Truly, this is my favorite time of the year. My bank account… no so much. I’ve been wanting to put together a list of Christmas budgeting tips for a while now, and while we’re already into the festive swing of things, I think a lot of the tips I’m going to share will still be helpful.
I’ve tried to group the tips up by all the different aspects that come with Christmas, because let’s face it, there’s a lot that goes into having a festive time!
Festive Decor
What’s Christmas without all of the decor that comes with it, amirite? But shew, those price tags can add up quickly! Here are my top Christmas budgeting tips to still have a beautifully decorated home but not bankrupt yourself in the process.
Scour second hand and charity shops, you will be amazed at what you find, and the prices are so so low compared to what you find in stores.
I recently picked up a gorgeous standing reindeer and a nativity scene for under R250 total, but I also always see baubles and tinsel going to R10 and below. What a bargain! You can also very often find your actual Christmas tree in second-hand stores and don’t forget about all the vintage treasures that are available for a steal.
This isn’t for everyone but having a different “theme” each year definitely adds to the budget, unless you already have all of those colours in your Christmas stash. Personally I love a kitch Christmas decor look, all the colours, all the decorations and a very obviously kid-decorated tree.
That’s not to say that I don’t buy new decor, I am just a lot more specific about what I do buy and make sure we don’t already have something similar. If you do want to change up all your baubles every year, there’s nothing a good tin of spray paint can’t do!
There are some really great and affordable, alternative ways to decorate your Christmas tree and home. Here are some of my favorites: dried orange garlands, paper bag stars, pom pom garlands made from scrap wool, toilet roll stars, dried eucalyptus arrangements
We love our fabric advent calendar, and while I do buy little gifts/put activity cards in for each day, you absolutely don’t have to, you could just pop in a chocolate. I also add my nativity cards from Sarah Jager Design in. I printed out and laminated mine so that I can use them every year.
Gifts
I think most of us adopted some Christmas budgeting tips in terms of gifting a very long time ago but I thought I’d go through some of my favorite ones, who knows, some of these might be new to you!
The most obvious tip here is to do a Secret Santa, and you can also put a price limit on the gift.
Only having to buy one gift as opposed to 10 gifts is a massive saving.
This year for our two bigger Christmas parties that we’re having at our home I’ve given everyone strict instructions not to bring a gift, not even for the kids. As the old cliche goes, their presence is more important than their presents.
Something that we’ve started doing for the kids is making some of their gifts/stocking fillers things that they actually need. So stuff like underwear, socks, hair goodies, stationery, new school bags, new linen etc. These are things you would need to buy anyway but are still fun enough for them to open on Christmas day.
I also scour second hand/charity stores for lovely books and it’s amazing what you can find. So each Christmas the girls get a nice stack of new (to them) books that probably cost me R150 in total.
Another Christmas budgeting tip I have for you when it comes to gifts is to all chip in to buy one bigger gift that the recipient really wants. This way, you are able to stick to your own personal budget (as are the rest of the family/friends) and you know that the person receiving the gift will be getting something amazing that they will really value. It’s also super helpful to minimize on the amount of unnecessary “stuff” that kids tend to receive on Christmas.
Another way to cut back on stuff coming into your home is to gift experiences rather than material things. That’s exactly what we’re doing for the girls this year for Christmas. They are each getting a few new books, a new linen set, and then their main gift is a family day out at Gold Reef City. Because they’re still quite young, I’m going to make a fun countdown chart for them so that it’s still a bit of a tangible gift. While this may not save you thaaaaat much money, I do feel like it’s a wiser way to spend money (an experience to remember as opposed to more toys that will be forgotten within a week) and that’s definitely part of budgeting too!
Something I do throughout the year for both Christmas and birthdays is buy bits and pieces as I see them. So I grab lovely books when I’m thrifting and keep them in a cupboard to give as part of a gift, or if I see a great special on something I know someone will love to get as a gift, I buy it and then put it away. This really helps to spread the cost over a few months, even if it’s only two or three gifts you purchase earlier on in the year, that’s two or three gifts you don’t have to spend money on in November/December.
You might also like: 48 Christmas gifts under R300
Gift Wrap
Let’s not forget about gift wrapping! Gift bags, ribbon, and tissue paper are definitely things that you can collect throughout the year, I definitely do! And best believe that also take home ribbon and gift bags after all the Christmas gifts are open too, I mean, waste not, want not.
If you need some wrapping paper, once again second hand shops and charity stores are your best bet, they usually have tons for next to nothing. I also love the idea of wrapping in newspaper with pretty ribbon or even get your kids to draw pictures and use them to wrap smaller gifts, grandparents would love that!
Festive Food
Food is a bit of a tricky one to budget; prices are at an all time high and you still want to have a wonderful, delicious meal together. In saying this though, hosting a Christmas meal shouldn’t blow your budget; you can still have a wonderful meal without astronomical spending. I think the main aspect of saving some money when it comes to serving a Christmas meal is putting aside your pride and asking for some help. Everyone is aware of the cost of living, everyone knows what an expensive month December is and no one expects one person or family to shoulder the entire cost.
I know many people feel strange doing this but honestly, in this day and age, in this financial climate, there is no need to. My number one Christmas budgeting tip when it comes to food is to let the guests contribute to the meal. For example, someone could bring a salad, someone some veggies, a dessert, etc. It doesn’t have to be anything massive, but each one of these smaller plates is one less thing that you need to purchase. As the host/ess you can still do the bulk of the meal but let’s be honest, a saving is a saving.
I’ll give you some examples of how some of our Christmas parties and our Christmas day is structured in terms of who brings what. For our girls Christmas lunch this past weekend, I hosted but Cassidy brought a cheese board and salad, Irina brought starters and I did the rest of the meal. For our next two Christmas parties, I’m hosting again but they’re a little bit bigger so everyone is bringing their own meat (we will braai) and drinks and one side/dessert. I’ll do all the other sides and snacks. And then for Christmas day, we really do have a day full of eating, starting with breakfast and ending off with a late lunch. Each year my sister and I do the breakfast and light snacks and then my folks do the bulk of the lunch with the other guests contributing one of the sides like pumpkin fritters, etc. Everyone also brings their own drinks.
I’m sharing quite a bit of Christmas content over on my Instagram stories and am trying my best to save them to my highlights, but go through the two Christmas highlights anyway because they have tons of tips in them!
I hope that this blog post has helped you be more mindful of your spending this festive season and some easy ways to save a penny or two. Happy festive season everyone!
Festive Finance Tracker
My Family Budget Tracker has been so popular and helpful to so many, I decided to make one specifically for the festive season. The aim for this festive budgeting tool is to help ease the financial stress and overwhelm in this very busy time.
0 Comments