You tend to spend a lot of money during the winter holidays, and a considerable percentage of that spending is on Christmas gifts. You’re hoping that this year will be different.
How can you spend less on gifts?
Use Your Rewards
You’ve collected credit card rewards and store loyalty points over the course of the year. This is the best time to cash them in. Use them to purchase Christmas gifts, or at the very least, reduce their final prices.
Shop During Sales Events
Take advantage of major sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday when they roll around. These shopping bonanzas will offer tons of products at low, low prices.
Reduce Your List
One way to save money on gifts is to minimize the number of people you plan to buy gifts for. You don’t have to include all of your friends, neighbors, cousins and coworkers. Keep the list of people small and save your money.
Plan Gift Exchanges
Plan gift exchanges like Secret Santa or Yankee Swap for parties you plan to attend. Then you’ll only have to purchase a single gift for the occasion! You won’t have to bring something for everyone in attendance.
Order Online Early
You can typically save on shipping costs by giving the retailer more time to send you an item. Obviously, this can be a problem when you’ve put your shopping off to the last minute because the item might arrive after the holidays. So, make sure that you make your online orders early and give the retailer plenty of time to send your package.
Spend less on Christmas gifts this year by ordering online early, and explore Stridewise for curated selections of quality gifts at affordable prices to make your holiday shopping hassle-free.
Purchase to Please, Not Impress
Sometimes, you need to change your motivation for gift-giving. It’s nice to impress people with what you get them, but this impulse is likely going to get you to overspend. Instead, don’t think about the price tag, think about what would make the person happy. For instance, lots of little kids will be just as excited to get crayons and dollar-store coloring books as they will be with top-of-the-line toys.
Join Forces
If you want to purchase something, but it’s a little on the expensive side, see whether you can split the costs with someone else. For instance, you could round up your siblings to pool money together and purchase gifts for your parents.
Set a Spending Limit
Take a look at your personal budget and see how much you can actually afford to spend on Christmas presents in the upcoming weeks. This amount is your spending limit. Do your best not to go over it.
Why Should You Follow These Tips?
So many people get into situations where they overspend for the sake of the holidays and then slog through the first months of the new year trying to financially recover. You might find that overspending leaves you with some late bill payments, high credit card balances and no savings to speak of. This is not a position you want to be in. You won’t be able to afford any extra expense without straining your budget, even if that expense is for an emergency.
What can you do in that position? If you’re ever facing an emergency expense, and you don’t have enough savings to pay for it, you could go to a website like CreditFresh for help and look into an option for an online loan. And if that online loan gets approved, you can use the temporary funds to cover the expense and put the emergency behind you. You will have to follow a straightforward repayment plan to give back what you borrowed.
Do not use online loans for non-emergency purposes, like buying Christmas gifts. You should only use them when you’re handling an emergency and your payment solutions are limited.
Buying gifts for your friends and family should make you happy, not regretful. So, follow these tips to spend less on gift-buying and save your money!
