural resources. This year I made some pinecone ornaments! Pinecones free from the yard, Pineneedles free from the yard, acorns that the squirls were kind enough to leave me and ribbon I made from tearing up dd's christmas dress from last year. I didnt feel bad distroying the dress becuase I bought it for 1.00 and she wore it twice.
I made sets of three and they are going to be for any gift that goes out of the house.