This Christmas I'm Not Buying Any....

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...Christmas Craft Materials

I've already got enough yarn, fabric, card-making supplies and other Christmas craft materials to last me for at least 3 years, if not longer. So, I've decided I won't buy any new materials for my Christmas projects this year. I'll use up as many of my materials as I can.

...Christmas Gift Tags

I've made my own Christmas gift tags for the past few years and have already made more than enough for this year by upcycling Christmas cards.

...Christmas Cards (well, except for 2)

My Christmas cards are either hand-made or selected from a box of unused Christmas cards that I've bought in recent years. I also send Christmas e-cards.

This year, I bought just 2 new Christmas cards, which expressed the exact sentiments I wanted to send to the recipients.

Last year, I didn't buy any Christmas Decorations

I decided that we'd make do with the decorations we already had. This year, I've bought a few cute hand-crafted decorations from small local businesses.

Reasons to Decide Not to Buy Something This Christmas

1. It stops you from wasting money on things you don't really need. If you've set an intention not to buy anything from a certain category of Christmas items, you'll make do with what you already have and be able to spend more of your budget in other areas, such as food and presents.
2. It helps put the brakes on when you're tempted to get carried away by the Christmas atmosphere and spend money on things that look nice.
3. It encourages you to be mindful when shopping and think twice before buying something.
4. It enables you to be grateful for what you already have and make good use of everything that's already stored in your home.
5. It reduces the clutter in your home and you'll need less storage space to store your Christmas items once January has arrived.

Do you decide not to buy items in certain categories? Do you have any tips or tricks for not buying Christmas trappings you don't really need?

Plan Ahead for a Happy and Affordable Christmas

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It's very easy to overspend in the run-up to Christmas. Almost everyone spends money on new Christmas decorations or other items they don't really need. 

The good news is that, with a little careful planning and preparation, you can reduce unnecessary spending and still enjoy a great festive season.

Find Christmas Items You Already Have 

Before you do anything else, hunt through all your closets and search your basement, garage and any other storage places in your home. 

Take out everything that relates to Christmas and put it one place. You may find that you have some or all of the following:

• Christmas decorations
• Artificial Christmas trees
• Christmas cards
• Christmas wrapping paper, tags, ribbon, scotch tape and other gift wrapping essentials
• Christmas crackers (bon-bons)
• Unwanted Christmas gifts.

Make the Most of What You Have

Look at each item and decide whether you will:

• Use it in its current state
• Adapt it and use it, or:
• Give or throw it away

Don't be too quick to decide to give or throw things away. 

There are many ways to adapt items you already have. For example, if you no longer like the Christmas cards you bought last year, why not cut out individual designs from each card and use them to make gift tags, handmade Christmas cards or wrapping paper?

If old Christmas crackers (bon-bons) look out of date, you can dismantle them, cut out the Christmas designs and take out the toys, jokes and paper hats. Use the toys as small stocking fillers. Paste the jokes onto small pieces of card and add Christmas stickers to make a fun Christmas gift tag.

Cut up the paper hats and use the brightly-colored paper to make other Christmas items. You could, for instance, use them in your Christmas card making activities. One idea is to cut a green paper hat into fairly small rectangles, scrunch up the pieces and stick them within the outline of a Christmas tree drawn on a blank card.

Uncover Unwanted Gifts

If you find any unwanted Christmas gifts from previous years around your home, consider passing them on this year. If you're uncomfortable with doing this, sell them on eBay or at a local sale and use the money raised to buy new gifts.    

Hunt for Seasonal Groceries

In the kitchen, go through all your cupboards and take out anything you can use during the festive season, including:

• foil
• greaseproof paper/baking parchment
• herbs and spices
• canned food. 

You may be amazed at how many canned foods you have that can be put to good use over the Christmas period with a little imagination! Put all the items you've collected into one special Christmas store cupboard.

Next, seek out all the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks you have available to use over the festive season. Include wine, beer, spirits, mixers, cordials, sodas and any other drinks that you might have. Put these in a separate storage place.

Write a Christmas List

Once you've sorted everything out and got rid of any unwanted items, you're ready to start writing your Christmas list. 

Make a list of everything you don't have and will need to buy for this year’s festive season. Break your list into categories, including:

• Christmas gifts
• Christmas cards
• Christmas wrapping paper, tags, tape and other wrapping essentials
• Christmas tree
• Christmas decorations
• Food
• Drink.

It's a good idea to write and save your list on your laptop or smartphone. Next year, you can just update this year's list.

Set a Budget

Set a budget, either for each item, or a total budget for spending on each category on your list.

Go Shopping

Start shopping once you've finished your list, but try not to be enticed by the lovely displays in the stores and buy more than is on your list. 

Try and keep to your budget when you're shopping and don't get carried away by the Christmas atmosphere! 

A good way of keeping to your budget is to do a lot of your Christmas shopping online. That way, you're less likely to make impulse purchases and overspend.

Enjoy a Happy and Affordable Christmas!

Planning ahead for Christmas will help you make the most of the festive season without overspending. Christmas is much more enjoyable if you don't have to worry about paying for it in the New Year.

Do you have any other money-saving ways of planning ahead for Christmas? 

To Do List for the Week Before Christmas

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It's less than four days before Christmas! Here's my to-do list for the next few days:

• Post remaining Christmas cards today (it's the last posting day to ensure delivery before Christmas in the UK for first class post). - DONE!
• Return library books and choose some more to borrow over the Christmas holiday. - DONE!
• Buy the last few presents for my children. - DONE!
• Check to see if I'll have enough wrapping paper and sellotape. If not, I'll need to buy some more.- DONE!
• Wrap presents for immediate family (I've already wrapped and sent the others). - Need to finish today (Christmas Eve).
• Do the final Christmas grocery shop, remembering to buy such things as foil, washing up liquid, and long life milk so we don't run out while the shops are shut! - DONE!
• Buy ingredients for a Christmas roulade my daughter and I are baking.- DONE!
• Donate a bag of items we no longer want or need to the charity shop (thrift store). - DONE!
• Take glass jars and bottles to the glass recycling bank. - DONE!

I feel like I've been quite well organized this year, but, as you can see, there are still several things to do before the big day arrives!

What's still on your Christmas to-do list?

Half-Price eBook on Planning a Happy Family Christmas Without Going Into Debt - One Day Only!

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That's why I've halved the price of my eBook, 'Spend Less Enjoy Christmas More' on Amazon.co.uk to just 99p for 24 hours only from 8am GMT on Sunday 13th December until 8am GMT on Monday 14th December. Sunday is the ideal time to slow down a little, read, and plan for the next ten days before Christmas.

If you've subscribed to Kindleunlimited, you get the eBook for free.

I hope my eBook inspires you to spend less money and enjoy Christmas more than ever. I'd love to know what you think of it. Please leave a comment here or write a review on Amazon.

Wishing you all a fantastic Christmas!

Spend Less, Enjoy Christmas More Kindle eBook for Just $0.99 - One Day Only!

Get a head start on planning a fun, family Christmas without spending a fortune by downloading the Spend Less, Enjoy Christmas More Kindle eBook for just $0.99 on Amazon.com from 8pm PST today (Friday, 20 November) until 8pm PST tomorrow (Saturday 21 November).

Don't worry if you're reading this on Saturday evening or Sunday. The eBook is still discounted to $1.99 until 8pm PST on Sunday, 22 November, when it will revert to its original price of $2.99.

The eBook is filled with lots of tips and suggestions for planning a fun yet frugal family Christmas!

I would very much appreciate it if you could let me know what you think of the eBook by writing a review on Amazon and/or leaving a comment on this blog. Thank you!

If, after reading the eBook, you have any questions or suggestions for things that you'd like me to cover on this blog, please post them in the comments.

I hope Spend Less, Enjoy Christmas More inspires you to plan your best Christmas yet!

 

3 Christmas Lists You Should Be Making Now!

Time is ticking away...it's now just 41 days to Christmas! If you haven't already done so, it's time to write or update these three lists.

Christmas Present List

Write a list of each person you'll be buying Christmas presents for this year. Add the budget for each person's present or, if you prefer, a total budget for Christmas presents. If you know what you'll buy for someone or if you have some ideas, write those on your list, too. Remember to take your list with you when you go shopping and update it with the gifts you've bought and their cost after every shopping trip.

If you usually give your family and friends a wish list of items you'd like for Christmas, don't delay, write your list today! The longer they have to shop for your presents, the more likely it is that they'll buy you want you really want!

Christmas Card List

If you write a list of the people you send Christmas cards to each year, you just need to pull out last year's list and update it.

Put the people who live abroad at the top of the list because you'll need to make sure you send their cards before the Christmas mailing deadlines. Find out what the deadline is for each country and write it next to the person's name on your list.

Consider sending Christmas e-cards to some people on your list. This reduces the amount of paper used at Christmas and means that you spend less on stamps. In addition, you can send a Christmas e-card to anyone in the world as late as Christmas Eve.

Although I'm aware of their advantages, only about a quarter of the Christmas cards I send are e-cards. I enjoy making Christmas cards so I like to send as many handmade cards as possible. I also think that it's still nice to receive a 'surprise' card in the mail but I do understand the convenience of e-cards and I'm happy to receive them.

Christmas Food and Drink List

Decide on a menu for each Christmas meal that you'll be eating at home. If you'll have guests for a particular meal, make a note of how many people you'll need to cater for. Look through magazines and cook books and search the Internet for recipes and ideas.

Once you've decided on the menu, write a list of all the ingredients you'll need, together with all the extra items, such as:

• Sauces, such as cranberry sauce, apple sauce, and mint sauce.
• Cooking foil.
• Baking Paper.
• Snacks.
• Drinks.

When the list is complete, decide which items you can buy in advance. These could include tinned food, packaged items with a long use-by date, and alcoholic drinks. Buy a few items each week to reduce the cost of your last grocery shop before Christmas.

If you take a little time to get organized for Christmas in November, your Christmas preparations will run much more smoothly in December. So, make those lists now!!!  

Make Your Own Christmas Pom Pom Garland Decoration

There are many Christmas decorations you can make yourself. If you have lots of small odds and ends of yarn at home, making a Christmas pom pom garland is a fun way to use them up!

I found an easy-to-follow tutorial on making a Christmas pom pom garland. If you didn't want to make the pom poms using card, you could buy an inexpensive pom pom maker on eBay.

The great thing is that you can use a variety of different colors of yarn to make your Christmas pom pom garland. You could use white to give the impression of snow and snowflakes:

Source: A Beautiful Mess

Or, you could use more traditional Christmas colors of red, green and white:

Source: And So We Craft

Whatever colors you choose, you could use your Christmas pom pom garland in a variety of ways to decorate your home this Christmas, including:

• hanging it above the fireplace.
• hanging it on the wall.
• displaying it in a large bowl with baubles and other Christmas decorations.
• hanging it on your Christmas tree instead of or as well as tinsel.

Making your own Christmas pom pom garland is a budget-friendly way of preparing for Christmas. You can use up materials you already have and enjoy being creative. How about challenging yourself to reuse and make as many Christmas decorations as possible so you won't need to buy any new ones this year?

5 Easy Ways to Save Money on Christmas

Do you always spend more than you intended to on Christmas? If so, you're not alone! Here are five easy ways to save money on Christmas.

Start Shopping for Christmas Gifts as Early as Possible

Don't wait until December to start your Christmas gift shopping. By then, all the good quality, reasonably-priced products will have been sold and the stores will be filled with expensive, over-priced gifts.

If possible, shop for Christmas gifts throughout the year. Whenever you see a great gift for someone you love, purchase it immediately, if funds allow. At home, wrap it up, add a gift tag and put it in a dedicated cupboard or 'hiding place'.

If you haven't yet started Christmas gift shopping this year, start now! There are still many sales and good deals to be found in October and early November.

Spread the Cost of Food and Drink

The last grocery shop before Christmas is always expensive. In order to reduce its cost, start buying 2 or 3 extra non-perishable items each week. Store them in a separate cupboard and, by the time Christmas rolls around, all you'll need to shop for are meat, vegetables and other fresh items.

Just think - there are 12 weeks from now until Christmas week. If you added just 2 extra items for Christmas to each of your weekly grocery shops, you'd have 24 items ready for Christmas. If each item costs £2 on average, your final Christmas shop would be reduced by £48!

Make Use of What You Already Have

Most of us have lots of Christmas items tucked away in the loft, attic, garage or other storage places. However, instead of getting these items out and deciding what we can re-use this year, it's all too easy to just buy new.


Challenge yourself to find all the Christmas-related items you have in your home and see how many you can use this year. Don't buy anything new until you're convinced that you haven't already got a similar item hiding somewhere in your home!

You might also have food and drink that you can use at Christmas. Look through your kitchen cupboards and freezer to see what you can find. 

Make Things For Christmas

You can make many things for Christmas yourself, including decorations, Christmas cards, gift tags and wrapping paper.

You can even make some Christmas presents yourself. You don't have to be very good at making things to create unique personalized gifts. Some ideas are given in the Spend Less, Enjoy Christmas More eBook.

If you enjoy baking, you can make a Christmas cake, Christmas biscuits (cookies), gingerbread, mince pies and many other Christmas treats.


Send Christmas e-cards

Christmas e-cards have become an increasingly popular alternative to sending traditional Christmas cards through the post in recent years. Consider sending Christmas e-cards to at least some of the people on your Christmas card list.

You'll save money on Christmas cards and stamps and the environment will benefit (even recycling Christmas cards uses a lot of energy).  You also won't need to stress about last posting dates because you can send an e-card to anyone in the world as late as Christmas Eve!

Christmas doesn't have to be incredibly expensive! Do you have a favourite way of reducing the cost of Christmas?




  

A Way of Christmas Gift Shopping Throughout the Year

Buy each person on your Christmas present list an extra present when you buy them a birthday present. This is one way of doing your Christmas shopping throughout the year without really noticing it.

If you're already looking for gifts for a certain person, you're likely to find at least 2 or 3 things they'd like. Instead of buying just one for their birthday, why not buy two gifts, give one for their birthday and save the other one for Christmas?

The advantages of doing this are:

• It spreads the cost of Christmas shopping over the whole year.
• A better selection of products are usually available outside the Christmas rush period when lots of things have sold out.
• You can buy presents in sales that are held throughout the year. 
• It saves time - you only shop for presents for each person once during the year.

 The disadvantages I can think of are:

• It's not possible to do this for your children because they usually receive a number of gifts on both their birthdays and at Christmas (!)
• If you're shopping for a particular person's birthday gift in a month when you're short of cash, your budget probably won't stretch to buying another present. However, you could always look for a gift they'd like and buy it as soon as your funds allow.
• If you know a lot of people with birthdays in the same month, it might not be financially viable to buy them all 2 presents.

I can't remember where I first heard this way of getting most, if not all, of your Christmas gift shopping done before December rolls around but I do think it's a good idea. I don't always buy extra birthday presents and save them for Christmas but sometimes I do. If I do, I'm always glad that I have because it saves time and money in the run-up to Christmas.

Starting Christmas Gift Shopping in September!

I have a confession to make. Although in my ebook I advocate starting to shop for Christmas presents as early in the year as possible (perhaps even in January), I don't usually start buying Christmas gifts until October.

This year, it's different! I saw a book that I know my daughter would love and bought it today! So, I've turned over a new leaf and started my Christmas gift shopping in September!

As an added bonus, the book was reduced from £7.99 to £4, so I saved £3.99. That definitely wouldn't be possible nearer Christmas when all the prices are high. There are quite a few sales on at the moment, so it's a good time to look around and buy more Christmas presents.

If I bought one or two more presents a week starting today, I could finish my Christmas gift shopping by November! Then, I'd have more time for baking and other Christmas preparations.

How about you? When do you start shopping for Christmas gifts? Do you spread the cost over several months? 

5 Reasons to Make Your Own Christmas Gift Tags

Here are 5 reasons why you should make your own Christmas gift tags:

• It's easy! The whole family can join in! Someone can cut out images from old Christmas cards, someone else can punch holes and a third person can thread through ribbons. You could set up your own production line!
• It's free - if you use materials you already have.
• It's environment-friendly. Even if you send your old Christmas cards for recycling, energy will still be used to convert them into new paper products.
• It saves money - you won't need to buy packs of gift tags this Christmas.
• It's fun! It allows you to spend quality time together as a family. It's a creative and relaxing activity that keeps your children away from their screens! 

Starting Christmas Preparations in August!

Re-Use Old Christmas Cards - Make Them Into Gift Tags

When do you begin preparing for Christmas? I usually do one or two small things in August. Some years I make a few Christmas cards. This year I spent a rainy August afternoon making a collection of gift tags from old Christmas cards. They were simple and enjoyable to make.

You'll need:

• Christmas cards that you received in previous years and would normally recycle
• A hole punch
• Ribbon, thread, wool, etc in a variety of colours
• Scissors

1. Look at each card and cut out one or more images that would be suitable for a gift tag. You could, for example, choose an image of a Christmas tree; an inscription such as "Season's Greetings" or anything else that takes your fancy. Ensure the back of each image is blank, so that you'll be able to write a message.
2. Once you have a stack of cut-out images, punch a hole in the top of each one using a hole punch.
3. Choose ribbon, thread or wool in a colour that goes well with the gift tag image. 
4. Cut off a length of ribbon or thread. Fold it in half, forming a loop in the middle.
5. Thread the loop through the hole in the top of the gift tag. Pull both ends of the ribbon or thread through the loop. 
6. Pull to secure the ribbon or thread to the gift tag. 

It's as easy as that! Do you make your own Christmas gift tags? If so, do you recycle old Christmas cards or do you use another method?