Happy Monday! Hope you’ve had a great weekend? Mine has been filled with Christmas shopping on an extreme budget! It’s been pretty good though and I’ve quite enjoyed seeing what treasures I can find for the lowest price possible (I hope that doesn’t sound too cheap, I was aiming for frugal)!
The costs for Christmas can really add up and my budget is feeling the pressure already. Presents are obviously costly especially when you have many to buy for but aside from those, there’s food to buy, decorations, cards and gift wrapping materials to worry about too. I’ve spent far too much money on Christmas wrapping items in previous years particularly because I like to colour co-ordinate everything. But this Christmas, I’m determined to spend as little as possible!
So far, I haven’t had to spend anything on gift wrapping! Here’s why:
1. I’m making homemade Christmas gift tags
Luckily for me, I kept all the beautiful cards we received last year and as you can see in the above photo, I’ve now made 32 gift tags to use for this Christmas! My daughter helped me cut these out from the old cards and she thoroughly enjoyed herself as did I actually. It was really easy to make homemade Christmas gift tags! I’ll just add a little ribbon and sellotape to attach to presents when I wrap them and we’ve saved ourselves a few pounds in the process.
2. By recycling ribbon and bows
I also saved a lot of bows from last year’s presents after they’d been unwrapped (from ours and the rest of my family!) so I’ll be reusing these. I got a few odd looks at the time but it was worth it!
3. I’m using old wrapping paper and Christmas cards
I had a few rolls of wrapping paper left over from last year and I even have a few spare unused Christmas cards which I’ll be making the most of this time around! I’m really glad I hoarded all this stuff because this is one area that I won’t have to shell out for this Christmas!
Can you save money on Christmas necessities this year?
Related posts:
- Christmas Money Making Challenge
- How to survive buying gifts for others when paying back debt
- Where does your loose change go?
Images © A Disease Called Debt
36 Comments
Great post! Those little things can really add up.
One thing that we do is to save those gift bags that we get for Christmas and Birthdays.
At this point, we have about 50 of them in my basement!
I hope to never buy an overpriced gift bag again!
jefferson @See Debt Run recently posted…Amazon Prime Review – Worth the $79 Price Tag?
Saving gift bags is a great idea – they do seem to cost a fortune new don’t they! You can always rip the label off and make yourself a new label. Thanks for sharing!
Hayley recently posted…Save money at Christmas: Christmas necessities
I love the idea of cutting out images from old cards to use as “new” gift tags Hayley! I’m going to have to borrow that idea. Thanks 🙂
Thanks GMD! I quite like the fact that they’re all different and it’s quite therapeutic cutting them out!
Love the homemade gift tag idea! It is so easy to go overboard at Christmas but it sounds like you’ve got a good plan to help keep you on budget. I like to color coordinate my wrapping paper too. Glad I’m not the only one. I try to this year’s color choice from last year’s after Christmas sales to help lower cost. Reusing ribbons is smart too. They are so expensive and there really is no reason why they cannot be reused.
Shannon @ The Heavy Purse recently posted…How to Create Your Child’s Holiday Gift List
I do love wrapping pressies with all the trimmings and I’m getting used to each present looking different now and not necessarily matching! Great idea to stock up in the sales and reuse ribbons!
Cutting pictures out of old Christmas cards is such a cute idea for tags! I rarely buy new Christmas supplies. I lucked out one year, a long long time ago. My dad and I found a drugstore that was going out of business right after Christmas, and all of their bows and wrapping paper were heavily discounted. We stocked up enough to where some of that stuff is still with us. If I’m running low on something, I’ll always snag it on sale after Christmas. Wrapping presents is something I’ve always really enjoyed, and I like to go all out with the bows, ribbons, and paper.
E.M. recently posted…Luxuries Worth Spending On
Wow that’s great that you’re still using the stuff you found in that drugstore! I never make enough of the sales for this kind of thing but I must look out for them in January.
LOVE the gift tags idea! How awesome is that!
These days, I always buy red wrapping paper. I can use it for birthdays, Christmas, and Valentines day! That or I buy more neutral designs in pastels for all the baby and wedding showers I’ve been going to. Saves a lot of money on “occasionally appropriate” designs!
Michelle @fitisthenewpoor recently posted…December Goals: Professional Fire
Great idea Michelle, red (or neutral) wrapping paper is really versatile! Note to self – must look out for RED wrapping paper in the January sales. Perfect! 🙂
So smart to reuse what you can! Bows and bags are absolutely good for more than just one use. And making your own gift tags is a creative and really personal way to dress up presents!
Laura @ RichmondSavers.com recently posted…Stress-Free Cooking Installment 1: Soy Chicken Recipe
Thanks Laura! 🙂
Hayley recently posted…Friday’s Fab Links #19
Good idea to reuse ribbons and bows…my wife does this too. We also keep gift bags that people have given us and when they are in good condition, we’re reuse them. The cost of cards and gift bags add up!
Andrew@LivingRichCheaply recently posted…Save Money While Holiday Shopping
If we can save on little bits like this, it really helps balance out the cost at what can be an expensive time of year!
Love your idea for making gift tags! I’ve never thought of doing that before but will be saving all our cards from this year and putting the kids to work cutting them out. Thanks for the tip.
Brian @ Luke1428 recently posted…Giving for the Wrong Reasons This Christmas (Or Anytime)
Thanks Brian! You could also do the same for Birthday cards too and use for Birthday present gift tags.
I could re-use the fruitcake that we didn’t eat last year! How would you really know? Seriously, I don’t use paper plates, cups, forks this time of year. I stick with real dishes and cloth napkins year ’round.
Lol! I bet fruitcake tastes better with age. 🙂
Great stuff Hayley!! And it’s not cheap at all but nicely frugal 🙂
I only give out a few gift certifiactes to some of my friend’s kids over the holidays. I do give and send out cards though and what i do is buy a bunch of Christmas cards at the dollar store, the ones with blank inside pages. then I am free to add my own text making the card a lot more personal!
I also liked your repurposed gift tags 🙂
Take care and it’s nice to have your little one helping mum out as well!
All the best.
Lyle
lyle @ The Joy of Simple recently posted…Fight For Life
Thanks Lyle! Great idea about buying blank cards and adding a personal message to them. I think the message counts much more than how cards look every time!
That’s really creative! I’m utilizing the 99 cent store for things like wrapping paper and cards this year. I don’t have to buy much though.
Budget and the Beach recently posted…December Goals
Thanks Tonya! The 99 cent store sounds similar to our ‘Everything £1’ store here in the UK. Great for picking up those necessary bits at low cost.
These are great tips. When I was younger it would take my grandparents hours to open gifts because they tried to open the wrapping paper slow enough so that they wouldn’t damage it and could reuse it again next year….while I admire their effort, it was quite painful for a kid to go through that every year!
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…3 Things That Motivate Me To Work Hard In My 20s
Thanks DC! Aw that’s so sweet about your grandparents. I might have to start doing this – great work!
Creative ways to save money Hayley. Is your Christmas budget higher or lower this year? Will side hustles pay for the presents?
Charles@gettingarichlife recently posted…Why I Want To Keep Up With The Joneses
Thanks Charles! My budget is £100… much lower than last year but I have to say that the budgeting is not going all that well despite my best efforts! The money making challenge I set myself hasn’t yet paid for everything, I’ll be posting an update on that on Monday. 🙂
Hayley, LOVE your idea about making the gift tags from last year’s Christmas cards – we’ll have to try that this year! The one thing I do to save money on Christmas necessities is that we buy a specific wrapping paper for each of the kids so that I don’t have to buy tags at all, and we always skip the bows. 🙂
Laurie @thefrugalfarmer recently posted…November 2013 Recap
Thanks Laurie! I think your idea is brilliant, using different paper for each child. That way they know instantly which is theirs under the tree too!
We don’t exchange many cards so that wouldn’t work for me. However, I have always saved bows and no one in my family thinks anything of it. It is just a normal thing to do. I also save boxes and often put things in a box that is very odd for that gift. I don’t save paper, but I do save gift bags to re-use. I remember as a child, my mother would iron the wrapping paper, carefully fold it to re-use over and over again.
I also really like saving boxes for gifts too Kathy! I think there’s something to be said for saving wrapping paper and reusing it – it does seem such a shame to waste it.
Home made gift tags are an awesome idea! I am going to have to save cards this year!
Dee @ Color Me Frugal recently posted…5 Financial Tips I’ve Learned from Bloggers
Thanks Dee! It’s well worth doing, you’ll be really excited next year getting the old cards out!
I love the idea of being inventive and creative when it comes to wrapping and tagging gifts! It makes is so much more personal. I never hold on to cards, but come to think about it, you can cut and past and create a whole new card, too! Lovely post!
Little Miss Money recently posted…Day 49 – Renting out in NYC
Thanks Little Miss Money! Great suggestion for using old cards to make new ones. I imagine anyone into card making could really make the most of using old cards for embellishments!
That’s a really clever idea of cutting out cards. I’m stealing that idea too, from the cards we get this year!
Done by Forty recently posted…November Net Worth Update
Glad you like it DB40! I’m going to do with with Birthday cards too and make a whole stash of them!