How To Finally Save Money Over The Holidays
We all enjoy the holidays, but often, after all your joyous and festive holiday splurges, you can find yourself regrettably pinching pennies come January. Parties, gifts, decorations, eating out, traveling, it all can add up!! And that spending quickly sneaks up, barreling down upon you, completely out of control like a runaway train!! But, thankfully, there are solutions making it much easier to save money during the holidays than you might think.
In fact, to help, I created this shortlist of money-saving tips from gifting to groceries and beyond! Many of these tips have helped my family and me during the holidays, and today I’m sharing them with the hope that they will help you too!! ? Now you can enjoy spending time with family and friends, finally without the worry of sinking further into debt.
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The 7 Best Tips To Help You Save Money During The Holidays
1) Start With A Holiday Budget
Before the holidays are in full swing, it can help if you plan ahead and make a holiday budget. This way, you can get real with yourself about what you realistically can and can’t afford this year. Figure out how much you have available and would like to spend.
- First, try thinking of an overall total spending limit you’d like to stick to. Just make sure you don’t set this budget so tight that you have no room for any unexpected expenses.
- Next, think about everything you typically spend money on during the holidays….gifts, cards, decorations, travel, holiday activities, parties, meals…etc. It can help if you jot these things all down on a piece of paper. You need to decide roughly how much you will allow yourself to spend on each.
- How much do you want to spend on gifts?
- How much can you afford on groceries and on cooking Christmas dinner?
- What about eating out, cards, and decorations?
- After you’ve created your overall total budget and broken it down, giving yourself a cap spending amount for each category (gifts, decorations, meals, etc.), then it’s important to start keeping track of your spending as the holiday season begins. Keeping track is the best way to ensure you don’t overspend and stay within your means.
To make it as effortless as can be, you can use our FREE Holiday Budget Planner!!
PRO Tip: Try refraining from eating out several weeks before the holidays. That way, you can save up the money you would have spent on take-out or restaurants and use it towards your holidays!
RELATED POST: Preparing For Christmas: Ways To Make The Holidays Easy & Stress-Free
2) Make A Gifting List & Set Your Limits
Gifts are a category that can significantly pile on those expenses during the holidays. But the good news is it’s one of the easiest categories to control if you plan ahead. Start with a gifting list and include every person you need to buy for this year. What is your maximum allowable spending limit on each person’s gift?
Write beside each name how much you’ll probably spend on their gift or a range you want to stay within. Use this list as you shop and refer to it often to make sure you are staying within each person’s range or under their maximum limit. Then, after you purchase each person’s gift (or gifts), write in the exact amount you ended up spending on them. This will allow you to keep track of your overall gifting budget and, most importantly, ensure you aren’t blowing it.
PRO Tip: Another thing you can do is to openly discuss with your family or certain friends the idea of setting a limit on gifts for each other this year. You can both decide in advance how much and stick to it. And of course, if you have a huge family, you can always go the Secret Santa route!!
3) Take Stock Of What You Have Vs. What You Really Need
Once the holiday buzz starts, if you’re like me, you probably find yourself getting into the spirit, and next thing you know, you’re buying more lights, ornaments, bows, and wrapping paper. But before you do that, look at what you already have from last year first. Of course, anything broken or not working should be replaced, but if you take the time to go through old boxes, you’ll probably find almost everything you need.
You want to do this before you hit the stores and get tempted by all the new Holiday goodies out there!! Sometimes you have to say to yourself, “Yes, those ornaments are beautiful, and yes, they would look gorgeous on the tree, but do I need them? Wouldn’t it be wiser just to use what I already have?”
4) Shop Online & Use Apps To Help You Save Money Plus Get Cash Back!
No matter how many people are on your gift list for the holidays, whether 2 or 22 people, it never hurts to save money whenever you can…right?? One especially simple way you can enjoy the holidays without putting a major dent in your wallet is to shop online and avoid the malls.
First, I’ve noticed I’m far more likely to find way better deals and incredible savings when shopping online rather than in-store. And occasionally, I even find free shipping. But in addition to that, I’m far less tempted to spend my money on non-essential things I see at the mall if I stick to online.
Now, in addition to shopping online, I ALWAYS make sure I use Rakuten and, specifically their FREE cash back button browser extension.
What is the FREE cashback button…How does it work?
Well, basically, whenever I browse online using a browser like Google Chrome, if I happen to go to a shopping website that offers deals and savings through Rakuten, I get a little pop-up notification on my screen telling me that particular store offers cashback + what percentage they offer.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this because it helps me make sure I never forget to use Rakuten and never miss out on the chance to save money through them. The cashback button also does best price matches, letting you know if an item happens to be offered for a lower price. And lastly, it determines if the online store has coupons available, and if so, it will automatically add those in for you when you checkout.
If you want to know more about how Rakuten helped me save money during my Christmas holidays a few years back, you can read more about it in my review post. I use it for holiday gifts, office supplies, home goods, puppy supplies, and all my beauty must-have products!! (You can find my review post here… ) Every time I use them, they send me money back with a check in the mail. It has genuinely saved me tons since 2018!!
5) Don’t Forget To Use Prime
If you plan on purchasing any gifts at all from Amazon or ever shop on there for yourself in general, ALWAYS use Amazon Prime. I’m totally obsessed with it, lol!!
Even after COVID lockdowns ended and it became safer to shop out in public again, I continued to use it for my weekly essentials. In the past, I would purchase many of these essentials from the drugstore or while out grocery shopping.
But now I save time and money by just using my Amazon Prime account for all my household items (laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet tissue, cleaning supplies, etc.), basic beauty supplies, and toiletries. I use it for shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, cotton swabs, makeup, lotion, body soap, you name it…pretty much everything!! lol 🙂
But I especially use it during the holidays, as there is the added convenience plus extra savings because they offer FREE one-day and even same-day shipping. If you’re not an Amazon Prime Member, you can always grab a 30-day FREE trial that you can cancel at any time here.
After the free trial is up if you decide to keep it, I can say the small monthly fee more than pays for itself, when you think about how much you end up saving each year in shipping costs. In just the past 10 months I’ve saved about $1200. Plus you get access to Prime-exclusive deals which allows you to save in even more ways!
6) Consider Saving Money On Groceries With Thrive Market
One perfect way to save money for the holidays is to use Thrive Market… While they may not offer everything you need on your grocery shopping list for a full holiday feast, they can undoubtedly help shorten that list big time. Not to mention, it comes in super handy if you have family members with dietary preferences or restrictions.
With Thrive, you can get groceries shipped right to your door!! Now, of course, this benefit is terrific, but what’s even better is that they offer healthy and organic selections that you might typically find in a grocery store BUT at the wholesale price!! So, you can potentially get products at 25-50% off the normal retail price. Ultimately, this makes planning holiday meals not only convenient but cost-efficient too!!
7) Create Fun DIY Coupons Or Gift Certificates
If money is particularly tight, you can always forgo traditional gifts and instead create your own redeemable coupons or gift certificates offering to do something special for a loved one. All you need is a printer and card stock paper!! You can even use one of our FREE printable templates to create yours if you’d like!! Keep scrolling to see our 2 FREE options.
Here are a fun few ideas…Get as creative as you want to be with it!!
- Home-Cooked Meal, Dinner Of Your Choice
- 30-Minute Back Or Foot Massage
- Outdoor Adventure Or A Day Bike Riding At The Beach
- Movie Night With Your Movie Of Choice
- Breakfast In Bed
- A Full Day Of Laundry & Dish Washing Covered
- A Night Baby Sitting
- Picnic In The Park
- Weekend Dog Sitting
- A Game Night
- Dinner For 2 At Your Favorite Restaurant
- Lunch On Me
- Fun Night On The Town
- Morning To Sleep In
- Car Wash
- Trip To Your Favorite Ice Cream Shop
- Your Favorite Homemade Dessert
- Guys Night Out Or Girls Night Out
Get Our FREE Holiday Coupon & Gift Certificate Printable Templates…They are a perfect way to save money when gifting for the holidays!! Print them out, fill in the blanks with whatever you desire, & you are good to go!
*If your printer only prints black and white, grab some markers or colored pencils and decorate them!!
The Money-Saving Holidays Wrap Up:
To ensure you don’t regret your holiday spending, it comes down to planning, budgeting, organizing a few lists, trying a few new services, new apps, and possibly even getting a little creative with your gifting. Now, if you happen to have gotten a late start this year, worry not; use whatever tips from this list that you still can. Then just make a note to yourself to start earlier next year, and you’ll be ahead of the game! I hope you enjoyed these tips, Beauties! Happy Holidays!!
More Holiday Related Articles & Resources:
- The 32 Best Pampering & Self-Care Gift Ideas For Women
- The Ultimate List Of Beauty Gifts For Her She’ll Never Return!!
- Best Health & Fitness Gifts For Her: 26 Most Popular Wellness Gift Ideas
- Christmas Holiday Planner Printable
- The Supreme Gift Guide For Her | One-Stop-Shop For Women Gift Ideas
- 15 Mouth-Watering Holiday Cookie Recipes To Try This Season
Do you need more help staying stress-free & organized for the holiday season? Perhaps you need a game plan to stay on top of things and avoid the frazzle & chaos the holidays bring??
Check out the Christmas Holiday Planner To Help Make Your Holidays Run Smooth As Pudding This Year!! Click Here For More Info
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