The average American family spends $749.51 on Christmas gifts. That’s a painful amount – it’s approximately 2% of the annual take-home income of an American family.
As I’m writing this, Christmas is five months away. For me, that means it’s time to start planning.
After all, if you know an event is coming in the next six
months that will slurp down 2% of your family’s take-home money, you
should start planning for it now rather than later.
That’s right. My family has already started planning for Christmas
in several different ways. While we expect the holiday to have a
noticeable impact on our annual finances (after all, we do have
children), we’ve learned over the years that if we start planning really early for Christmas, the holiday season is a lot less stressful and a lot cheaper.
Here are some of the things we’re already working on.
to have to buy for during next year’s holiday season – children,
parents, siblings, and so on. This way, as I have a chance to see these
people during the year, I can use those meetings to get an idea of the
things they like. What are they interested in? What are their favorite
foods? Are they particularly passionate about a charity?
I record info like this on my Christmas list (which I keep in Evernote
so I can access it on my phone wherever I’m at). By the middle of the
year, my goal is to have at least a few interests jotted down for each
person and, ideally, have translated those interests into at least a few
specific gift ideas for each person.
How do I make that translation happen? I set up a price target for
each person – say, $20. I then look for items that are fairly close to
that price target in terms of suggested retail price. I’ll perhaps
write down a $25 item if it’s perfect, but I’ll mostly stick to $20 or
so MSRP items.
This takes some brainstorming, so I don’t do it all in one day. I
usually do a bit of homework on each person, too, by checking out their
Facebook page and other things about them online.
and perhaps five for each of my children. I know specifically what I
want to get for them. Now what?
At that point, I have this giant list of items for which I’m looking
for sales. I’m not particularly time-crunched here – I’m patient with
it.
One thing I do is put all of the items that Amazon sells into CamelCamelCamel.com. That site sends you alerts when items you’ve listed go on sale. I’ll go to that site and put everything from my list on there, including variations of each item. Right now, I have a lot of alerts set up and I get one every few days or so.
For the first several months, I mostly look for the huge deals. I’ll
find items that are $20 to $25 marked down to $8, so I’ll pick one up.
I know a nice item that my son wants for Christmas that has an MSRP of
$100, but I’ll find a deal for it for $39.95. That item goes in the
closet.
As Christmas approaches, I slowly inch back on my threshold for what I
need for a good sale. By the time November or December rolls around,
pretty much any sale is good enough.
When I find the right item for someone, I just cross off all of their
ideas from my shopping list. Finding one item usually eliminates two
or three others.
At Christmas, almost every item we give as a gift is a sale-priced item. I don’t feel bad about this at all because I’ve put in effort finding those sales.
members. These gifts are usually all about the effort rather than the
expense, so we’ll invest quite a few hours into making gifts but the
actual components aren’t all that expensive – especially since we
usually buy them on sale.
In 2010, I actually did a series of posts
on our homemade gifts that year (we went a little overboard on them
that year, for the sake of making posts). I wrote individual posts on
several homemade gift ideas:
Vanilla extract
was made by buying a large bottle of low-cost vodka and soaking vanilla
beans in them. We found a great price on a big pile of vanilla beans
as well as a bunch of small bottles to put the finished extract into and
the giant bottle of vodka was cheap, too. We made custom labels and
gave the small bottles of extract away as gifts to people who like to
bake or like to put a bit in their coffee.
Homemade soap
is actually easier than you might think, though it does require some
serious attention to safety while you’re making it (as you don’t want to
get lye on your skin). If you’re making a lot of bars at once, the
price per bar gets pretty low.
Caramel apple jam let us turn some of our extra apples (we had a ton that year) into a delicious treat that makes an amazing toast topping. If you have a bunch of apples, this is really inexpensive, too.
Homemade beer
wasn’t particularly cheap – it was more expensive than cheap mainstream
beers, but less expensive per bottle than craft beer. It was still a
huge hit and more personal than just buying a six pack of craft beer for
the beer lover on your list.
Wine jelly
allowed us to convert a couple of bottles of wine that were just
sitting in our wine rack into another delicious treat, a more tart
spread than our caramel apple jam.
Meals in a jar
were perfect for making simple soup kits and sharing them in a tasteful
fashion. Since we made several jars of the same type of soup kit at
once, we were able to buy the ingredients in bulk, bringing the price
low.
Crocheted hats and scarves
converted a bundle of yarn into cute items of clothing (which our
daughter modeled for us). It mostly just took the addition of time and a
bit of skill.
Our personalized cards and stationery
were my favorite gift. All it took was a pile of blank cards, some
cheap photo prints, and some construction paper to make some beautiful
and memorable stationery.
Handmade ornaments are perfect gifts for family members and make a simple addition to another gift. They’re extremely cheap to make, too.
Homemade cookies are always a nice treat, and if you wrap them in cellophane and tie them with a ribbon, they can look really classy, too.
Finally, our handmade wooden photo cubes were an enormous hit with our parents. They’re still in use and on display in our parents’ homes to this day.
These are just some of the homemade gifts you can make for your family and friends. The key ingredient, as always, is time and care
– the cost of many of these gifts is quite low. If you’re going to try
to make some of these, now is the time to start so that you’re not
crunched with another big project in November and December.
other seasonal material a few days after the previous Christmas when
everything is on sale at the department stores. They’re often trying to
get rid of paper as fast as they can, so they’ll mark it down at rates
like 75% off, at which point we’ll buy a few jumbo rolls of paper and
store them in our Christmas supply storage area under the stairs.
It never hurts to have this list ready and waiting. Items on our
list include wrapping paper, gift tags, ribbons, and Christmas lights.
What I do is add an event to my electronic calendar for December 28th
entitled “Post-Christmas shopping” that includes my prepared list. That
event sends an email reminder to me that includes the shopping list.
That way, it just pops up in my calendar and email inbox on the right
day.
planning and it’s worked well each year. In 2013, I kept very careful
track of our expenses and noted the suggested retail price for items
versus what we actually paid. We saved just shy of 55% on our total
Christmas budget using these techniques – no joke.
Yes, it took more time, but by spreading out that time throughout the
year, it didn’t feel like much of a time crunch at all. One hour a
month feels like far less of a crunch than 12 hours in December, plus
you have a much greater chance to find items on deep discount.
As I’m writing this, Christmas is five months away. For me, that means it’s time to start planning.
After all, if you know an event is coming in the next six
months that will slurp down 2% of your family’s take-home money, you
should start planning for it now rather than later.
That’s right. My family has already started planning for Christmas in several different ways. While we expect the holiday to have a
noticeable impact on our annual finances (after all, we do have
children), we’ve learned over the years that if we start planning really early for Christmas, the holiday season is a lot less stressful and a lot cheaper.
Here are some of the things we’re already working on.
We assemble our Christmas list at the end of the previous year and shop all year long.
I start this off by making a list of every person we know we’re goingto have to buy for during next year’s holiday season – children,
parents, siblings, and so on. This way, as I have a chance to see these
people during the year, I can use those meetings to get an idea of the
things they like. What are they interested in? What are their favorite
foods? Are they particularly passionate about a charity?
I record info like this on my Christmas list (which I keep in Evernote
so I can access it on my phone wherever I’m at). By the middle of the
year, my goal is to have at least a few interests jotted down for each
person and, ideally, have translated those interests into at least a few
specific gift ideas for each person.
How do I make that translation happen? I set up a price target for
each person – say, $20. I then look for items that are fairly close to
that price target in terms of suggested retail price. I’ll perhaps
write down a $25 item if it’s perfect, but I’ll mostly stick to $20 or
so MSRP items.
This takes some brainstorming, so I don’t do it all in one day. I
usually do a bit of homework on each person, too, by checking out their
Facebook page and other things about them online.
We use that item list for targeted sale shopping throughout the year.
Let’s say I’ve come up with three gift ideas for everyone on my listand perhaps five for each of my children. I know specifically what I
want to get for them. Now what?
At that point, I have this giant list of items for which I’m looking
for sales. I’m not particularly time-crunched here – I’m patient with
it.
One thing I do is put all of the items that Amazon sells into CamelCamelCamel.com. That site sends you alerts when items you’ve listed go on sale. I’ll go to that site and put everything from my list on there, including variations of each item. Right now, I have a lot of alerts set up and I get one every few days or so.
For the first several months, I mostly look for the huge deals. I’ll
find items that are $20 to $25 marked down to $8, so I’ll pick one up.
I know a nice item that my son wants for Christmas that has an MSRP of
$100, but I’ll find a deal for it for $39.95. That item goes in the
closet.
As Christmas approaches, I slowly inch back on my threshold for what I
need for a good sale. By the time November or December rolls around,
pretty much any sale is good enough.
When I find the right item for someone, I just cross off all of their
ideas from my shopping list. Finding one item usually eliminates two
or three others.
At Christmas, almost every item we give as a gift is a sale-priced item. I don’t feel bad about this at all because I’ve put in effort finding those sales.
We make some of our gifts – and we start early.
Each year, Sarah and I make a few gifts for our friends and familymembers. These gifts are usually all about the effort rather than the
expense, so we’ll invest quite a few hours into making gifts but the
actual components aren’t all that expensive – especially since we
usually buy them on sale.
In 2010, I actually did a series of posts
on our homemade gifts that year (we went a little overboard on them
that year, for the sake of making posts). I wrote individual posts on
several homemade gift ideas:
Vanilla extract
was made by buying a large bottle of low-cost vodka and soaking vanilla
beans in them. We found a great price on a big pile of vanilla beans
as well as a bunch of small bottles to put the finished extract into and
the giant bottle of vodka was cheap, too. We made custom labels and
gave the small bottles of extract away as gifts to people who like to
bake or like to put a bit in their coffee.
Homemade soap
is actually easier than you might think, though it does require some
serious attention to safety while you’re making it (as you don’t want to
get lye on your skin). If you’re making a lot of bars at once, the
price per bar gets pretty low.
Caramel apple jam let us turn some of our extra apples (we had a ton that year) into a delicious treat that makes an amazing toast topping. If you have a bunch of apples, this is really inexpensive, too.
Homemade beer
wasn’t particularly cheap – it was more expensive than cheap mainstream
beers, but less expensive per bottle than craft beer. It was still a
huge hit and more personal than just buying a six pack of craft beer for
the beer lover on your list.
Wine jelly
allowed us to convert a couple of bottles of wine that were just
sitting in our wine rack into another delicious treat, a more tart
spread than our caramel apple jam.
Meals in a jar
were perfect for making simple soup kits and sharing them in a tasteful
fashion. Since we made several jars of the same type of soup kit at
once, we were able to buy the ingredients in bulk, bringing the price
low.
Crocheted hats and scarves
converted a bundle of yarn into cute items of clothing (which our
daughter modeled for us). It mostly just took the addition of time and a
bit of skill.
Our personalized cards and stationery
were my favorite gift. All it took was a pile of blank cards, some
cheap photo prints, and some construction paper to make some beautiful
and memorable stationery.
Handmade ornaments are perfect gifts for family members and make a simple addition to another gift. They’re extremely cheap to make, too.
Homemade cookies are always a nice treat, and if you wrap them in cellophane and tie them with a ribbon, they can look really classy, too.
Finally, our handmade wooden photo cubes were an enormous hit with our parents. They’re still in use and on display in our parents’ homes to this day.
These are just some of the homemade gifts you can make for your family and friends. The key ingredient, as always, is time and care
– the cost of many of these gifts is quite low. If you’re going to try
to make some of these, now is the time to start so that you’re not
crunched with another big project in November and December.
We have a standard post-Christmas shopping list.
Typically, we buy all of our wrapping paper, Christmas lights, andother seasonal material a few days after the previous Christmas when
everything is on sale at the department stores. They’re often trying to
get rid of paper as fast as they can, so they’ll mark it down at rates
like 75% off, at which point we’ll buy a few jumbo rolls of paper and
store them in our Christmas supply storage area under the stairs.
It never hurts to have this list ready and waiting. Items on our
list include wrapping paper, gift tags, ribbons, and Christmas lights.
What I do is add an event to my electronic calendar for December 28th
entitled “Post-Christmas shopping” that includes my prepared list. That
event sends an email reminder to me that includes the shopping list.
That way, it just pops up in my calendar and email inbox on the right
day.
The end result?
This is the process we’ve followed since 2011 for our Christmasplanning and it’s worked well each year. In 2013, I kept very careful
track of our expenses and noted the suggested retail price for items
versus what we actually paid. We saved just shy of 55% on our total
Christmas budget using these techniques – no joke.
Yes, it took more time, but by spreading out that time throughout the
year, it didn’t feel like much of a time crunch at all. One hour a
month feels like far less of a crunch than 12 hours in December, plus
you have a much greater chance to find items on deep discount.
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