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5 Great Ways to Save Money on Christmas Gifts

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How to Save HUNDREDS of Dollars on Christmas Gifts This Year

Wondering how to save money on Christmas gifts?

This year, our Christmas budget is going to be tight. To be honest, I have never been super strict about sticking to a budget when it comes to Christmas shopping.

However, with our future finances up in the air and a new baby due any day, it’s crucial that we save money on Christmas gifts any way we can. (Luckily, Baby Girl will neither know, nor care, what she gets for Christmas this year!)

Still, we want to make the holiday season magical for our two little girls. There are tons of ways to spend less on presents, while still having a wonderful Christmastime.

Here are the top five ways to save money on Christmas presents this year.

 

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1. Save money on Christmas gifts by cashing out Amazon Rewards.

My husband and I signed up for a Chase credit card through the Amazon Rewards program a while back, and we have been saving up our rewards points since last Christmas. We receive 5% cash back on all Amazon purchases.

This is great, because we like to take advantage of the free two-day shipping we receive via Amazon Prime (you can try it FREE for 30 days!).

We also get a small percentage back on all other purchases made through our credit card. We just make sure to pay our balance in full every month to avoid paying interest, which would only negate the cash back bonus.

In less than a year, we have earned $325 in rewards points. It’s basically free money, because we would have made the same purchases throughout the year, regardless of the cash back.

Knowing we were getting money back didn’t change our spending habits at all.

Using our rewards over the next month is just one of the ways we plan to save money on Christmas gifts.

 

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2. Earn free and discounted books by hosting a party.

My two-year-old loves to read.

So I ordered a few books from Usborne Books & More to give as Christmas gifts, and decided to host an online party so I could get more of these fun (and educational!) kids’ books for my daughters, nieces, and nephews.

The best part? When my party attendees ordered books, I earned lots of completely FREE books, as well as a half price discount on quite a few others.

In the end, I paid about $60 (including shipping) for well over $200 worth of books. What a great way to save money on Christmas gifts for the kids!

 

3. Save money on Christmas gifts by participating in name exchanges.

Over the last few years, both my husband’s family and my family have grown. Between us, we have quite a few siblings, nieces, and nephews.

We used to get something for everyone, but that gets more and more expensive every year. Not to mention we will have two kids this Christmas.

So over the past couple years, we have been exchanging names with both sides of the family to help save money on Christmas gifts.

Instead of buying for ten siblings and their spouses, and fifteen (or more!) nieces and nephews, we just need to shop for a fraction of those people.

I’m not sure exactly how much we’re saving by doing name exchanges, but it’s surely hundreds of dollars when you consider the size of our family!

 

4. Compare prices online and wait for them to drop.

If there is a larger item that we need (or want) to buy, I do lots of comparisons before placing my order.

Even when I am shopping in a store for a larger item, I will sometimes look online to compare prices to find a better deal.

I actually had an Octonauts Underwater Adventures Box Set sitting in my Amazon shopping cart (to give my Octonauts-obsessed daughter as a Christmas gift) for quite a while, and recently noticed that the price had dropped significantly.

So I quickly ordered it for her before the price could go back up (she’s going to be so excited!).

Even better? I used some of my Amazon rewards points, so I ended up spending nothing out of pocket for it.

 

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5. Set a Christmas budget and stick to it.

Finally, the best way to avoid overspending during the holidays is to set a budget (and stick to it!).

Too many people end up in debt for a long time after Christmas due to overspending. In fact, I was just listening to the radio the other day and heard that some people are still in debt from last Christmas.

Thankfully, we have never found ourselves in this situation, since we typically don’t spend money we don’t have.

However, this year we need to save every penny we can, so I am going to come up with a realistic budget. Then I’m going to come up with a plan to stay under budget.

 

More Ways to Save Money on Christmas Gifts This Year

I am definitely going to use the above five ways to save a ton of money on Christmas gifts this year. However, I am still brainstorming additional ideas for saving money on Christmas presents.

Here are a few more ideas I have come up with. Leave a comment to share your favorite money-saving tips, and I’ll add them to the list!

 

Ways to save money on Christmas gifts this year:

  • make homemade gifts
  • watch for sales
  • use coupons
  • earn cash back on groceries with Ibotta
  • stick to a list
  • pay in cash
  • give experiences, not things
  • use apps (like Honey) to compare prices online

Now, how are you going to save money on Christmas gifts this year?

 

Christmas Gift Ideas from the Writer Mom:

Top 21 Gift Ideas for Moms Who are Coffee Lovers

The ONE Gift for Dad that the Whole Family Can Enjoy

All Time Favorite Children’s Books for Toddlers

 

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36 Comments

  1. Great tips, Amazon really adds up and the free shipping with Prime is a super great bonus! I added the honey app to my browser and it double checks prices before I purchase anything. Thanks! 🙂

  2. My husband loves camel camel camel.com to see the lowest price things have been on amazon 😉 I’m going with a lot more “made with love” gifts this year. Which is fun for me and saves us money!

  3. All great ideas. We do a cash out also but through our Insurance. We have Humana and they have a program where we earn bucks for doing certain things; proactive medical and dental, walking, going to gym, and a ton of other things. We can trade those bucks in for gift cards – last year we had over $400 in Amazon gift cards. I love the party idea – but mostly I like to do those for things I want..lol..Handmade gifts are always the best. My great nieces make me stuff every year and seriously you can see how much time and work they put into to it so it is so sweet.

    1. Wow, that’s awesome that your insurance company does that! And so sweet of your great nieces to put so much thought into homemade gifts.

  4. Great idea to host the Usborne party and earn the free books. That would work with other home party companies. I noticed that you planned ahead with these and looks like it paid off in quality Christmas gifts for less money.

  5. Great suggestions! Hubs and I are making a lot of gifts this year. He dabbles in woodworking in his spare time so we’re gifting some handcrafted stuff! I’m estimating that we’re saving at least $200 as a result!

  6. Great tips and ideas! We started a name exchange with my siblings and sibling-in-laws this year, and it’s amazing how much we’ve saved just doing that compared to years past!

  7. I definitely need to look into amazon cash rewards! I’ve always seen the ads for it but never knew you got 5% cash back! Thanks for sharing.

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