Have A Fun Frugal Christmas And Save Money

Is it really possible to have a frugal Christmas and still have lots of fun? Absolutely! I have been doing it for many years now and I have never felt once that I was missing out on anything.

The pressure from advertisers, retailers and lets be honest our children can seem rather overwhelming during the Christmas season. Everywhere you look there are twinkling lights trying to tempt to you into buying some unnecessary expensive item. Even the grocery store becomes a treasure trove of sparkling wrappers and offers.

The problem is many of the offers are not really bargains. If you don’t really need to buy two large tins of sweets for the price of one, or buy the large Christmas cake and get a Yule log for free, how much cake can you really eat? Of course these offers are great if you have a large family to cater for, but the reality for most of us is that these offers are really just drains on our purses.

The secret is to keep focused on your frugal Christmas plan and stick to your budget. Also a frugal Christmas can be fun because it takes away a lot of the tiring and draining shopping and puts a little creativity back into your lives. I will show you how to go about making this years Christmas fun and frugal with none of those January credit card blues.

The frugal Christmas tree

Everyone loves a Christmas tree, but it can be an expensive purchase, especially if you want to have a live tree that can be planted in your garden afterwards. This option only warrants the expense if you have room for a tree in your garden and you live in the right climate for it to flourish. Other options are:

A cut tree

• Buy from a large discount store where the cost of the tree will be the best price.

• Buy your tree as late as possible, as the trees are likely to be marked down even more.

• Don’t buy the largest tree they have, go for a smaller cheaper one, after all it only has to last for a few days and it will be easier to dispose off afterwards.

Artificial trees – this is the most economical option as it can be used year after year at no extra cost. To buy one at a really knocked down price buy one in January for the following year.

Make your own tree – one of my personal favourites. Cut some small branches from evergreen trees growing in your garden or at the side of the road. You only need about three small ones.

Plant them into a pot or bucket of earth and decorate with your own frugal Christmas decorations. I have had some lovely results using holly branches and you still end up with a lovely fresh plant smell as well.

Frugal Christmas Decorations

It is possible to buy some frugal Christmas decorations from the thrift and pound stores, but even then you can end up still spending quite a bit. I’ve always enjoyed making a lot of my own decorations for the house and the tree; it can also be fun to get others involved too. After all isn’t Christmas meant to be about togetherness?

• Decorate a bowl with leaves and rolled up shiny sweet wrappers to represent berries and fill with either winter fruit or potpourri. This makes a lovely centrepiece to any table.

• Find pinecones and spray them with silver or gold paint or sprinkle them with glitter. Great for tree decorations or just decorating shelves

• If you have an old party dress that you no longer want, a good frugal way to use it is to cut it up and make little bows to decorate chair corners or to tie to the branches of your tree.

• Decorate plain white candles with ribbons, twisted leaves or shiny paper. But remember these candles are for decoration only and should not be used.
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• Door wreaths can be made using dried orange and lemon peel, holly, red berries, glitter and shiny rolled up sweet wrappers glued onto thick cardboard. These look great when placed on interior doors throughout the house.

• Dough ornaments are great fun and are great to hang on the tree. Mix 2 cups of flour and half a cup of salt with water to make soft dough. Be creative and use cutters to make stars or make into twists or even mould into fruit shapes.

  Use a toothpick to make a hole if you intend to hang the ornament and leave it in whilst baking. Baking time is 2 hours at 250F and turn if needed and bake for 1 more hour until hard. Once cooled they can be painted, covered in glitter or sprayed.

• Cover tablemats with wrapping paper to add a Christmassy feel to the dinner table.

• Paper chains are easy to make and are a must for a frugal Christmas. You can either buy the strips of pre-glued paper cheaply at discount stores or cut strips from colourful magazines.

These are just some do it yourself Christmas decoration ideas, I’m sure many of you have your own suggestions for making decorations. Why not share them with us and help make Christmas time even more colourful and fun for everyone on a budget. Send your suggestions here.

Frugal Christmas cards and wrapping paper.

I get a real bee in my bonnet every year when I think about all the money wasted, not to mention the waste of resources, on Christmas cards and wrapping paper.

Even if you buy your cards in bulk they can still work out quite expensive if you have lots of people to send to. When you think that most people simply throw paper and cards away after the holidays, it really does seem like a terrible waste.

A great tip for reusing your old Christmas cards, especially cards which have a horizontal picture, is to save them every year and then instead of sending everyone a Christmas card, send them a Christmas postcard. Simply cut off the back of the card and write your message on one side of the reverse and their postal address on the other side. This will not only save you money but will also be something different for your friends and family to receive.

Wrapping paper can also be expensive and is discarded immediately once the present has been opened. Why not buy some inexpensive brown paper on a roll and decorate it your self using children’s paint, sponges, cut-outs or make a collage of pictures of Christmassy things cut from magazines.

Free Gifts

Of course one of the most expensive outlays at Christmas time is gift buying. If you're really stuck for something to buy someone, or you really don’t want to spend much, then why not give the gift of your time?

FREE DOWNLOADABLE GIFT COUPONS I have created some Free Downloadable Fun Gift Coupons for you to cut out and place inside a card, for a free gift that will put a smile on anyone’s face.

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