Top 5 Smartest Ways to Save for Christmas

Whether you follow all the traditions of the holiday season or not, Christmas is still the perfect time to show your love to the precious ones in your life by giving them lovely gifts. It is a simple way to show appreciation. However, all stores are well aware of this and, in most cases, there's not much you can do about the hefty prices around Christmas time, especially if you missed Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals! That is if you do your shopping the regular way, but it is possible to implement some smart tricks to spend less and get more out of your Christmas shopping.

1. Do your Christmas shopping online
First of all, this saves you a lot of time, since you don't have to walk from store to store and battle the crowds. Secondly, the web is full of promotional coupons, such as the countless ones you can find at coupongrind.com, to use with any online shopping spree at the designated web stores. The price reductions can be spectacular. How would you like to buy Swarovski originals at 50% of the price tag?

2. Stop shopping for the classics
Everyone goes the easy route and buys jewelry, sweets or clothing – which all have high prices for the season. It's not just the costs though; such items might already be in excess for the recipient. Shop instead for different kinds of gifts – perhaps for handmade cosmetics, a home rug, photo albums, cups and mugs, hygiene products and other useful things most people are glad to receive. Or, you can shop at one of the autumn fairs for lovely and unique homemade objects. Be different and don't shop in the usual places, it will also end up being cheaper, typically.

3. Play the Secret Santa game
Purchasing a Christmas gift for one person is definitely cheaper than doing that for your entire family or group of friends. Therefore, be a Secret Santa this year. Each of you should draw one name and then buy something for that person only. Everyone will be covered in the end and happy that they spent less.

4. Food and drink? Of course!
Most people will be totally excited by the delicious holiday food and drinks. If you can prepare anything yourself, do it, then pack it to give to your friends. They will appreciate something like that, as it can be a great addition to their festive table.

5. Make a list
Do this before everything else. List the people you must give gifts to. This way you'll know how much you can spend for each, according to your budget. When you don't have a list, you risk overspending on one or more gifts, since you don't have a clear picture.

Christmas shouldn't be stressful, and it shouldn't be about the money. Therefore, apply these tips above and ditch the worries.

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