Six ways to save money this Christmas
Gift a future experience.
Has your friend been keen to go to the museum or aquarium, or something more adventurous like skydiving or a dolphin safari? If you want to save money on gifts in December and spread out the cost over the next couple of months instead, try gifting a future experience! One Christmas, my sister-in-law’s gift to my husband and I was an offer to take us on a paid trip to the zoo. When we took her up on the offer, we had a fantastic day out and really enjoyed our experience together.
Host a Christmas potluck…
For your Christmas celebration, save time and money by asking each guest to bring a dish, assigning a mix of sweet and savoury. If you’re hosting an all-couples gathering, you could ask each couple to bring one meat dish and one vegetable dish while you take care of desserts, drinks, and decorations. This year, our family is saving $270 on our usual choice, a Hello Fresh or My Food Bag Christmas box by making the dishes ourselves.
Or a Christmas picnic!
A budget-friendly alternative is to host a Christmas picnic. Sandwiches, wraps, scones, muffins, sushi, spring rolls, fruit skewers, cupcakes, and other finger foods are generally more affordable than food you’d serve at a Christmas dinner feast.
This is also family-friendly - here in NZ we’re spoilt for choice with beautiful parks and beach reserves, so pick one with a playground and lots of space for happy kids and happy parents all around.
Gift your time and talent.
Gift a loved one your help with babysitting, dog walking, gardening, and anything else they might need help with. Perhaps you have a knack for photography and want to gift your engaged, pregnant, or soon-to-graduate friends a photoshoot? Perhaps you’re a talented baker and want to gift your family and friends their favourite sweet treats? A friend of ours once gifted us delicious homemade cookies & chocolate fudge, which we loved.
Use Secret Santa.
Whether you’re hosting a Christmas celebration for family or hosting one for friends, if your guests all know each other, save time and money by doing Secret Santa. Each of your guests will only have one person to buy a gift for, which saves you and others from having to buy multiple gifts. Set a budget that everyone can agree on - say $50 - and stick to it. Alternatively, skip assigning names and simply ask each guest to bring a gift, which allows for plenty of fun gift exchange games. Hooray, that’s another party activity sorted!
Use your points!
Around Christmas time, I always check my loyalty points to see whether I am close to a reward or already have one that I can use towards gift purchases (e.g. The Body Shop’s $10 vouchers for every $100 spent, Farmers’ $20 vouchers for every $250 spent). All the better if you can split your transaction into two, using your reward on the first then earning enough points to have a new reward to use on the second. You can also set your birthday to 1st December so that every year (instead of benefiting during your actual birthday month) you’ll receive special email discounts just in time for Christmas shopping!
Sophia x
