How are you stretching your pennies this holiday season?

i have saved up both money and vouchers and i use these in the sales after christmas to pay for the christmas after. Money is really tight with me. I will again shop after christmas ready for next year so i take advantage of all the sale prices. The VAT is about to rise here in january so i want to get the presents in quickly after christmas. I also will be hopeing to get more money in my account here to just give me that little bit extra. While my son is so young he has no idea as to the prices of things, but when he is older then he will be stating what he wants, but i can only get what i can afford so i guess i had better work my backside off in here and earn more money quickly.

I have a couple of vouchers from doing surveys coming my way, and it will be used to get some essential stuff. Whatever I'm earning online is going to help with monthly expenses as well purchasing gifts for everyone. Getting some of these items from the $2 dollar store can also help to save lots. I think I shall do that this year.

hi dorannmwin for me its extremely tight, but I got one break in that I had overpaid the ambulance compny as my insurance stepped in amd paid my copay why I do not know but it will help me with christmas and with my internet bill. I have not bought any gift cards yet but am thinking of getting one on amazon for my son as there s a book he wants and they might have it. its hard to me to hobble around through the stores and too I have got to do some more thinking on what I want to buy.online really does help. I use those pretty gift bags and save on wrapping paper and ribbons too.

Buy them cheaper gifts! Thankfully this year mine don't want anything really expensive. Last year I almost killed myself getting them each their own hand held gaming system on top of a decent spread of other toys. Well, this year only 1 of those gaming systems still works.. so I'm not doing that again! This year as far as video games go I think I"ll just get them each a game to one of the systems we already own like the Wii, X Box 360 or the ps3. Too bad all 3 systems are hooked up to the same TV so there will be some fighting over it.. but it could also be good insentive to behave as the child who behaves the best that day will most likely be the one to be able to play their game!

It is going to be tough for me too. One son unemployed and my sister will be staying for over a month so my grocery bill is high. We decided that gifts for children only and these gifts are not expensive. My daughter was in the US - lots of air miles and cheap ticket. She went to buy her wedding dress in a sale and did. Amazing bargain. Absolutely beautiful. Anyway, I gave her US$40 and she bought everything on my Xmas list. when she went The bonus I am receiving from my full time job will go to the tax man on property tax owed on the farm. I do not have the full amount but 3 of the children are helping me with it. Then I get a small bonus from my part time job and this will buy the ham and turkey etc. So I am really blessed. Any food left over we will put into boxes and distribute to the homeless in town. No good getting stressed over it all. We just do what we have to do. Well done with your planning

Wow, good for you and the children. Yes we are not all so well off that we can not be cautious. I too have used several gift cards for a great many gifts as well. Yeah! I have also use listia, which I have won a great many of my bids with the free points.

I saved up Amazon gift certificates, too and had quite a bit saved. I spent a little more than that, but not much. Other than those gifts, I'm making stockings out of yarn that I already had and intend to fill them (at least partly) with homemade cookies and candy instead of buying anything else. I had already made teatowels for all the women and knitted a hood for my son who works out in the cold, so I will get by without spending much cash at all.

Doing this, mylot, is helping, also doing other online work (chacha as a guide) and doing the swag bucks helps. Knowing how much I want to spend on what and exactly what I want to buy before hand also helps. For our extended family, and my older girls, they are getting homemade items like knitted throws and pajamas. I made a bag/purse for my oldest daughter. These were all minimal in cost compared to just going to buy them from the store. My hubby works for WalMart, so we have his discount card and he gives me the heads up on sales and good buys so we plan that way as well. I picked up a couple of things at a thrift store. We also have a couple of things put away that were picked up through the year and set aside for gift giving time. Considering all of our extended family, with the exception of our parents, are also having difficult financial times, we aren't exchanging gifts this year. I have 6 kids (the most out of everyone, everyone else only have 2) so that'd be an undue (I feel) hardship on them. For the extended family that is getting gifts, they are all homemade. Knitted wraps, scarves, and hats. I think for my MIL I may make her a nice necklace or two. Thankfully I am pretty crafty so doing that kind of thing is an option. It's also nice that I have a lot of craft materials (beads, yarn, etc) already in the house so I'm using what I have as much as possible.

This Christmas is going to be really tight for us too. I have a few gifts that I have gotten earlier in the year and I was hoping to do some more shopping but I am not sure that it will happen. I would like to buy my daughter the guitaar that she wants but I am not sure that I can. I wish I had gift cards to get to buy gifts with.

That's a good question! We are having a very tough Christmas this year because son will be having major surgery on Dec. 22 so will still be in the hospital for Christmas. And we have expense of transportation, hotel, food, etc. while he is in the hospital. Also I will be staying with him and not working so my income will be much smaller. But fortunately I tend to shop all year long at sales and have been able to get some gift cards for free so that should help some. I am also a big Ebay shopper and have found some good deals on gifts there. Hope you all have a Happy Holiday!

We have been saving money most of the year just cutting back on everything this year. I have been saving money from car insurance to cutting down our grocery bill and also having my hubby take his lunch everyday. I have saved all my gift cards for Amazon all year, and I have also gotten a $100.00 gift card to Lowe's to help in buying something for my husband. It will be a tight Christmas, but we will manage to get through it once again!

I saw one response here that said, 'buy them cheaper gifts!' -which I did. Thankfully, this year the kids are not into much of the expensive gifts. They already have the game consoles at home, so I would think that we just need some cheap games to make them happy. We're also planning to participate in some activities in the community. We just did a 'Breakfast with Santa' last weekend. And for the amount I paid, it was really worth it. The kids had fun. No need to go somewhere and spend a lot.

Hi, dorannwin! Hope you have a good time! Actually, I don't have any amazon gift cards or something. I'll have only my salary as well as some vouchers from work. What I'm gonna do this year is just spending the vouchers in a market. Probably I'll have to use my own money as well. And that's it. Hopefully, I'll catch some good promotions and this way I'll be able to save some money. It's really not easy to save money nowadays. Most of the people just don't earn enough. I'm still thankful because I have enough money to make a living. It's with hard work, of course - but thank God that I have a chance to earn any money at all :) Enjoy the Hollidays!

I'm a college student, I have to/want to get gifts for my parents, sister, boyfriend & a few friends. I saved up from survey sites, and other sites into my savings account. :)

I used Amazon gift cards to get people books, and airmiles points to get Starbucks gift cards. We used coupons for some clothing purchases, and I sewed a ton of presents during the summer. We're trying really hard to be very frugal this year, but because we have so many people we exchange gifts with, it's very difficult.

i have sold items on ebay and bought stuff from there, plus, i shop at thrift stores and have made a few things. I am making victorian cones for Christmas plus i made an afghan for a daughters friend. i make gift tags, bag them and give them as gifts, make chocolate spoons (chocolate dipped spoons with sprinkles on them) etc...

I am ashamed to say that I failed miserably in stretching pennies this holiday season. I have two teenagers and everything they wanted was high tech. It was hard not spend good money on things they wanted. I tried to avoid picking up lots of extra stuff, but with all the people we have to buy for it was hard to stay in the budget, so I am afraid I get an F this year. My challenge will now to be pay everything off as quickly as possible and January will be a very frugal month for me and my family.

Well, my wife pretty much does all the Christmas shopping and she just informed me yesterday that she went way over budget. We really need to plan for Christmas more in the future. She felt bad and was crying about it, and I felt bad for her, but going forward we just have save more and spend less in the years to come at Christmas time.

Dorann- It's going to be tight here as well. I've been picking up very cheap gifts online and the store throughout the year but it still won't be as much as I read some people boasting about. The kids will each get one gift that they've been asking for all year, and a few little stocking things. Most likely the stocking stuffers will be socks, and things they need with a few added fruits, nuts, and chocolates. And when I mean tight, it will be tight. Between bills, debt payments, and keeping food on the table that is about all we have. I've been stingy on some things just to make sure we're able to do the Yule. All of our decorations are ones we've had for ages, most of them given to me by my mother, and the rest hand-made. We are not having a tree this year because we simply cannot afford to get one. I'm going to go with the Fare for All food again for the Yule. I picked up the Thanksgiving basket meal of theirs for $30 and the Christmas basket is approximately the same so that is one full meal (I cook) for $30. That's not too bad and won't break the bank. I have to say I feel we've been very blessed (putting forth the good energies). Even if my family doesn't live in the richest neighborhood, wears hand made clothing, and only gets one or two gifts each year at the Yule we are happy. We have our needs met, and we always end up with one or two special new things each year that we treasure. Namaste-Anora

Hi! I'm done shopping for gifts already. I'm really in a budget so I don't go overboard on spending. I'm glad I found this cool items that are on my budget. Still I have 4 reunions to attend this month so I must stay with in my spendings.