I know, I know—the holidays aren’t on your radar yet but hear me out. But we are into fall officially, meaning Halloween and Thanksgiving are right around the corner. For us, that means family functions, class parties, teacher gifts, family gifts, events with neighbors, etc. Next thing you know, it’s Christmas, and you’ve blown through your budget. You’ll tell yourself “OK next year I’m going to plan and save better.” To that I say, why not start this year with my ten tips to save money for the holidays. Because really, you should start now (if you haven’t already).
10 Ways To Save Money for The Holidays
Sell clothes/shoes you aren’t using:
This is my favorite way to save money because let’s be honest, we all have stuff in our closets we aren’t using. Do you have sunglasses from three years ago that are in great shape but you just don’t wear them? Sell them. What about all those workout clothes you no longer use? Sell them. You could easily come away with $300-$400 if you want to. Pro tip: sell in local garage sale groups over resale stores. You make way more money.
Cash in gift cards:
Have you ever received a gift card to a place you’d never shop? You can cash them in at a gift card exchange, or even sell them online.
Take on odd jobs:
Dog walking, babysitting, house sitting, etc. These things pay well, and you can do them in your spare time.
Work on your side hustle:
Do you knit? Bake? Sew? Craft? This is a great time to start selling. People are always looking for unique gift ideas. Cash in on that!
Check out your credit card points: I know that with one of my credit cards I can actually use my points
Have a set amount go to a holiday savings account:
This is one of the easiest ways to budget. Send a little money every month to a savings account and BOOM! You’ve saved all your holiday money without having to do anything.
Stop buying water/coffee:
Use reusable mugs/bottles and stop overpaying for bottled water and coffee. Doing this can potentially save $50 a week, which is $200 every month!
Utilize free services: Your library is a great free service to use. Books, movies, even magazines can be found there. You could save a ton that way. Plus there are SO MANY free holiday events in my area, I’m sure they are like that all over!
Cut a few subscriptions: Auditing your subscriptions (which I have talked about before) is a great way to cut expenses and save money. Cutting even one or two subscriptions will give you plenty of extra money to put toward your holiday spending.
Coupons:
If you aren’t using coupons for everything you can you are basically just wasting money! From online shopping to grocery stores, to craft stores, etc. Pretty much everywhere has a coupon. Most websites even have a coupon for first purchases. Heck, even Amazon has coupons on some items. I repeat—if you aren’t using coupons for everything you are wasting money!
What is something you do to save money for the holidays?
This post was originally published in 2019 and has been updated for 2021
I always tell myself I’m going to sell my old clothes and things but never get around to it – either that or no one buys my stuff, haha! Thanks for the tips though! 🙂
The holidays are definitely already in our radar. This way whenever sales come around we’re already buying gifts instead of having to buy them in bulk as a last-minute thing.
Great post girl! I should start saving my money for some Black Friday shopping (I take advantage of the good deals so I can buy my friends and family great gifts)!
So many great tips here! I already do most of them, especially using the library and I never buy coffee/water or anything else while I am out. I also have plans to go through all of our closets, including the playroom toy closet, to see what we can sell or donate.
LOL my side hustle IS getting rid of stuff we no longer need!!! I participate in 6 seasonal children’s resale events/year in our area (3 fall, 3 spring) and I didn’t have as much time as usual to price/tag things for my first 2 fall sales, so I am gonna have a TON to bring to our beginning-of-November sale #3!
These are all great ideas to have some extra cash this Christmas. We usually set up a garage sale to sell clothes, shoes, and small kitchen appliances we no longer use. My sons do some odd jobs around the neighborhood to save for an item they really want to purchase. I will have to look about cashing in those gift cards. That’s a good idea too.
This is such a tough time of year with the holidays coming up. Thanks for the tips when it comes to saving. We are juggling extra bills like my daughter’s braces.
Believe it or not, we’re almost done Christmas shopping lol!! We usually hit the Boxing Day and after-Christmas sales where almost everything is massively discounted.
My husband and I have a savings account that we put a percentage of our income to every month. This account is used only for travel and the holidays so we save every month for the holidays! It definitely helps to have some set aside when the time comes.
I always tell myself I’m going to sell my old clothes and things but never get around to it – either that or no one buys my stuff, haha! Thanks for the tips though! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
The holidays are definitely already in our radar. This way whenever sales come around we’re already buying gifts instead of having to buy them in bulk as a last-minute thing.
Great post girl! I should start saving my money for some Black Friday shopping (I take advantage of the good deals so I can buy my friends and family great gifts)!
So many great tips here! I already do most of them, especially using the library and I never buy coffee/water or anything else while I am out. I also have plans to go through all of our closets, including the playroom toy closet, to see what we can sell or donate.
These are all great tips that I can definitely benefit from. I am saving your post and I will make sure to follow these tips
My husband and I were just talking about our holiday budget! I try to work extra around this time and the extra money goes towards gifts.
oh i need these tips for sure!!! We tend to spend tons of money over the holidays. Thank you.
LOL my side hustle IS getting rid of stuff we no longer need!!! I participate in 6 seasonal children’s resale events/year in our area (3 fall, 3 spring) and I didn’t have as much time as usual to price/tag things for my first 2 fall sales, so I am gonna have a TON to bring to our beginning-of-November sale #3!
These are all great ideas to have some extra cash this Christmas. We usually set up a garage sale to sell clothes, shoes, and small kitchen appliances we no longer use. My sons do some odd jobs around the neighborhood to save for an item they really want to purchase. I will have to look about cashing in those gift cards. That’s a good idea too.
I so needed this! These are some great tips on saving money for holidays ☺ Great post ❤
All of these tips are wonderful! It’s hard to believe how close we are to the holidays now.
https://www.makelifemarvelous.com/
There are some really top tips here. Selling things you do not use is a great way to clear up and make cash x
The earlier the better and this formula works for almost anything you need to save for. You have a stock of best practices here) super helpful read.
This is such a tough time of year with the holidays coming up. Thanks for the tips when it comes to saving. We are juggling extra bills like my daughter’s braces.
Hard ways to save money for me lol
Very useful tips indeed, simple and followable too
What a great blog. Thanks for sharing.
Have a great day.
Started reading this blog about 2 weeks ago.
Believe it or not, we’re almost done Christmas shopping lol!! We usually hit the Boxing Day and after-Christmas sales where almost everything is massively discounted.
My husband and I have a savings account that we put a percentage of our income to every month. This account is used only for travel and the holidays so we save every month for the holidays! It definitely helps to have some set aside when the time comes.
Great suggestions! We save all our amazon money that is earned on the credit card from orders for the year to use on Christmas gifts.
I am trying to cut down on my love of chai tea! I want more money in my wallet to go and see my parents next year.
That is a great blog Neely! thank you for sharing this to us