I know it’s still only fall, but parents know that it’s prime time for planning gift lists and creating a budget for holiday spending. When it comes to buying your kids Christmas gifts, it’s important to recognize their needs and listen to their wants to a certain degree.
Pulling off holiday shopping on a budget when you have kids can be a challenge. Here are a few ways to make it through the holiday shopping season while still maintaining your spending limit.
Start Saving Up Early
There’s still time to save up for your holiday fund. Once you’ve determined how much you want to spend, you can start putting money into a savings account every two weeks and set aside extra cash that you come across or earn.
Challenge yourself to save consistently for the holidays and commit to paying for everything in cash.
Determine How Much You Want to Spend
It’s important to set a spending limit on childrens’ gifts and not go overboard in an attempt to impress them. I know everyone says Christmas isn’t all about gifts and it’s not. Most kids look forward to gifts but they also enjoy having time off from school, being able to relax and spend quality time with family and eat good food.
To determine a realistic spending limit, consider how much you earn each month, what mandatory expenses you have to take care of and how much you have saved up for the holidays. When setting my holiday spending budget, I always have to consider the fact that my son’s birthday is a little over three weeks after Christmas, so I’ll need to budget ahead for that as well.
Your spending limit should be unique to your own situation and help guide your purchase decisions throughout the season.
Take Advantage of Deals and Consider Black Friday
If your child is 5-years-old to 15-years-old, odds are they will have a specific items listed on their wish list. While it’s impossible and not advised to give your child everything they want, Christmas is the perfect time to give them a variety of things they want and need for the following year, especially if you usually don’t purchase gifts due to budget constraints.
You can shop smart by taking advantage of seasonal deals and sales. You will always find kids’ items and clothes on sale if you look thoroughly enough and in the right places. There are many discounts and sales offered this time of year so pay attention to the flyers you receive in the mail and see if anything advertised appeals to you.
People have a lot of mixed feelings about Black Friday, but for parents, it’s a huge sale that could save you potentially hundreds of dollars on gifts for your children, so it’s certainly worth exploring. Last year I went to Target on Black Friday in the evening after the chaos and ended up finding some of my son’s favorite toys had a buy-one-get-one half off sale. I ended up racking up on a few of the items he didn’t already have from the series he likes and saved a ton of money as a result.
Cash-Back Online Shopping
If you use cash-back reward sites like Ebates or Swagbucks, you can cash in your points and credits to receive gift cards to help you purchase gifts or you can shop online through these websites to earn more points.
Teenagers tend to like gift cards because it allows them to go out and purchase exactly what they want so parents don’t have to waste time or go through the confusion of guessing.
If Your Child is Young, Consider the Three-Gift Concept
Parents of toddlers have it slightly easier. When your child is too young to ask for gifts, you really have to make a judgement call when deciding on something they would enjoy. The three-gift concept is popular for young children because it gives them something to open for Christmas and allows you to stick to your budget by purchasing less.
With the three-gift concept, you give your child one thing they want, one thing they need, and one thing to read. It’s easy, simple, and clutter free. With this concept, you won’t have to worry about your kids not playing with a toy or throwing things out just a few months later.
By following some of these steps and techniques to stretch your holiday budget you’ll be sure to make it through the holiday season and enjoy your family to the fullest without draining your funds.
Do you have a holiday gift budget? How do you control spending when it comes to providing your kids with things they want?
this guide is helpful for everyone is on a budget:P
Thanks Giulia. Good luck with all your holiday shopping!
Love those ideas 🙂 We always try to side hustle months before holidays and to make extra money for kids’ gifts. Therefore we don’t have to stress about going over budget as we only use this “extra money”.
That’s a good idea. I started saving up in July because I know that if I didn’t make saving a priority, there probably wouldn’t be much wiggle room left in my budget for gifts.
Great ideas and I love the 3 gift idea. It is really hard to budget for Christmas especially when funds are tight. Good tips!
I agree. Thanks Valerie!
The Amazon website has pictures of “new releases” before they actually come out. I”m looking at all the soon to be released children s books.
Great tips! I’ve heard of the three gift idea and I think that’s perfect for people of every age. we went a little overboard this year because I’ve been shopping all year long, but I’ve spent less than $50 on each kid and our shopping is done. Since my kids are so little I just picked up things I found at Wal-Mart (or Target) on clearance that I thought they would like. The money added up slowly but the stuff did not!
I have started saving few bucks now and then since September. We already have almost her entire Christmas budget saved up. So, even if our business might be slow during December, our daughter will still have a nice small Christmas tree and some presents. She doesn’t care too much abut this (she’s not even 2 years old), but we decided to try and give her some nice presents and decorate a small tree.
I love the 3 gift idea! I have a five year old and a almost two year old and never thought of something like that. May try it this year!