Christmas doesn’t need to be budget-blowing. With a bit of planning, it’s possible to stay in budget and still have the perfect Christmas each year. These are some of the things I do to save money on Christmas…..
I have a Christmas Club account. At the start of each year I work out how much we can afford to spend for Christmas and divide it by 40. This is the amount that I should be depositing each week into my Christmas account. I usually start out well in the beginning of the year but sometimes when things get tough, I need to dip into it. Unfortunately it costs me $5 every time I withdraw out of that account before Christmas so my plan for 2009 is to re-budget and decide how much we really can afford for gifts so we’re not short in other financial aspects.
I do a lot of my gift purchasing online, eBay mainly but some of my other favourite sites are Deals Direct, Peters of Kensington and OO. I find that by buying online, I’m not spending money on impulse buys and I can compare prices before purchasing. I’m also saving money on petrol (and we all know how expensive that it right now!)
I write lists and keep track of everything that I buy in my Christmas Notebook so I don’t buy more than I need. I get all the kids and Bill to write a wish list so I know what they want so I’m not wasting money on gifts that they don’t really want. I also write a wish list for myself too so they know what to get me…..I have my eyes on a couple pairs of Dansko shoes this year. My poor achy feet will LOVE Santa if there’s a pair under the Christmas tree…LOL
I buy Christmas cards when the prices are reduced after Christmas and put them away for the following year. I make gift tags out of the previous years’ Christmas cards and I buy gift wrap in a bulk roll because it’s cheaper and I like all the gifts to be wrapped in the same paper. I make the place cards for our Christmas breakfast/lunch/dinner table and I also plan to make the bon bons instead of paying good money for bons bons with crappy surprises inside.
Each year, we decorate the Christmas tree in the same colour theme – Red, green and Gold although I am thinking of scrapping the green. The rest of our Christmas decor matches this colour theme too so I believe I save money by having to stick with these colours and not going crazy buying all the new pretty decorations in pretty pastel colours they bring out each year! I’m picky in what I want to add to our Christmas decor.
I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to save money on Christmas. If you have any ideas to share, feel free 
