There was a post recently on MSN money that suggest you can save 8 dollars a day in order to come up with the 600 the average Canadian spends on gifts. Here are some of the things they suggested you can do:
- Raise your car insurance deductible
- Avoid driving to work and try biking, walking or taking transit
- Stop buying music and add it your own Christmas wish list
- Brew your own coffee
- Make a fancy dinner at home instead of going out
- Brown bag your own lunch
- Cut out your gym membership
- Rent a movie instead of going to one (even better – get it from the library!)
- Set up an automated savings account and transfers
- Sell stuff!
- Put your change in a jar every night. You can take it to a Bank of Montreal (BMO) coin counter – it’s free and available to everyone. I didn’t know about this- and I have a big jar of change that needs counting!
- Clip coupons. I do try to use coupons, but we just don’t get the savings here that you can in the U.S. I have one waiting on the fridge though for the next time the kitty needs food!
- Try to live without using the A/C or the heat. It won’t be long til the Canadian winter kicks in..
- Do your laundry in non-peak hours to save on energy use. This is a good idea – but it’s a pain some times. My Mom still hangs things out on the line, and as it gets dark earlier, she’s not huge on putting stuff out late – but she has to do the wash late due to time of use rules.
On the whole, I think this is a pretty good list! Mind you, these tips can be used any time to help you save money – not just for Christmas gifts. If you want to cut back on how much you spend on Christmas in general, you can:
- Make gifts yourself. Think it through though and price it out – the materials and your time may be more costly than buying it yourself. Or you can offer a service such a babysitting or cooking!
- Cut down on who you shop for. We buy gifts for my nieces and nephew and my parents (we have a small family, so if we didn’t buy them something, they really wouldn’t get any gifts at all!). We do a charitable donation in my brother and sister in law’s name, and that it’s. My in laws have a large family and plenty of people to shop for, so we just decided it’d be easier for everyone if we didn’t exchange gifts.
What do you do to save for Christmas or cut down on your Christmas costs?
These are all very good and interesting ideas! I pretty much just save all throughout the year without even realizing it. I love buying Christmas presents!
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Great tips. We personally save throughout the year for Christmas/Birthday presents. We also look for coupons or ways to save on shipping if we buy the gift online.
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It’s amazing how many things you can save on if you put your mind to it. I imagine you’d save more than the $8 by doing just a few of the things on your list.
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We draw names now each year (thank goodness) as it was just getting crazy the amount of gifts we were buying. It literally took hours to open gifts for 6 people. Now we each draw a name on New Years and we spend $100 on that person. Mrs.CBB and I budget that money each month and keep it in a projected expenses savings account we created with our bank (it’s just a savings account). We also already know some ideas of what the person wants so we can look all year for the best prices. Great ideas though on how to save the $8.00 but making gifts is also great. We make gifts for all of our friends and I know come Christmas I’ll be posting piccies and what they are!! Cheers Cat.. great post. Mr.CBB
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We use automatic transfers and cut down the amount by giving alot of homemade gifts! This combination has been fool proof for us that last couple of years!
Saving throughout the year using alot of the tips you mentioned helps ease the Christmas strain as well, such as using coupons, watching our Hydro usage, etc.
Cutting my gym membership last year was seriously the best decision ever. What a money sucker!
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Glad you all enjoyed the tips and it was nice to hear what tactics you use to save up for Christmas or just cut down on Xmas costs in general.
Mo – I am seriously considering cutting out my gym membership I must admit..
LOL, I don’t spend $8 a day regularly, on anything. We set aside $50 a month each for gifts throughout the year.
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Interesting post. We do all of these things but not just for Christmas gifts. We just do them to save money in general and to be healthier.
We no longer do gifts with our families. We are all adults and don’t need anything. We just concentrate on spending time together.
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“Sell stuff!” – Yes, definitely. Good way to get rid of clothes that don’t fit any more AND generate income.
“Put your change in a jar every night. You can take it to a Bank of Montreal (BMO) coin counter – it’s free and available to everyone.” – Thanks, I didn’t know about this either!
“Stop buying music and add it your own Christmas wish list.” – or you can just convert the youtube songs into mp3s.
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