How to Save Money for the Holiday Season; 20 FREE Tips!

The Holiday Season is upon us again, but perhaps your wallet looks a little different this year than it has done for the last few years? With families having less to spend you have to get creative with the way you spend those dollars.

Here are 20 great tips you can start using today to get you through the Holidays. You can check out www.saving-money-tips.com for more money-saving ideas.

1) Get Planning: Go through all of your Holiday items and décor at home to check what items you really need; then shop for only the necessities.

2) Write your Holiday List: Write a Holiday shopping list. It should include all the people you are planning on buying a gift for and ideas of what to buy them. It should also include things that you need for your home and which stores you are going to get each item from. You’ll find you save gas and do fewer trips to the stores.

3) Shop online: You can buy everything online these days and if you get free shipping on items it definitely saves you gas money; plus you don’t need to go out to the stores in the cold and you avoid the crowds.

4) Enjoy Black Friday: (the day after Thanksgiving) Take advantage of the Black Friday sales and look for coupons for that day so you can save even more. Check out http://www.blackfriday.info/ for all the deals in the major stores.

5) Think Ahead to next year: Invest in an artificial tree after the Holidays when they go on sale. If you take care of them they can last for several years. Also get discounted gift wrap, cards and décor after Christmas to really save for next year.

6) Set a limit on gifts: Agree in advance with your family members to an affordable amount for everyone to spend on gifts. This saves everyone in the family money.

7) Create a Christmas Savings Account/Club: Estimate how much money you need at Christmas for gifts and divide that by 52 and each week put that amount away and when Christmas rolls around you’ll have the necessary funds. You can also do this monthly (Amount needed divided by 12) and even have that amount come out of your checking account and into your savings account automatically.