Stress Free Holidays-Your step-by-step plan to enjoy more and stress less this holiday season!
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3 Ways We Save Money at Christmas Time
The holiday season can be a wonderful, joy-filled time or year, but it can also be stressful emotionally and financially, especially if you live on a lower income. Today I am sharing a few ways that we save money during December.
We decide what we can afford.
It probably seems “grinch-y”, but we like to take a look at our finances to determine how much we can really afford to spend on Christmas and still be able to pay the bills in January. It’s easy to get caught up in the emotions of the season and spend more than we should, but since we don’t have credit cards, there is no “fall-back” if we overspend.
Once we know how much we can realistically spend, we decide our priorities for the season. This year the budget for our family looks like this:
$50 per child for a large gift ($200)
$12 per child ($48) for small gifts/stocking items
$75 dinner out with the family on Christmas Eve
The gift budget may seem small, but our children also receive gifts from grandparents as well, and they are content with the limits we have. We could spend the money for dinner out on gifts, but our family really looks forward to eating in a restaurant on Christmas Eve because we rarely have the opportunity to do so throughout the rest of the year. We will also spend a small amount on gifts for the cousins, and we will be baking for friends as the budget allows.
If you are in a similar financial position and would like some ideas for enjoying Christmas for less, check out my Christmas For Kids On A Budget post here.
We save on the basics to have more money for Christmas.
If we were better organized and had made more this year, we would have saved money throughout the year for Christmas. We didn’t.
In order to make some room in the budget now, we are saving money on groceries by meal planning (read more here) and serving simple, low cost meals like tacos, potato soup and quesadillas.
We also save on utilities by wearing more clothes rather than adjusting the thermostat as the weather gets colder, and by hanging our laundry to dry rather than using the dryer (read more here).
We focus on experiences rather than material gifts.
Gifts are nice, but our family likes to focus on the experiences of the season more than the presents. We enjoy hanging out with friends, watching Christmas movies (A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas
We are also go to light displays, church events and a nearby downtown area that is decorated for the season. There is even a local museum that offers free admission during December.
You can check your local paper or online sources for events in your area. Colleges and churches often offer free concerts as well.
Saving money is nice, but sometimes your desire to live on a budget creates conflict in your extended family. Many times family members don’t understand why we want to do things differently, or how important getting out of debt is to us. Thankfully we personally have very understanding families.
When we evaluated our finances in October and saw that we probably would not have enough money to travel, we let the extended family know. It is sad, but we will make plans to see them as soon as possible and informing them in October rather than December us all a little time to adjust to the thought.
Your family will probably have different priorities and make different decisions than ours. I am simply sharing what we do in the hopes of encouraging other families who are having a struggle with the clash between cultural and family norms, and their current budget.
What are some ways that you save money during the holiday season? Share in the comments.
You May Also Enjoy:
Christmas for Kids on A Budget
Frugal Family Fun
5 Fun Family Traditions Video
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I enjoyed this post! We are saving money this year by me and my husband not doing gifts for eachother and probably only doing one gift for our daughter. While we are still doing gifts for the rest of our family, we’ll keep it small and a lot of homemade things, thankfully our family is very understanding of that!
Instead of spending a lot on gifts we’re spending the money to travel and be with my family this year, something we haven’t been able to do in 6 years! Can’t wait!
We also went out and picked a free branch to use as our “Charlie Brown tree”.
It doesn’t look like much, but our 4 year old loves it! 
Love the Charlie Brown tree idea! I’m glad that you can visit your family this year.
My husband and I offer to host holidays whenever possible. I know this may seem counter intuitive to some, but for us it works. Whenever we visit his family, we have the cost of driving 4 hours each way, plus multiple meals at restaurants because his family prefers to eat out rather that cook. When we host, we save the gas money, and I can typically cook a meal for everyone for cheaper than it would cost for my husband and I to eat out with his family. I realize this isn’t an option for many, but we’re blessed to have the space to host extended family in our apartment, and meal planning helps keep the cost down even when I’m cooking for more than 2 of us.
Great idea Bethany!
Thank you for your post! It’s our first Christmas with our baby daughter & we won’t be able to afford plane tickets to see family. We, too, told them far enough in advance to emotionally and physically prepare them. We found gifts for our family on Shutterfly and Dirst cheap. The total came out to $3.33 per person and we bought a Groupon for each other for a fun indulgence-a message! So helpful right after having a baby! We also value experience over things so we’re doing church, community, and friend get-togethers to celebrate the season. We do an advent devotional every day and we decorated a tree (with ornaments and lights from Dirt Cheap totaling $12). We’ll make an extra special meal because we’ll have saved money on groceries for the month.
$3.33 per person is amazing! Way to go Kandis!
We’ve been living without CC for about 6 years now…and have had some seriously lean Christmas’s. We pretty much do what you said: determine what we can spend per child (and ourselves if that’s the plan). This year, it’s leaner…which means I’m glad I started buying gifts here and there for my girls in September when it fit in the budget.
My son asked for a few different things over the year but one really stands out for him: an ipod touch. He’s 7. This kills me but he knows about them than I do! Right now, they can be purchased via Apple . com refurbished for $129. Great price but *cough cough*… :/ So, we looked around for something equivalent and found the Coby Tablet. This is a 7″ screen with all the things he would like to do but for $40 cheaper. This fell within our budget for this child although it will be his only store bought gift. My husband will be making him a bow & arrow set as well
For my 2 daughters 5 and 3, I am putting together a dress up station in an old gun cabinet I bought at the thrift store for $40. I’ve been collecting vintage bags and accessories and clothes to fill it. What works well for us is thrifting items, handmaking items…and keeping watch for good deals or alternate items that work just as well. And sometimes, you just have to say no
One daughter is dying for a $50 baby doll she loves. We just can’t hack that on top of everything else. So, I’m telling her we can’t afford it but I’ve given the word to a favorite uncle who just might be bringing it for her! All I can think of for now! Merry Christmas 
Sounds like you have found some great ways to keep your children happy AND avoid credit card debt. Good for you!
I shop all year long for Christmas! This helps in several ways. One, I can buy things on clearance (not just on sale, but REALLY marked down stuff). This year my sister-in-law is getting 2 real crystal candle holders that retail $30 each, I paid $5 each. I can get nice gifts for everyone for a fraction of the cost. Also, I can find like-new or new things at yard sales, consignment sales and thrift stores. I realize many people would think this horrible but if you are very selective you can do this without giving junk or “used” looking things. This Christmas my 14 month old son is getting a brand new condition Cozy Coupe I scored for $5 at a yard sale this summer! (Those were on sale on Black Friday for $50+!!) Another way this really helps is the money is spread out over the year. When all the money hits at once it is so much harder. This also takes away a lot of the stress of shopping with crowds, traffic etc. One tip, you do need to have some kind of way to stay organized to make it work smoothly. I have a list on the computer that I update when I get back from a shopping trip where I bought a Christmas present. I know not every family would find this acceptable but I am fortunate to have parents and a sister who do the same thing and I married into a family who is also “into” finding good deals. Win-win! We even did a gift exchange one year when you had to bring a gift worth $75 but couldn’t spend more than $25! Merry Christmas and Happy Cheap Shopping all =)
Really great idea Kathryn–in previous years when I was more organized, I used this method as well. As long as you have storage space and a way to keep track of everything as you mentioned, this works really well.
Great article, Kimberlee! We have never gone into debt by over spending for Christmas gifts, however, I do feel that I could do MUCH better in this area. Over the years we have initiated “cutting back” on gift giving on both sides of our family. We now just give our parents a small gift and baking to everyone else. We find that spending money on buying gifts for all of our extended family just becomes a burden and we end up just picking up a gift card or something meaningless, so we have nixed that. (I have no idea what my brother in laws need/want!) Now we splurge on fire works that everyone can enjoy. The kids especially love this new tradition. Our family enjoys activities together instead of getting more “stuff” that we don’t need anyway. You are so right that it is easy to get caught up in the emotion in the season and lose sight of both our financial goals and the real meaning of what we are celebrating!
I love the creative suggestions of others commenters above! I have found that kids are really pretty easy going when it comes to gifts. Kids don’t have the same kind of “rating system” as adults do. We adults tend to see things in how much money something is worth, where as kids see things in terms of how much “play” they can get out of it. My kids have been excited with the smallest things. A few years ago we video taped our boys opening their stockings (they were about 7 and 3). They pulled out their first items and happily screamed “socks!!!”. My husband and I have never seen anyone so excited about socks. Lol
Love it! It’s nice when our kids are grateful.
Hi Kimberly. (I noticed my comment re your spending on your children Dec. 6 was the only one you didn’t leave a comment on – I so hope you were not offended by it!!! It was not my intention but rather to say I am so aligned with you.) Btw, your manner has inspired myself and my 14 year old. I tell him about your posts daily. I love your 50, 12, 75. It is beautiful. It has turned my own life around. I have decided for xmas eve I too am going to take my son out for dinner. I didn’t think of that because we are multi-faith (Jewish Culturally) but love the Christmas season and celebrate it’s beauty and prefer to celebrate Chriskwanzmakkah in all it’s love and adoration for goodness and hope for a better world and LOVE for all humanity, 4 leggeds and nature as a whole. We are in awe of every and all faith traditions. By profession I am a Reverend, Institutional Chaplain and worked with every faith so easily became Multi-faith. I have 3 children, one who is married to a girl Laura “Our Laura” who is Catholic, Ayla who might or might not marry Jewish and Taylor who is my Cultural 14 year old boy still at home. We drive around and love all we see so thank you. Xmas eve will be beautiful and Dec. 23 we are going to my daughter’s for a Christmas Party and Taylor’s Birthday. There was no mention of Chanukkah as it just past. But all the kids are very much into the beauty of Christmas and the celebration of Jesus, as am I – the most wonderful Jew that ever walked this earth! Of course, my Theological School (United) tells me much more… Merry Christmas Kimberly. May you enjoy your Christmas Dinner with your family.
No I was not offended, but thanks for checking. There is just a lot going on, so while I try to respond to every comment, I don’t always get to them. I’m glad that you decided to have Christmas dinner out with your son. Enjoy!