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Looking to do Christmas on a shoestring budget this year?
You’re not alone. Many households are looking at ways to reduce their expenses and one huge area of expenditure is the festive season.
It can be tempting to put Christmas on the credit card and worry about paying it off in the new year… but there are lots of ways you can reduce the cost of Christmas instead of accumulating debt.
Is it possible to have a good Christmas on a shoestring budget?
Absolutely!
Here are some ideas to help you trim the festive fat from your budget.
Table of Contents
Christmas on a Shoestring Budget – Preparation
Before you can look to reduce the cost of Christmas, it helps to know exactly what you’re likely to need to spend money on.
Getting prepared will:
- Give you a realistic budget to try to stick to.
- Limit the possibility of unexpected expenses.
- Help make the festive period stress-free.
- Stop overspending due to last minute purchases and poor planning.
Write a Gift List
Grab a notebook and make a list of everyone you intend to or normally buy for.
Include everyone from your children (who will probably have the most of money spent on them) to the school teacher you might buy a box of chocolates for.
Once you have your complete list, write an amount of money next to their name.
This will give you your gift giving budget – which you can tweak and make alterations to later if necessary.
It’s just to give you an overall idea of the total cost of Christmas
Dinner & Decor
Next make a list of all other things you might need to spend money on for the home.
Are you hosting Christmas Dinner? How much do you estimate that’ll cost.
Buying alcohol? Treats to enjoy in the lead up to Christmas?
Advent calendars? Christmas PJs? Stockings?
How are your decorations doing? Perhaps you have broken lights that need replacing.
Will you need to buy crackers for the table?
Try to think as broadly as possible to capture as many expenses as you can.
It doesn’t matter if your running total is scary at this point – it’s better to address it honestly.
We can work on reducing it later.
Festive Activities
Finally, it’s time to address your December calendar and account for all the festive activities you’re planning in the run up to Christmas.
Will you be having an office Christmas party? Do you need an outfit? How much money will you need to take?
What children’s activities do you have planned? Santa’s Grotto, Ice Skating.
Maybe you’ve booked a festive photo session?
Get as detailed as possible – if you’re attending a Christmas lights switch on event, what might you spend? Parking, hot drinks, food…
Again, your list might be adding up to an eye-watering amount of money… but forgetting to include all these costs will just add to your financial burden.
We want to encapsulate the total cost of Christmas so that we can take these lists line by line and reduce the associated expenditure.
Christmas on a Shoestring Budget – Gift Giving
So now you know exactly who you need to buy, here are some ideas to help bring the costs down.
Suggest Secret Santa
If you usually buy for work colleagues, members of your friendship circle or extended family individually, maybe you could suggest Secret Santa instead?
All the names of the people involved are drawn secretly and distributed among the group – meaning people only know the person they are buying for and not who is buying for them or anyone else.
This will vastly reduce the number of people you need to buy for.
You could also agree to set a limit for spending – e.g. £10
Not only will this save the money you would’ve spent on buying individual presents, you can now spend less on the one present you will be purchasing without feeling guilty as you know you’ll be receiving an item of the same value in return.
Secret Santa can actually be a really fun activity – having a budget encourages you to be more creative with your gift giving, you can make a social event of the gift exchange and it’s fun trying to work out who had who.
Only buy for the kids
If the adults in your family or friend group all have kids, perhaps you could suggest that you just buy them presents instead of buying for the grown ups too.
Kids are much easier (and cheaper) to buy for and again, it reduces the number of people you need to buy for thus reducing the amount of money you need to spend.
Buy Secondhand
Buying secondhand, doesn’t mean buying something tatty or of lesser quality.
In fact, if you can often find brand new and unused items for a fraction of the cost.
Look at online marketplaces such as Vinted and Ebay – you can even filter search results by ‘new condition’ if you want to.
But also, don’t disregard used items as gifts.
Children will not know whether something is brand new or not – nor will they care. You can save huge amounts off the RRP by buying something used.
Facebook Marketplace and Charity Shops are great places to find secondhand toys at bargain prices – all you need to do is give them a clean.
Christmas on a Shoestring Budget – Food & Decorations
The next largest expense after gift giving is probably food and decorations, so here are some ideas to help you reduce these expenses.
Bring a Plate
If you’re hosting dinner this year, ask other family members to bring a plate.
It doesn’t have to cost them a lot of money – they’ll probably be grateful that they don’t have to host.
But maybe your sister could organise a starter, mum and dad could be in charge of desserts, your brother could bring the fizz…
And if you’re going to someone else’s perhaps you could suggest that you take charge of something to ease the burden on them – they’ll probably be appreciative and return the favour when it’s your turn in the future.
Buy Non-Perishables in Advance
Many supermarkets already have Christmas confectionary out and there have been some really good deals.
These prices are likely to go up in the run up to Christmas, so add a couple of treats to your normal shop each week so you don’t notice the spend so much.
You could buy chocolates, crackers, snacks, drinks etc (just check the dates on anything you’re not sure will last).
Just remember to stash them somewhere where other members of the household won’t find them! Otherwise you’ll end up spending double!
Make Your Own
Rustic decor is very on trend and the great thing about that is you can pull the look off on a shoestring budget!
Head to a park or nearby forest and collect pinecones, holly, fallen branches etc – not only does this save you money but it’s a great activity to get the kids involved in.
You can make your own table centrepieces, festive garlands, tree decorations.
Hit up Pinterest for inspiration.
Christmas on a Shoestring Budget – Festive Activities
It can be tempting to go all out and stuff your calendar full of social activities but doing so not only creates a great deal of stress for you, it puts a huge amount of pressure on your wallet.
Instead limit the number of paid activities in favour of free activities. Here are some ideas:
Christmas Lights Hunt
Wrap the family up warm and go for a walk around your neighbourhood and spot festive displays.
If the weather isn’t the best, jump in the car and do it instead.
Take a flask of hot chocolate, put some festive tunes on the radio and enjoy a free activity to get you into the Christmas spirit.
Have a Christmas Movie Marathon
Let each member of the household choose their favourite film, make up some treats and watch it together as a family.
You don’t have to watch them all in one night – maybe take turns to choose across a few evenings.
It’s a lovely way to spend time together without leaving the house and spending money.
Other Tips to Keep Costs Down
These tips are not just limited to Christmas, but whenever you need to spend some money:
- Look for Cashback*.
- Search for discount codes.
- Use an app like Idealo or PriceRunner to get price alerts on specific items you intend to buy.
- Use grocery cashback apps like Shopmium (Download the app and enter my code [j8is74] to get you going) and Checkout Smart to stock up on treats and alcohol.
Summary
So we’ve covered lots of ways you can enjoy Christmas on a shoestring budget – from savvy shopping to getting crafty.
But you could also ease the financial burden of the festive season by making some extra money – there’s still plenty of time to get started!
Here are some posts with ideas to help you hustle some extra income: