Every year, you need to buy Christmas gifts for nearly everyone you know. And, even though you are a good-hearted person, you secretly wish you could turn into an ostrich and stick your head in the sand until January 1st, because, well… you’re kind of out of money. Not completely, but on December 26th you will be.
The problem with budgeting for Christmas isn’t that you don’t know how to do it. It is that you have too many people to get gifts for. You also need to pay the mortgage or rent, bills, and groceries, just like every other month. And, the trio of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas each get their own month to keep you spending, so…
What if you cannot save for gifts from months in advance?
What if you cannot save for so many things at once? Your monthly income isn’t infinite, or you wouldn’t be scratching your head every December wondering how to fit it all in yet another year.
The tips I will share with you come from years of wondering and calculating how to make the tight pot stretch as far as it will go. And I do have a few secrets that you might never have thought of, so let me share them with you.
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The real issue with your Christmas list
Everyone knows that writing down the names of the people you need to get gifts for is the first step to losing any hope that you’ll figure it out. Having a list with 20-30 names (or even more) is a sure way to panic, but hear me out:
You have a headcount problem, not a money problem. And I will solve it for you in the simplest way possible.
Step 1: Write that list anyway
Include everyone who expects a gift from you, any type of gift: your family members, colleagues, mom friends, teachers, neighbors, and even those you aren’t sure you’ll get something for.
Most financial advisers would tell you to assign a number to each of these people, then stick to that number, so you don’t overspend. Alternatively, they’d ask you to remove people from the list (and you know you’ve shrunk it as much as possible already). Don’t do it.
The reality is: if that were actually working you wouldn’t need to dig deeper for “something else”. Even if you stick strictly to that amount-per-person trick, you will still end up overspending, because, in this economy, everything is overspending.
Step 2: Group them
How do you actually encounter these people? Where do you see each other? How close are you? Where will you see each other at Christmas (or in December in general)?
It matters.
Because you are going to group them all and treat them as one. The best way to show you what I mean is to give you the groups I’ve used for the last three years:
- I have my immediate family – parents, mother in-law, my sister and her family, my husband, my child. These people get all my love. My main focus here is to make them happy, to spoil them as much as I can, however I can.
- Friend group 1: a group of 5-6 families we meet every year for a Christmas party. Somehow, the number of families grow every year, but the way I treat this group when it comes to gifts stays the same.
- Friend group 2: these are my mom friends. We met because of the kids, and we stick together all year because of the kids and this motherhood journey we are all going through.
- Everyone else: anyone else who doesn’t fit into the groups above – semi-friends, someone we met recently who I know we’ll exchange something in December, neighbours, teachers and so on.
You can have a few more groups. For example:
- Extended family: everyone you see once a year for the annual family gathering, distant cousins, aunts and uncles, and so on.
- Colleagues: Your equivalent of my mom friends could be your colleagues, or your boss.
Step 3: Follow these rules
Money-Saving Rule 1: Everyone who is in a relationship gets a couple’s gift.
Your mom and dad, your sister and her husband, your cousin and his new girlfriend, your friends – literally everyone you know who is in a relationship gets one gift, not two.
It is easier to think of gifts for couples than for individuals, and it’s cheaper. And because I know you think gifts lose their charm when they aren’t individual, here’s a short list of gift ideas for couples:
- A movie night box for two;
- Matching mugs with fuzzy socks and a box of chocolate;
- Matching robes and slippers;
- A prepaid experience (anything from a spa day for two to a ride in a vintage car).
Options are endless. You just need to switch your thinking.
Money-Saving Rule 2: Friends get snack bags
You know the Friend group 1 I mentioned above? We get together for a Christmas party every year, and we all “quietly” agreed on snack bags only.
Each family is treated as a subgroup, so no individual gifts are exchanged at that party – just gift bags with Christmas snacks (think Christmas panettone, a bottle of cheap sparkling wine, and Skittles).
The only allowed exception is something extra for the kids – a small toy or their favourite snack.
Money-Saving Rule 3: Kids are dealt with in November
The list of kids I need to think about and get gifts for has been nearly endless since I became a mom. Somehow, there is always yet-another child I need to include, and you know what… they are kids, you cannot group them and you cannot skip them. They expect toys, they expect attention, they expect something to unwrap.
But do you know what the best part about getting for a child is? They don’t calculate how much you’ve spent on them. They don’t care if it’s trendy or even useful. They want something fun to unwrap on Christmas morning.
This is my plan for this year.
In November I will place a big order with Temu, kids’ toys only. I will choose something fun and age-appropriate for each child. The difference is that I will do it all through Rakuten. As I write this, they offer up to 50% cash back on Temu orders, and I will use that as much as I can. Am I going to get 50% of my money back? I don’t think so. But I will get some cash back, and that is good enough nowadays.
If you decide to copy this idea keep in mind the following things:
- Always check toys with batteries have a screw on the battery compartment (safety first);
- Always check size of the product and double check what colors you’ve chosen;
- Rakuten might deposit your cashback after New Year, so don’t rely on that money for the holidays.
Money-Saving Rule 4: Have a “kids-only” rule where possible
Last year, my mom friends didn’t give me any gifts and I didn’t get anything for them. We agreed to the kids-only rule, and I believe each one of us is very happy about it because we all have long lists of names and we all struggle with money right now.
Listen, I understand that being the brave one who puts it out there and says “Hey, should we just do kids this year?” is hard. I understand it because I’ve been the one suggesting it a few times. But I’ve also been turned down, and it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. In fact, I felt relieved – at least I tried, even if it didn’t happen.
So, look around you, maybe you can agree on kids-only with a few of your friends this year – every penny counts.
Money-Saving Rule 5: When it has to be special but nothing personal…
When it has to be special but nothing personal, make it at home. It costs you time, but not too much money.
I am talking about cookies, brownies, jam, hot chocolate mix – one bake session can cover many people. All you need to invest in is jars, boxes, ribbon, and tags. That’s enough to make it look and feel special.
Who gets these gifts? Basically anyone, but mainly friends, neighbors, coworkers, teachers – everyone where the gesture means more than the gift.
Money-Saving Rule 6: Cash when someone’s impossible to buy for
Teens, students, older kids and anyone impossible to buy for get cash. You might be thinking “How does this tip save me money?” It does. If you were to think of an actual gift, you’d likely end up overspending because you have no clue what that person wants or needs. Also, you can decide on the amount right now instead of leaving it as “It depends on what I find.”
Don’t forget to grab money envelopes from the dollar store so you can present the gift properly and make it look and feel special. And in case you haven’t noticed the trend already: packaging is everything when it comes to gifts, so whatever you choose, wrap it nicely and it will do the job.
Now You Can Budget for Christmas
If you did the math on how much to spend on gifts this Christmas before grouping and subgrouping the people on your list, you would likely end up with double the amount you have now.
Now that you have all those people split into groups, you can easily see how much money each group would requires. This is your real Christmas budget – that total at the end is what you needed all along.
But it is the last number you want to think about. All the steps above are much more important because they reduce the total before it even exists.
A few things not to forget to budget for early are wrapping paper, tags and packaging. Buy those in November (or earlier). Don’t be afraid to use last year’s stash either – nobody remembers what you used to wrap their gifts and even if they do, so what?
Final thoughts
Most people think “how to save for Christmas gifts?” is the only question they need an answer to. Honestly, it is the last one to worry about.
The right strategy I outlined above is this: Find the best way to reduce the the numbers of gifts without removing anyone from the list, find the gift ideas that cut the price but not the quality, and stick to the plan.
Also, very few people actually care about what you got for them. They just want to know you turned up with bag for them.
Blogger, dreamer, procrastinator, and lover of everything soul-touching. My mission is to make you laugh, provoke your thoughts, light up your day and inspire you to fall in love with life and yourself.
