Can you believe it is only 3 months to Christmas?! The Christmas cakes are out at the shops and soon the catalogues will be in your mailbox. If you are worried about where the money for all the expenses is going to come from, these 6 steps to save $1500 by Christmas will help. Click through to view them all!
Step 1. Start saving your change
Every time you have a gold coin in your wallet put it into a jar. At the end of each day, clear you wallet of all gold coins and watch the savings add up. I did this recently and was putting aside $12-15 every week without even noticing it. Savings by Christmas = $150-$200.
Step 2. Cut back on your grocery spending
I’ve spoken before about how I cut my grocery budget to under $150 a week and now is the time to really cut back. If you can reduce your budget by eating less meat, choosing cheaper cuts, cooking in bulk and eating a few budget meals a week you’ll really build up the savings. $25 a week equals $325 by Christmas and $50 a week will have you pocketing $650!
Step 3. Start taking lunch to work
Even just eating lunch at work twice a week really adds up. Let’s say you eat a comparably cheap lunch at $10 twice a week. That is Christmas savings of $260!
Step 4. Cut back the coffee habit
Yes I know, you all just screamed in shock and horror! Can you go 2 days a week without cafe coffee? You can still get your caffeine hit with a home made or work brewed coffee but save that $4 twice a week and it will add up to $104 by Christmas.
Step 5. Sell some unused clothes, kitchen appliances, kids toys, books etc
You would be surprised at how quickly you can pull together a bit of cash by selling your unwanted stuff. Go through your cupboards and pull out a few items you don’t want or need any more. That spare sandwich press, the 2 bags of unused baby clothes, the kids bikes they’ve outgrown, an old desk you don’t use. Not only will it raise some extra cash but it will help reduce the clutter in your home. You can find some more clutter busting tips here. Christmas savings, $100+
Step 6. Take a break from take-away
For the next 13 weeks, make a commitment not to have any take away (or if takeaway is a regular thing in your home, reduce the amount of times you have it). Let’s say you are spending $50 once a month, that’s Christmas savings of $150. For many people it is more like $50 a week so that adds up to $650!
You made it!
For those keeping track, you’ve now got yourself a plan to save $1500+ by Christmas! Now write out a list of all the gifts and expenses you need to cover and try not to overspend this Christmas.
Some great tips! We always have a blow-out on grocery spending. We do our shopping and then duck back to the shops two or three times over a fortnight to buy more stuff!
Yeah that is a hard habit to break. Every time you pop into the supermarket to buy just one little thing you’ll usually spend $20+ so the less often you do it the better.
Excellent tips. We put alot of those into place on a weekly basis, just to manage the budget. But I think a bit of decluttering and selling of old things would be good for us prior to Christmas.
We are the same on a weekly basis. I did a market stall to sell off all our old baby stuff and was amazed at how easy it was to make a couple of hundred dollars.
I will have to try the gold coin one at least. Number 2 wouldn’t work for me though as I don’t do the grocery shopping – that’s hubster’s job 😉
It’s probably worth forgoing the savings in exchange for hubby doing it!
Great tips. I use all our change for school expenses!!
I was cranky the other day when I took advantage of 20% off itunes cards and got all I needed only to find out two weeks later coles had an even better deal- spend $50 get 30% off.
Yeah I saw that deal on the weekend. I tried to stick up on gift cards for Christmas but didn’t read that there was a limit of cards you could by! You could only get one $50 for every $50 spent which was disappointing. Still a great deal.
Unfortunately we already do most of these! Might be able to scrounge around and see if we have anything to sell though. These are great tips and changes that we had to make a few years ago. It wasn’t easy to start with, but you soon adjust. -Aroha
Wow some fab tips and an extra $1500 would be handy! I’m a gold coin hoarder! Scary that Xmas is so close!
I know, 12 weeks!!!
Neat tips! I definitely need to cut back on my grocery spending.
I think it is the biggest area most people can really save heaps.
I have so much stuff I need to sell, I just need to find enough baby free time to list it all for sale.
Ahhhh, baby free time. I’m not sure what that phrase means?! I have 1 & 3 year olds so I feel your pain.
Great ideas – though I’m not willing to give up my coffee – that is what will get me limping to Christmas – ha ha!!
Hello from #teamIBOT
Haha, it’s only twice a week 😉
I am in denial about Christmas, but that’s really not going to help me is it?
Great tips here though to help me start thinking about it.
I know, when I realised it was only 3 months I nearly had a heart attack.
Great ideas and I practice a few of them already.
Yeah we use a lot of them just to keep the weekly budget but it’s a good reminder.
I’m already doing most of that. I think I may need to up the selling unwanted items around the house stakes if I’m to make $1500 by Christmas.
We already do most of these things and my partner and I were talking about groceries tonight because we feel that we are still spending the same amount of money each week but getting less and less bang for our buck. It’s definitely frustrating.
I try to buy only unpackaged stuff (avoid the middle aisles of the supermarket) and I find this keeps the food budget pretty consistent. Food prices are definitely rising.
They are all great tips and very practical to implement. Now we will have a reduced income we really need to knuckle down on the discretionary spending like takeaway and coffee. If we save a little along the way, that would be an awesome bonus!
Yep all these tips can be put to use managing a tight budget 🙂
Brilliant tips! It’s amazing to think that saving just $50 a week from now until Christmas would mean an extra $650 in the bank. I really need to be more careful on where and how I spend money on food and coffee. Oh my goodness, I spend way too much money on coffee!
It seems so easy when you look at it in a different way doesn’t it!
I love saving up my change! It never seems like any sort of effort and when the jar is full, I’ve suddenly for $25-70 sitting in it.
That’s so true, it just builds without you even noticing.
Great tips. I love that sliding widget. That’s the best one I’ve seen yet.
Thanks, I’ve only just started using it & it’s great. It’s called theia page slider & I did have a few issues to start but it is great now!
Good stuff! For those not yet doing any of those things already, it would be a sure fire way to save for Christmas and might even get them into the frugal minded ways that can carry on into the new year! For us, we’re already doing a lot of that stuff, so can’t squeeze out more, but then again we’re paying $60K / year towards debt, including mortgage, so Merry Christmas one and all! 😉
Wow, good work!! $60,000 a year is more than many families take home pay so you are doing really really well xx
Great tips Michelle but one that works for me is that I purposely don’t get my tax done too soon. I delay it the longest I can so I am not tempted to spend it. I am counting on this money to get us through Christmas.