Credit Cave

As we are on the run up to Christmas, with Black Friday and the madness that is the holiday shopping season looming on the horizon, I thought it would be a good idea to create a list of ways to save money this Christmas.

It’s so easy to get sucked in by the rampant consumerism and the necessity to spend money. But it deosn’t have to be this way, you do not need to put yourself in debt in order to have a great Christmas. In fact, you’ll enjoy Christmas more without finance headaches.

So, without further ado, 101 ways to save money this Christmas.

Preparation

1. Ideally you would start your Christmas financial planning in January, a full year before the festive season, by putting aside a small amount of money per month in a dedicated savings account.
2. Take advantage of the New Year sales after Christmas by purchasing gifts  that will not go out of date or fashion.
3. Once Christmas passes you’ll find that stores discount gift wrapping paper and Christmas cards, buy them in preparation for next year.
4. Same thing for Christmas decorations, get them while they are cheap shortly after Christmas.  Decorations are something that don’t lose their style or appeal, so you can buy cheap and keep them indefinitely.
5. Keep an eye out for local garage sales throughout the year where you can pick up unique knick-knacks for very little.
6. Plan your Christmas carefully, the more you plan, the more you can control your cashflow as the holidays approach.
7. Work out how many people you will invite round for a meal on Christmas day.  This will allow you to work out what you need to buy in terms of food and drink.

Food

8. On the run up to Christmas you will be bombarded with food promotions.  Take advantage of them, shop early for ham and turkey.  Put them in the freezer until needed.
9. Do you really need all that food?  If Christmas at your house is anything like it is at mine, you’ll probably have gone crazy at the supermarket and bought just about every luxury food out.  Calm down, you don’t need all that food!
10. Watch out for expiration dates, especially if you are buying lots of dairy products.
11. Compare prices.  (You’ll probably hear this a lot!)  Don’t just mindlessly stick to shopping for your Christmas food at one store.  Find out who is running offers on mince pies, Christmas puddings and other delights then go and buy them from the cheapest vendor.  It makes sense.
12. Don’t be a sucker for branded food.  Unless it is an absolute necessity (ie. Christmas will be ruined) shop for the store’s own brand.  It’s typically cheaper.
13. Don’t forget your local family owned butcher or bakery.  These guys will be touting for your business at Christmas with great deals.
14. Avoid pre-prepared food, especially big items like ham, turkey and vegetables.  While they might save you a bit of time, you’ll miss out on the fun of preparing your own food and cooking it.  On top of this, pre-prepared food is usually packed full of salt, saturated fat and artificial preservatives, none of which are particularly good for you.
15. Bake up a treat yourself.  You can get loads of free recipes off the web that list the required ingredients.  Buy what you need and bake for yourself.  You’ll save a ton of cash.
16. Avoid temptation to go overboard, especially if you get into the ‘Christmas spirit’.  While it may be great to have a stocked cupboard and fridge, your bank account will not be so healthy.
17. Redeem your store  points and vouchers.
18. If you have any leftovers from your turkey dinner, make a big turkey pie and turkey sandwiches.  That should cover lunch and dinner for a couple of days.

Drink

19. For starters, ask yourself whether you want to remember the twelve days of Christmas or not.
20. If you are in the fortunate position of having a week or so off work, it can be very tempting to spend your time in a state of drink-induced unconsciousness.  Not a good idea for your liver or bank account.
21. Liquor stores know that Christmas is a time when people let their hair down and have a few drinks, so don’t expect any bargains on Christmas Eve.
22. The later you leave your trip to the liquor store to stock up on wine, beer and liquors, the less choice you’ll have.  Most of the cheap drinks will sell out fast, so get in there and get the pick of the bunch.
23. Bailey’s Irish Cream is a staple favorite for after-dinner relaxation, but have you seen the price of this stuff recently?  It’s far from cheap.  Look for other brands of Irish cream, they all taste very similar to Bailey’s but cost much less.
24. Shop online.  There are lots of online discount liquor stores, just watch yourself when it comes to sales taxes.
25. Cocktails are fun but they can be expensive, especially if you have to go and buy bottles of liquor that you have no need for otherwise.  My tip, get your friends to come round with a bottle each.  You should have a decent collection among mates, then mix up a few cocktails.
26. If you are going to bake your own Christmas delicacies you’ll most likely need something to spice it up, but why waste expensive wine on a sauce or aged liquor in Christmas pudding?  Get yourself a small bottle of cheap liquor for baking with instead of full-sized bottles.  You’ll save a fortune.
27. I may have said it before, but when it comes to drink, less is more.

Entertainment

28. First up, head into town for the Christmas lights being turned on.  It’s free, there will be a big crowd and street entertainment laid on for free.
29. Go to a fireworks display, of which there are many and are typically free.  Check out this guide for one near you.
30. Board games like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit are firm favorites that get friends and family involved.  It’s also cheap.  And you probably have them lying round somewhere.
31. Try your hand at card games.  A pack of cards is cheap and provides hours of fun for a small group.  Again, you will probably have a pack somewhere in your home.
32. Kids love to bake because they can legitimately make a total mess of both themselves and the kitchen.  It’s cheap entertainment and you also get some ‘tasty’ treats at the end of it.
33. Don’t be tempted to splash out on a bigger cable subscription package.  Why not rent out movies when you need them via a service like Netflix?
34. Alternatively, borrow DVDs and CDs from your friends.  Rip them to your hard drive, then connect it to your TV.
35. If you want to be legal, then try downloading music off iTunes or a similar service.  Try AllOfMP3 if they haven’t been subpoenaed by the RIAA.
36. Jump on the IPTV bandwagon and enjoy streaming media from the internet.  You can find lots of national and international channels online.  Kazakhstan TV anyone?
37. There’s nothing like an open fire and a book.  Instead of buying a new book, just read one you haven’t touched for a while.
38. Fed up with all your old books?  Head to your local book store and trade them in.
39. Don’t want to spend on new CDs, DVDs, books or downloads?  Go to the library.  (Just don’t get yourself arrested and subsequently tasered!)
40. Stay away from clubs a couple of days before Christmas because prices will be higher.

Shopping

41. Sales, sales, sales.  It’s all about the sales.  And the best one before Christmas is Black Friday when most stores will have massive one-day promotions.
42. Missed Black Friday?  Fear not.  Go online for Cyber Monday when many online retailers run special promotions to kick off the holiday shopping season.
43. Compare prices online to find the best deals.
44. Head to eBay where people will be frantically selling their stuff to fund their Christmas shopping.
45. Look out for free shipping offers, you can make good savings this way especially if you are making multiple purchase.
46. If you have family or friends spread out around the country, arrange to have the gift shipped from the retailer to them direct.  Ideally shipping will also be free.
47. If you have to ship a gift yourself, pack it as light as possible.  Packing it with newspapers might save the cost of buying packing materials, but it weighs more and will increase the cost of shipping.
48. Instead of shipping a physical product, why not transfer some money to their account or even send them an iTunes Gift Card?  It saves the cost of shipping and allows you to tightly control your spend.
49. Make sure that whatever you are buying online is available and in stock, otherwise it might not arrive on time and you may feel the need to purchase another gift.
50. Order as soon as possible, which means that you won’t have to fork out a premium for express shipping.
51. Set yourself a strict budget and stick to it, otherwise  you’ll end up buying anything and everything in sight.
52. Agree a budget with your other half and promise to stick to it.  Don’t be tempted to go over the limit just to treat them.
53. If you have kids, talk to them and explain to them that they can only have 2 or 3 gifts.
54. Setup a spreadsheet of people you are buying for, allocate them a budget and stick to it.
55. Don’t be even remotely scared of pruning people off your gift list, especially when you consider that the average spend on Christmas gifts for 2006 will be $949 per household.
56. If you don’t know what to buy your mom (who probably has an extensive collection of fine perfumes already), make her something by hand.  There are lots of websites offering crafting guides.  Anyway, it’ll cost less and she’ll actually appreciate the effort.
57. If you have a large extended family, then this one is for you.  Write each name on a piece of paper and put them into a hat.  Get the family together and draw.  Whoever you get, you buy a gift for them.  It saves you having to spend on every member, saves you a ton of money and makes sure that everyone gets at least one gift.
58. I am one of the many people who have a relative with a birthday closely followed by Christmas.  What I do is buy a small birthday gift, just as an acknowledgment that they have been born on that day x number of years ago.  I then roll the cash saved into a bigger Christmas gift.  It works because you don’t go gift-crazy on two occasions.
59. It’s very hard to give someone an original gift because you can buy gadgets throughout the year.  So why not give them something they actually need?  What I’m saying here is avoid the tendency to freak out when you can’t think of what to get them and default to buying the hottest most-wanted gadget on the market.
60. That said, don’t buy a PS3.  Especially when you can get a Nintendo Wii for much less.  (Spraying myself with flame retardant now.)
61. If you are buying electrical goods, you’ll be asked whether you want to take out an extended guarantee.  Avoid them like the plague.
62. Avoid shopping with your kids.  This will help you maintain a laser focus solely on what you need to buy, rather than what they want.
63. Give cash or vouchers.  You’ll still have to pay up for them, but they allow you to control your budget.  These types of gifts are well received anyway because the recipient can buy whatever they want, and because they can shop after Christmas has passed they’ll get more bang for their buck in the sales.

Decorations

64. I know of a household that puts up a Christmas tree in every single room.  That’s a) a lot of wasted time and b) a lot of wasted money on decorations that are only in use for a couple of weeks per year!
65. Take it easy when it comes to decorating.  Do you really need to spend all that money on a santa sleigh and reindeers just to put on your roof?  Christmas is going to happen with or without it.
66. Why buy a Christmas tree when you can grow your own?  It might take a few years, but if you plant a few in the back yard you’ll be covered for the future and save yourself a lot of money.
67. Christmas decorations aren’t just expensive to buy, they are expensive to run.  If you are shopping for lights, make sure they are energy efficient.
68. So you got a Christmas tree.  Why cover it with so much stuff that you can’t even see it?  Be conservative and refrain from going overboard with the amount of hanging ornaments.
69. Think natural.  Save money by decorating you home with cones and acorns, both of which may well be found in either your back yard or at a park.
70. Get a bag of popcorn, then string it up with some cranberries for some old school Christmas decor.  It also means you can eat your decorations.

Gift Wrapping

71. What’s wrong with brown parcel paper?  Answer, nothing.  If you want to make it look more exciting, tie some string or ribbon round the gift.
72. Don’t wrap it if it doesn’t need to be wrapped.
73. If you are buying online, look for stores with cheap prices and free gift wrapping.
74. If you buy a gift from a store, ask them to gift wrap it for you.  Most stores won’t turn you down if it looks like a deal-breaker.
75. Avoid gift bags.  They are expensive and while they may look good, you still have to wrap the gift inside.
76. Are all those fancy bows necessary?  I think not.  They’re getting a gift off you already!

Christmas Cards

77. There’s one very easy way to save money on Christmas cards.  Don’t send them.
78. There’s another very easy way to send money on Christmas cards.  Don’t send so many of them.
79. In fact there’s lots of ways to save money on Christmas cards.  Why not buy a pack of budget Christmas cards?  They won’t be the fanciest looking but that doesn’t matter, we’re interested in saving money, not spending it.
80. You could send an ecard instead.  There are lots of places online where you can buy an ecard or get one for free, then just email it to your contacts.
81. Hand deliver cards to local friends and family to save on postal fees.
82. If you simply must send a card, why not make your own?   You can create a decent looking card with your own printer and people will appreciate you effort.  It also means you can personalize the message.

Christmas Greetings

83. Contacting friends and family around the world need not be expensive.  For starters, use an broadband phone like Skype to call for free.  (They’ll also need Skype for the call to be free.)
84. Instead of sending a hand-written letter, which is admittedly nice, why not save money and send them an email.  It’s cheaper and faster.
85. Alternatively, arrange to chat with them via your favorite instant message client.  Again, this is free regardless of geographic location.
86. Some families will have a large conference call during dinner to create a feeling of togetherness, which may be great for family relations but it doesn’t help the bank balance.  My advice, get yourself a loudspeaker, plug it into your laptop and fire up a softphone (Windows / Mac OS X).  There may be issues getting each attendee to download and install the softphone, but the fact that you can have a free conference call should override that inconvenience.
87. If you are inviting people to your place for a party, use the SMS feature in Skype.  It’ll allow you to send a text message for much less than your carrier.  Check that you aren’t getting free text messages first though.

Finance

88. Avoid buying everything on credit, this mentality can lead to some serious new year blues when your statement hits.
89. If you have been preparing for Christmas, use your savings and stick to your budget rigidly.
90. If you must use a credit card, apply for a card that has 0% interest on new purchases or balance transfers.
91. Try and get a card that also offers cashback, airmiles or other promotions.  You can then use the points or cash earned after Christmas to lighten the load.
92. Remember your budget.  Remember your budget.  Remember your budget.  Ad infinitum.
93. Your bank will maybe try to sign you up for a loan in the weeks leading up to Christmas while you are doing some telephone banking.  Turn them down.  You don’t need debt when things get tight in the new year.
94. It might not be very festive, but try to get some overtime at work.   Employers will typically pay good overtime in the period running up to Christmas to make sure that shelves are stocked, goods are shipped etc.

Post Christmas

95. Chances are that times will be tough for a few weeks after Christmas passes.  So plan for that.  Put aside some money to cover yourself and any bills that you know are coming in.
96. Most people get a few gifts that they’d rather had stayed in the shop.  Instead than dumping them or putting them into long-term storage in a box, monetize your junk gifts and sell them on eBay.
97. Another way of monetizing unwanted gifts is to sell them off in a garage sale, just make sure that the person who gave you the gift doesn’t turn up!
98. Ask your friends and family if they have any gifts that they do not want.  You could buy those unwanted items for cheap, then flog them on for a profit.
99. If you have run up some debt on a store or credit card during the Christmas - new year period, prepare to initiate a debt repayment plan.  Stop spending, don’t get yourself into more debt.  Aim to repay your debt as fast as you can.
100. Use a debt calculator to calculate how fast you can pay off any debts accrued over Christmas.
101. Move your credit card debts onto a 0% interest credit card, if they aren’t on one already.  This is very important as it vastly improves the speed at which you can pay off your card debt.

Looking for more money saving ideas? Check out this previous article outlining 101 ways to save money.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Saving Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.