Tip #14: 10 Ways to Save Money During the Holiday Season

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Finally here is another tip to save money and get out of debt. With Christmas not far away we thought we would post on how to save money on shopping and entertaining during the season. If you are like us and have a lot of people you have (or think you have) to buy for, you may be buying or spending more than you have too.

When my husband lost his job a few years ago and we were flipping homes, we had no idea how much money we were going to be making or possibly loosing on each house so we had to be very careful on every penny that was spent. We knew at Christmas we would  have to cut back considerably. If you don’t know what your income is going to be or if you are already in debt and shouldn’t be spending money on unnecessary things.

Here are several tips to save money during the holiday season:

1. Save by not buying for everyone on your list. Cut out some of the people you really don’t need to be buying gifts for. We did! It is not easy but sometimes you have to make hard decisions to get out of debt. We told certain people  that we couldn’t exchange gifts with them and they were fine with that. Some people understood that times were tough for us, and others where also tight with money and were even glad we said something.
2. Give just a card instead of a gift. This is very meaningful and you could leave a personal message in it.
3. Make homemade gifts to show that you are still thinking of them. Here is one cute gift idea from Grace and Bliss. I know that a lot of people like homemade gifts better than bought ones.
4. Keep it simple. Giving to the kids is something that we still did during tough times, but we bought things for the children that they needed and only bought a few simple items for each one. Sometimes I think Christmas has been too commercialized and it takes away from the meaning of Christmas.
5. Buy second hand for some of the gifts. For some of the children we bought somethings at garage sales or goodwill. This saved us a lot of money and we were able to buy nicer items for a fraction of the cost.
6. Keep entertaining to a minimal cost. Everyone likes to get together with family and friends during the holiday season. By asking guests to bring a dish and a beverage of choice this makes it easy to entertain and keeps the overall cost to a minimum. I found most people don’t mind bringing something to eat and what ever beverage they plan on drinking.
7. Send Christmas Cards via Email. This will save you not only a lot of money on cards and postage, but a lot of time also.
8. Save on gift wrapping. Check out how we wrapped out gifts this year here.
9. Comparison shop online. When looking for certain items you could look for different features and prices on line. If you need to see an item check online for availability before going out. you could save a lot of time, money and gas. Several places also offer promo codes. Search the web for current codes.
10. Use Ebates.com. We get cash back when we shop through the website ebates.com. For a brief explanation on how this works click here.

As you could see there are still ways to save money during the holiday season.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Here are the previous tips to get out of debt if you missed any:

31 Days of Tips to Get Out of Debt! Explaining our journey.

Tip #1 to get Out of Debt: How to Find Excess Spending

Tip #2 to Get Out of Debt: How to save Money on your Energy Bills

Tip #3 How to Save Money on Lunches

Tip #4 How to Save Money Eating Out

Tip #5 How to Save Money on your Car

Tip #6 How to Cut More Car Expenses

Tip #7: 20 Tips to Conserve Water and Save $$$.

Tip #8: 20 Activities for Cheap or Free Family Fun

Tip #9: 15 Ideas for a Free or Cheap Date Night

Saving’s Summary

Tip #10 How to Save Money on Subscriptions

Tip #11 How to Save Money on Your Phone Service

Tip #12 How to Save Money on Bottled Water

Tip #13: 5 Easy Ways to Save on Your Food

Follow us as we share tips on how we keep our spending in check and still be able to have fun, enjoy ourselves, have quality family time, and keep ourselves debt free.

We love to have comments. Let us know if you have tried any of our tips.

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Doug and Sharon Heasley
(Parents of a Dozen)

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