Saving Money on Christmas Gifts

1. Set a budget before you start shopping and then stick to it, no matter how many great bargains you find!

2. Keep your receipts for all of the Christmas gifts in one handy place. If you do go over your budget, then do a gift "triage" and return the gifts that your recipients would probably enjoy the least considering the cost. If you've gone over your budget and you just can't bear to return some of the great bargains you've found, then at least put them away for a birthday or next Christmas.

3. Save gas and your time by ordering gifts online from the Internet or through mail order catalogs. Prices are often cheaper through catalog shopping because merchants can pass along the money they save from the overhead of not having a brick and mortar store.

4. If you have a large family, you can draw names to exchange gifts instead of having every person in the family giving to everyone else. If you want to be really thrifty, draw names and set a spending limit on how much each person can spend on their gift.

5. For children, try to buy presents they can use over and over again, like Xbox games, Legos and board games. Many of the science or craft kits my kids used to get were often made or assembled in about an hour, so for the money they really didn't get a lot of "play hours" out of them.

6. For children, try to buy classic and nearly indestructible toys like Lincoln Logs, Legos, Brio wooden train sets, etc. My kids got hours of use from these types of toys. Then when they out outgrew them we donated the toys to a church day care center where the kids there used them for hours on end. For larger reusable toys, we would let our kids sell them at our annual neighborhood garage sale and keep the money to use to buy "older" kid toys like PC games and videos.

7. Give gently used gifts such as books from thrift stores. My kids and their friends often give each other used Xbox games from game exchange stores for gifts.

8. Cull your gift list. Are their people you exchange gifts with out of habit even though you are no longer close? If so then you may want to tactfully suggest to your friends or relatives that you are on a budget this year and would prefer to only exchange cards or token gifts such as cookies or candy. Your recipients may also want to cut their gift list and may be happy you made the suggestion.

9. Give coupons for gifts of your time or for privileges. Parents can give kids coupons for things like:

• Get out of chores for free for one day
• Stay up 1 hour past your bedtime (not applicable on school nights!)".
• One free pizza dinner and sleepover for 2 friends

Kids might want to give parents coupons for tasks such as:

• Cleaning up their rooms
• Washing the dog
• Washing the car(s)
• Doing their homework without being told

10. If you like to cook or are good at crafts, give homemade gifts. Almost everyone enjoys a nice tray of colorful Christmas cookies during the holiday season.

11. If you have the storage place, one of the best times to buy gifts for Christmas is by stocking up at the after Christmas sales from the prior year.

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