Cheap Christmas Ideas To Avoid Holiday Debt

With today’s economy it is important to find cheap Christmas ideas to help you stretch your budget.    Christmas is such a magical time of year, especially for children. However it does tend to get out of hand.  Isn’t it time you ended up with money in your pocket after the holidays instead of the dread of credit card bills?

For adults the joy of Christmas usually comes more with giving than receiving.  Ask any parent who watches their child’s eyes light up in wonder and they will agree.  However, with budgets stretched so thin these days the Christmas holiday can also be time of great stress.

If you are tired of maxing out your credit cards because you feel like you just have to keep up then this year is a great time to rethink old traditions.  Wouldn’t it be nice to spend less this Christmas that you might even be able to pay cash for.  Here are just a few cheap Christmas ideas for saving on gifts.

The first rule is to never pay full price!  I used to stress every year if I didn’t have my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. Now I normally don’t even start until December.  For some this may seem insane but I find that I can spend the time before shopping on other jobs such as holiday cleaning, decorating, getting family pictures done and getting the Christmas cards in the mail by the first week in December.  Now I love hitting the mall around the second week of December when I find unbelievable mark downs on clothing and other cheap Christmas gift ideas.

I do have one exception where I will shop for toys in November.  Many stores are having great sales and if you do purchase something and the store marks it down even more they may even give you a refund on the difference if you bring in the receipt.  This happened to me two years ago when I thought I was getting a great deal on a rather expensive toy only to see it marked down another $20.00 a week later.  I called the store and they said I could bring in my receipt and they would give me the difference.

Do you want to save money on family and friends on your Christmas list?  How about talking to them in advance about either setting a limit or maybe drawing names.  You can even do something fun and creative by agreeing to only give a gift that is handmade.  If you are worried that you aren’t crafty think about doing up a nice tin of homemade cookies on a Christmas plate (found on sale of course) that the recipient gets to keep.

You can also start a tradition with your own spouse to keep the gift giving to each other to a minimum.  Every year my husband and I have just one small gift under the tree for each other.  These gifts, along with handmade gifts from the children and the joy of watching little faces light up on Christmas morning is the great gift of all!

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