‘Tis the season for holiday gifting! As holiday spending begins, it’s important to take a step back before maxing out your credit card and be strategic with the gifts you purchase for your loved ones this year. Here are some tips to help you save as you shop and find affordable gifts that your friends and family will love.
Shop sales strategically
Sales are great, but falling into the trap of buying items you don’t need isn’t so great. Rather than shopping a sale, adding any item that looks good to your cart and rushing to checkout as quickly as possible, try to go in with a plan. For example, if you are shopping for a loved one who needs a striped shirt, don’t look at other items besides the one you need to purchase. Going down a rabbit hole of shopping a sale often leads to overspending and buying items you don’t need or want, especially when it comes to holiday spending.
Buy at full price
This sounds counterintuitive, but this particular sentiment has really helped me curb my holiday spending. The idea behind “buy at full price” is that when you are shopping during the holiday season, only purchase items you would buy regardless of a sale or deal. Buying an item simply because it’s cheaper than normal can sometimes mean you buy items just to buy them. Instead, pick out pieces you want regardless of whether or not it’s a good deal.
Let items sit before spending
Holiday sales have a bigger online presence and last much longer than they ever have before. In years past, sales used to only be a few days or hours, and now many last for weeks before and after the holidays. There are some benefits to this, one in particular being that you can let an item sit in your cart before you actually buy it. This means that while you are shopping for yourself or loved ones you can add as many items as you want to your cart, but not check out or purchase. After you add, let a day or two go by before returning to the cart and editing/removing items that you think are no longer necessary to cut down on holiday spending.
Holiday gift ideas: affordable and free
Here’s a list of affordable (or free) gift ideas with items that can all be found for under $50 that will help you scale back your spending:
Gifts for the foodie/chef:
- Milk frother/coffee kit
- Homemade meal
- Baked goods
- Gift card to a favorite restaurant
- Kitchen utensil (lemon squeezer, dish towels, glass tupperware)
Gifts for the bookworm:
- Book
- Bookmarks
- Kindle case
- Book poster
- Book journal to write about what they just read
Gifts for the tech guru:
- Phone case
- Portable speaker/Echo pop
- Airtag
- Portable charger
- Wireless keyboard
Gifts for the socializer:
- Board game
- Paint by number and wine
- Movie tickets/gift card
- Tickets to an event (dance class, cooking class, etc.)
- Murder Mystery Game
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