I know everyone’s excited about Christmas coming up (me too!!!) but don’t forget that with spending money on others (and yourself 😉 ) for Christmas also means making a budget and making sure you don’t blow it for one day (much like a wedding actually..) and you’re not paying the interest on something you couldn’t afford to give at Christmas time.
So.. here are some tips!
Get Organized, Make a List and Check it Twice
Make a list, and plan for what you want to buy.
Figure out the following:
A) Who you want to buy for (ideally)
B) How much you want to spend this Christmas
C) Other Christmas-y things you need to buy like holiday meals, holiday cards, stamps to send it all out, decorations, replacement bulbs, whatever.
Then, allocate the cash (immediate family and close friends get more, others get cards), and you have a list of what you want to buy, how much you want to spend, and how many cards you need to purchase and write.
A lot of planners say you shouldn’t spend more than 1.5% of your annual income on gifts. ALL gifts. All year. Not just Christmas. That includes birthdays, anniversaries, so be mindful that you don’t blow your income to show off…
Try: Christmaslists.com
Think about other gifts
Honestly, you can only get so many candles and socks. Think about making art for someone, baking cookies and wrapping it thoughtfully with a well written card (something that you can buy in a store, but you actually write a REAL personal message inside instead of signing your name to what Hallmark wrote). I find that specially written greeting card more personable and wonderful than getting a fantastic gift with a standard greeting card….
Think about donating to a charity in someone’s name (a real one please!), but if you aren’t into donating in someone’s name, try offering a favor. Maybe they would like you to create vouchers for things you can help them out with such as cleaning their gutters, cleaning their house, baking them a meal.. anything you think might be helpful or useful for them.
You can even consider giving classes, courses and special experiences as gifts. Gifts don’t have to be actual items with a pricetag. Maybe you can offer your services (if you know a program really well or something), to teach them how to use it. Or even to fix their computers, or take all of their photos and organize them in a special way in photo albums with labels, or in a scrapbook.
Think about ways to help enrich their lives, instead of just giving the standard candle and pair of socks. It takes more time to think about what is special and meaningful to a person than it is to buy something expensive in a store, and the effort will show.
Or you can even help them create a budget and help them figure out how to balance their chequebooks with a system of sorts.. or help them sort through their papers and organize them into file folders (I LOVE doing that so it’s a win-win situation for my friends and I)… 🙂
If you’re gonna use a card, use a good one
Pick one with rewards on it so you get something (like points) out of it to use, while you’re shopping. Just don’t forget to clear the balance!!
Anyone else have any other tips or ideas? 🙂
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
While it’s nice to make every gift personal, I’ve found that it’s good to have some rather generic, cheap gifts on hand. That way, you don’t feel pressured to spend more on gifts for fear that you just won’t find a gift in time (and you won’t be stuck if you find out at the last moment that you need another gift). And, while gift cards can be great, an actual present usually seems more personal.
I recommend spending $15 max on these gifts, and ideally less than $10. And they should be gifts that can be kept for birthdays if you end up not giving them all away this holiday season. Or, you can combine them to give a larger gift to someone.
BTW, Candles and lotions are popular choices, but I usually shy away from them because scents are very personal (and because I have far more candles and lotions than I need).
For guys, I suggest toys and other gadgets. Thinkgeek.com is a great source. Color changing silly putty, marshmallow guns, titanium sporks… guys seem to go nuts over these things.
For gals, earrings are a great buy (so long as no one is allergic to cheap earrings or doesn’t have pierced ears). Other accessories work well, too.
Here’s some stuff I specifically recommend:
http://fashion.thebargainqueen.com/2007/11/swarovski-crystal-hair-clip-995/
http://fashion.thebargainqueen.com/2007/11/swarovski-crystal-dangle-earrings-1299/
http://fashion.thebargainqueen.com/2007/11/kenneth-cole-leather-coin-purse-699/
Of course, many gifts are fairly unisex. For example, some of my friends and family members may be getting African violets : )
I have the perfect light for them in my foyer for growing violets and so my original plant not only divided into two equally huge plants, it has also provided me with lots of clippings as I’ve had to trim it back. I didn’t intend to propagate the plant, but I stuck the cut leaves in water for the heck of it and they rooted on their own.
Then I found self-water violet pots at Walmart for about $5 each. Yeah, I could make a cheaper self-watering pot, but these are so cute and make things so easy. All I’ve done to the violets is add waters about once a week. It’s been a few months since I first started them, but they’re starting to bloom.
Of course, I might have a hard time giving these beauties away!
Hmmm… I seem to have rambled on a bit here. I think I have my next post topic on The Bargain Queen ; )