Cutting the Cost

Of Holiday Shopping

If the thought of spending loads of cash on Christmas is starting to haunt you again this year, why not take a different point of view and cut the costs?

With a little creative thinking, you’d be surprised how much money you can save. Try these tips for size:

1 – You may only just have returned from your summer holidays, but if you start thinking about and preparing for Christmas now, you can start to spread the costs too. Make a list of all the people you will need to buy presents for, and allocate a value next to each one. This should be the value you can afford, not the value you would like to spend. You should always make sure you have an overall budget in mind.

2 – If you really need to cut down on your spending, you may need to have a chat with the people you know best, to come to an arrangement about presents. My partner and I were fretting about what to buy people, when our best friends suggested we did a ‘$10 challenge’ for each other. This involves buying the best, most useful present for under a ten that we could manage.

It turned the whole present buying saga into an enjoyable event, rather than one where we were agonizing over money. My sister and I do a similar challenge; we buy as many presents for each other as possible, under the $10 total limit. Can you do something similar for your friends and family? It certainly makes shopping more fun!

3 – Don’t forget the possibility of home-made presents as well. It’s quite easy to make homemade chocolates, cakes and biscuits, and it gives your gift a personal touch as well. You could also make calendars (perhaps using family photos taken during the year), and other similar gifts.

4 – If you are really organized, you can plan your Christmas shopping a whole year in advance, and buy some presents during the sales. Cards and wrap are usually much cheaper when they are sold off during January. Get into the habit of looking around during the summer sales as well; if you can buy presents during the year, you will be able to spread the cost much more easily.

5 – Think about how many Christmas cards you will need to buy. You could save some money here by sending e-cards to acquaintances, and only sending proper cards to friends and family. And again, if you buy these a year in advance, you will get them much cheaper.

6 – Before you buy anything, do a search on the internet to see who sells it the cheapest. Quite often, a few minutes spent here can save you a lot of money. Remember to bear the postage costs in mind as well, when working out how much an item will cost you.

Christmas doesn’t have to cost lots of money. Quite often, it’s the presents which are given with thought and have taken time to create which mean more than the expensive ones. Keep this in mind, and have a cracking Christmas.

by Allison Whitehead

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