6 Ways to Save Your Money this Holiday Season!

I know it is October, but it is never too late to prepare to save money during the holidays. Although having a Christmas fund for gifts would be the ideal situation, it’s totally understandable that not everyone takes this route. Don’t be discouraged. If you want to save money during the holidays, these tips would be perfect for you and your family to try this season. Do you know some other tips that would be great for us to know? Share your ideas with all of us under this post.

Create a monthly budget

To make sure you don’t loss money, you must know where your money is going! Buying gifts for others and yourself can get pretty pricey. Knowing exactly how much you can spend each month will help you save money when it comes to shopping this season. Budgeting can make people very nervous and jittery, but it really doesn’t have to be hard! Actually, I find more comfort in having a budget. It tells me exactly where my money is going, and what I can do with each dollar that comes in.

I am currently apart of Financial Peace University, which is a course that was created by Dave Ramsey to help people get out of debt and live a life of freedom. In this membership with FPU, I have access to the perfect budgeting tool called Every Dollar. This is my favorite budgeting app! You literally account for every cent that comes into your household and your budget is matched against you connected bank account transactions. It’s the perfect way to not spend the money that needs to be allocated to your household needs.

Access to FPU is $130/year and personally I feel it is worth the investment. The course takes you step by step on how to eliminate debt in the fastest way possible. If you’re not in the position to invest the $130 for FPU, I have 2 budgeting spreadsheets in my shop that are $1.99 and $2.99. These spreadsheets are great if you’re new to budgeting for yourself and your business, and they are already populated with the formulas you will need 🙂

Pick names or do Secret Santa

Don’t let your co-workers or your extended family make you feel like you have to buy everyone gifts this holiday season. This is the perfect time to start telling people “no”. Anyone that doesn’t contribute to the bills in your home should not make you feel bad about wanting to manage your money better. There are always more affordable ways to show someone appreciation and still save money!

To keep costs low, you can buy gifts for your immediate family and pick names for extended family and outside groups. Picking names and playing Secret Santa are a great way to focus on one person and buy the best affordable gift picked with that person in mind. Make sure you are comfortable with the gift budget when picking names or joining a Secret Santa group. If your co workers and extended family aren’t doing this, you can definitely suggest it. It’s the perfect way to still participate in giving and save money.

Shop sales only

It’s so easy to catch a sale during the holiday season because they are literally everywhere! Honestly, I don’t just shop for other people during these sales, but I also would wait and make my big purchases during the holidays to save money. Black Friday & Cyber Monday are no longer the only biggest sale days for brands. Actually it is very common to find some of your favorite brands having frequent major sales as early as October.

Whether you are shopping for gifts for your family or necessities & wants for yourself, buying the items on sale instead of regular price is always a win. If you want to stay on top of the sales on brands that you love and you don’t mind getting a ton of emails, I would advise signing up to their email newsletter to stay in the loop. If you have a hard time telling yourself no, then this might not be the best route for you…just fyi.

Send out personal Christmas cards

Another really affordable option to save money this holiday season is to send out Christmas cards to your loved ones and friends instead of feeling pressured to buy gifts. Hand written cards are a really nice touch and they don’t take much to create other than time. Another option is to purchase Christmas cards in bulk from online retailers such as Amazon. There are a ton of options on Amazon that have 40-50 Christmas cards all under $15. You and your family could even go as far as to set up the Iphone on a tripod, set the timer to 10 seconds and take a picture for each card. Here is the tripod I use. You would also need an phone holder to go with it. This is a great way to create a fun and inexpensive tradition for your family!

Find free holiday activities in your city

Not being active outside of the house during the holidays can make you feel like you have to buy extra gifts to help create a great holiday experience for your family. Tis is not true! Participating in free activities in your city can really help your family save money and have an amazing experience this season.

You can check out the websites for your city and local businesses to see what kinds of family events are being held. This will be really helpful for your children by giving them something else to be excited about other than just receiving gifts for Christmas. This is my favorite way to save money during the holidays, because it allows you to make beautiful family memories…for free!

On January 1st, start a Christmas savings account

Creating a budget will help you have peace during the holidays. So many families want to have a beautiful Christmas, but have so much stress behind how to achieve that financially. The best way to avoid this stress is to plan ahead of time. Yep, we pretty much just circled back to creating a budget! Guys, I promise a budget will give you so much freedom and stability in life and in turn eliminate a lot of financial stress!

Right after Christmas, while the activities are still fresh on your mind, sit down and create a budget for next Christmas. If you’re married, you and your spouse get together within a week after Christmas and have a download on what you want next year to look like. And this is not just for couples, us single women and men must have a plan too! Based on what you want your holiday to look like next year, create a budget to save money each month for next year’s holiday season. Remember to include free activities as well as gift purchases. However you want your 4th quarter to look, plan for those things and contribute to your holiday savings to make that happen!

I hope these were some very helpful tips for you guys. If you have more amazing tips, don’t forget to drop them in the comments below. We would love to learn more about having a stress free holiday season.