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Christmas On a Budget

The festive season is upon us, decorations are up, and supermarkets are packed full of all kinds of delicious Christmas goods. This is the perfect time of the year to see family and friends, enjoy cozy evenings in and get ready to celebrate Christmas. 

Preparing for this festive period can be a great deal of fun, but can also involve a great deal of expense for most of us. The costs surrounding this one day can be incredibly high, when you factor in the price of gifts, decorations, Christmas dinner, and drinks, as well as more practical things that you might not have thought about, such as the energy consumed during this time period.

There are many ways to enjoy the holidays on a budget, whether you have set aside some money for this time of year, or you are going to use a credit card to help get you through some of the necessary costs of this period, it is imperative that you stay on top of everything beforehand, sorting through your finances or setting up and going through your card activation process in advance, so that you are able to focus on some of the best parts of this holiday. Listed below are some fun ways that you can enjoy this Christmas period without breaking the bank.

Decorations

Make sure that you are reusing decorations, and not buying new decorations each Christmas. As well as saving money and the stress of buying a completely new set of decorations, this is also an environmentally friendly way of enjoying Christmas. If you already have a fake Christmas tree, do keep using it as the process of manufacturing requires a lot of energy and the material used is generally not biodegradable. If you prefer to have a real Christmas tree, make sure that you get a tree that is sustainably sourced. Alternatively, you can rent a christmas tree or even grow your own tree- it doesn’t have to be a traditional Christmas tree either, find whatever small tree or plant that you like and decorate it to your taste for an alternative Christmas!

Avoiding plastic decorations has often meant having to go for expensive options, either wood or glass. However, you can make your own decorations by going to a wood, forest, or even park near you and finding pine cones, bits of wood, twine, and certain leaves and plants to create beautiful seasonal decorations. 

If you want to create your own artisanal decorations and need some inspiration, have a look at Pinterest or Instagram, as well as YouTube ‘how to’ tutorials.

Home-made Gifts

With the popularity of sites such as Etsy, Pinterest and Depop, second hand or home-made gifts have soared in popularity over the last several years. What is vintage apart from glorified second hand?! With the popularity of repurposed goods, vintage clothing and games, it has become a nice way to gift someone something that has a little bit of character. Making your own gifts is an especially nice way of showing someone that you took the time to create something for them. You don’t have to be incredibly handy or artistic to make something special for someone. This can be as simple as a nicely framed photo, or if you are a good cook, you can use this skill to bake someone something special. If it’s wrapped up nicely and comes with a heartfelt card, it will be much more touching to receive than any other store-bought gift.

Making Present Giving Fun

Secret Santa can be a way to bypass the expensive business of having to give a gift to every single person in your family or your friends. While it is nice to be able to give the people closest to you a token of your appreciation, they wouldn’t want you to put yourself out, and would most likely be happy to join in with a game of secret Santa. This means that you would only have to buy a gift for one person each time, making it an affordable way to include everyone in the joy of receiving, and giving, a gift.

There are many other Christmas traditions that you can begin with your family or friends, one game that is essentially a variety of Secret Santa and is a special favorite with children.

This game requires everyone involved to bring one present with each participant receiving a number, if there are ten participants, for example, there would be ten numbers. Starting with number one, each player chooses a gift from the middle but can also ‘steal’ a gift from someone else in the circle, who then has to take another gift or ‘steal’ a gift from someone else. 

As you can imagine, this game can be lots of fun and makes the giving of gifts an enjoyable and thrifty experience.

Christmas Dinner and How to Budget

Don’t buy all the ingredients for your Christmas dinner from one place. Shop around in order to find the best deals. Additionally, many supermarkets drastically cut prices the evening before Christmas. So it may be worth going for a look around the supermarket the evening before, maybe not for something as important as a turkey, as the risk of not finding anything the night before Christmas really isn’t worth it!

Have a Christmas dinner budget in place and an ingredient list before you go to the store. That way you will avoid picking up added extras when you are browsing the shelves. Supermarkets are designed to make you buy as much as possible, so make sure to have a clear idea of what you do and don’t need. Plan your day, and think about what you can save for the days following Christmas.

Energy Saving Hacks

Opt for eco-friendly lights that you can switch on and off, and make sure that, if you do have lights or large decorations that require power, you turn them off either during the night, or when you are not around. Instead of having lights on your tree and around your home, consider using decorations such as tinsel or home-made baubles to brighten up your home. Instead of turning your heating up, have festive throws or blankets on the sofa and around your home. Stay cozy with layers, using jumpers, woolen socks, as well as blocking off draughty doors.

Most of all, make sure you have an enjoyable, stress-free Christmas. Christmas is, after all, the season of good cheer and wishes. Making Christmas about family and friends rather than focusing on the material side of things will bring you a lot more happiness. 

Cher

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Published by
Cher
5 years ago

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