Each day we will be posting A Thrifty Christmas Tip, from our readers. At the end of the month, one of you will win a $100.00 Gift Card. For all the details click here. Keep those thrifty tips coming!!!
Becky
This is not really a thrifty idea but it is something we do every year. our kids are teens and theyreally don’t have any real needs or wants. We pick a family we know that is struggling financially and do a ding dong dash. We choose gifts for the kids. ( Usually we know the family) We then drop off the presents anonymously, ringing the doorbell and running away before they can figure out who did it.
One year we had 2 feet of snow on the ground and many of our neighborhoods are not plowed. My boys took the presents up and had to run through the snow, they even fell. It was a very good feeling to do it as a family and keep it a total secret. This year we have chosen my oldest sons best friends family. ( My son is almost 17)
Brittany
Every year on Christmas Eve my family would drive around town and look at all the christmas lights that were up. Everytime we would see a manger scene we would cheer and we would tally up how many lights displays had nativity scenes. It was always so much fun and a great way to spend time with everyone (no one can leave because we’re in the car;)) and keep the true meaning of christmas in our celebration
Heather
we like to do “thrift gifts”, which are cheap things we find at thrift stores for each other. it “fills in” on christmas morning so everyone feels like they are getting more. The “thrift gifts” have become my favoite things to recieve. but we are sure to label them as “thrift gifts” so no one expects much from package. Also, we draw names for a 5.00 gift that we open on christmas eve.
Mandy K
This year I not only discovered Restaurant.com, but that they have fabulous promotion codes throughout the year. Since we just welcomed a little one into the world in April, our budget is VERY tight this year! I decided to try giving Restaurant.com gift certificates to local restaurants to many members of our family for Christmas this year. Using a 90% off promo code, I got about $425 worth of gift certificates for only around $16!! I made sure to buy only $25 gift certificates, which usually only require the patron to spend at least $35 (about what we normally spend when someone gives us a $25 gift card to a restaurant as a gift anyway). While the 90% off promo code applied to all gift certificates, I decided $50 or $100 gift certificates would not be a good gift since the patron would have to spend double those amounts to use them!
This year will be the test run for the Restaurant.com gift certificates. I hope everyone likes them! But man, going this route for family gifts certainly saved us some MAJOR dough this holiday season!!
Janeen
I also grew up being taught the real meaning of Christmas. We not only knew why we celebrated this wonderful time of the year, but we felt it. To us, Christmas was an action not “presents”. Service is deeply imbeded in my family because my parents worked hard to teach us that to truely be happy, you had to be grateful. In order to be grateful, you have to serve. We begin in November to prayerfully ask for service opportunities. Some costs money, but many just costs our time. This year I am encouraging the kids not to tell me or dad what they have done. This way, they don’t feel the need to be praised. Serving most often should be done anonymously to ensure a deep feeling of gratitude.
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