Christmas can be so hard when you’re desperately struggling with money but I promise that it’s not impossible. I too am currently struggling with money, I’m all about complete transparency with you guys and I’m not going to lie to you, I am broke, like living off a fiver level broke. If there’s anyone out there who can give you tips on handling Christmas with a very small amount of money, then I’m your girl.
LIMIT THE PEOPLE YOU GIVE PRESENTS TO
It can become so easy to say you’re going to give presents to absolutely every single special person in your life: your parents, your siblings, your aunts and uncles, school friends, college friends, work friends; the list just goes on and on. Even if you’re really good at finding cheap gifts the sheer volume of these gifts means that you’ll be spending a pretty penny on presents for everyone. I’m definitely guilty of this in the past, where I’d buy gifts for everyone in my friendship group, when I only could really afford to buy them for my close friends, but the pressure meant that I felt compelled to splash out on everyone. By scaling down your gifting list you’ll save yourself a lot of money and be able to really buy thoughtful, quality gifts for those that really matter.
MAKE HOMEMADE GIFTS
Think less like Phoebe’s sock bunnies from Friends and more like a thoughtful photo collage or scrapbook. You don’t have to be like Neil Buchanan from Art Attack to rustle up a quality home made gift, you just need some cheap craft supplies, I recommend hitting up The Works and The Range, and having some imagination. In the past I have created memory boxes for my friends, which was an incredibly easy yet emotive gift, and was created using a wooden box from The Works, which I then painted in their favourite colour and filled with photos of our favourite memories and comforting pieces such as face masks and fluffy socks. All in all I’d say the boxes cost between £6-10 each, which was quite cheap for the amount of things I managed to get in the boxes and the happiness in their eyes when they received them.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ANY DEALS OR SALES
Keep your eyes peeled for any festive deals arriving in your inbox, or even on TV or online adverts, that’ll help you save money. This tip is particularly helpful if you’ve got your eye on a particular gift, but it’s just a little out of your budget. My inbox is often flooded with emails at this time of year, pushing different deals and sales from all sorts of shops.
CHECK OUT LOCAL CHARITY SHOPS
You never know what you may find in a charity shop; whether it’s a book that they’ll love for under £1 or a festive item of clothing that they’ll be able to wear for New Year, charity shops are overflowing with deals and they’re the perfect place to head for ridiculously low priced gifts. If your local high street is anything like mine then you’ll have numerous charity shops that you can explore. Another top charity shop tip is to head to more upper class, rich areas near where you live, their charity shops are more likely to have better quality, and maybe even designer, pieces for insanely low prices.
Love Chloe x
Good ideas x