Some Ways to Spend Less This Season (or Any)
It’s something that we all want to think about – spending less for the holiday. But for many people, thinking is as far as it goes. The most common concepts involve “Secret Santa’s” and gift pooling. And there is also making gifts. There really are a lot of ideas to save on spending for the season. Maybe this should be done every year (and throughout the year) in order to keep our sanity and a little cushion for “just in case.”
Here are a few brief ideas…
- Make gifts – these can be anything that you honestly think the recipient will appreciate, whether it’s putting together a gift basket of teas and sugars or hand-crafting a hope chest for a child.
- Gift pool – go together with someone in order to afford buying a gift that would be out of reach for either of you alone.
- Special certificates – NOT store gift certificates! These are certificates redeemable for your help in areas that the recipient would really appreciate and could help in the daily life of that person!
- Time – similar to the above, but not for chores or similar help. One of the best gifts I ever got was a card that was redeemed for one day of whatever I wanted from the giver, redeemable at any time. Of course I was good about not making her take a day off, but it was a great (and inexpensive) day spent together. That was very memorable!
- Trade – yes, trade. If you have something that you can trade with someone for another object that you know someone else would like, then do it!
I’m certain that there are many, many other ideas out there. Why not let me know some of yours?
To read more on this topic, see my article on suite101.com: Holiday Budgeting in Tough Times
Tags: budget gift ideas, frugal giving, gift savings, holiday gift giving, saving on gifts
