I know—it feels a little early to start talking about Christmas. Heck, it’s still pumpkin spice season after all and you’re trying to enjoy the fall decorations you just put up. I get it. You aren’t exactly ready to bust out the eggnog and hear carolers singing at your front door. But hear me out! While it might be too early to hang the mistletoe, it’s never too early to save money for Christmas.

When to Start Saving Money for Christmas

Now . . . yeah, like right now. The sooner you start to save money for Christmas, the better (and less brutal) it will be. Too many people wait until December to buy gifts. With no money saved up, they turn to credit cards in a panic and end up paying for Christmas until April of the next year. Not good!

There’s no reason to put yourself through that kind of stress. Just take some time to think ahead and you can avoid that mess. The best way to do it? Start saving in January, put aside a little money each month, and you’ll be golden come December! But if you’re just now starting to save money for Christmas, don’t worry. There’s still plenty of time to save up a stash of cash between now and then.

So, ready or not, start playing your favorite Christmas tunes and curl up with a good cup of hot cocoa—I’m about to show you 9 ways to save money for the holidays. The best part? You can still use these tips year-round! 

9 Ways to Save Money For The Holidays

1. Buy generic brands.

If you’re an avid fan of a certain cereal, snack or yogurt brand, see if you can give the generic brand a try for a little while. Small tweaks like these can really make a difference when it comes to hitting your Christmas savings goal.

If you go completely generic for just 10 meals over the course of two months, you could cut more than $50 from your grocery bill! Even if you aren’t ready to buy all generic all the time, just buying generic staple items like milk, juice, spices, flour, sugar and produce can help you save a bundle. The small changes really add up!

2. Pack your own lunch.

It’s time to embrace the office microwave and say hello to the leftover life! If your go-to lunch plan is hitting up the drive-thru for an $8 meal, you’re wasting $40 a week right there. While it might not seem like a ton of cash for just one week, that adds up to $160 a month (and $320 over two months)! Take the cheaper route and swap that out for bringing leftovers from home. Your wallet is sure to thank you!

3. Sell stuff with apps.

Believe it or not, selling all that extra stuff you have laying around can really add up. You probably won’t get a ton of money for Christmas this way, but you might be pleasantly surprised by how much cash you’ll rake in just for getting rid of things you don’t need.

Gone are the days of taking your gear to a consignment shop or praying your garage sale is a hit. Now you can snap a picture of the item, post it in an app, and sit back and wait for someone to make an offer. It’s as easy as that! Sell your used treasures on sites like OfferUp, Poshmark, decluttr, letgo and Facebook Marketplace. Of course, you can always have a good, old-fashioned garage sale too!

4. Pause your gym membership.

Think back to last year . . . you had every intention of going to the gym. Once the holiday madness started to kick in—how many times did you really go? Plus, if your gym still has restrictions thanks to COVID-19, you might not be using that membership much now anyway. Let’s say your gym membership costs $50 a month. If you can pause your membership for eight weeks, that’s an extra $100 toward your Christmas savings!

That doesn’t mean you have to forgo your fitness though. While the weather is still nice, take advantage of walking or jogging outdoors in the evenings after work, or team up with a coworker to walk during your lunch break.

Is staying indoors more your thing? YouTube workouts make it easy to stay fit for free.

5. Drop the subscriptions.

Subscription services are everywhere. If you aren’t careful, those things will $12.95 you into a hole. If you drop some of the more expensive subscriptions like your meal kit delivery service, you could save some serious cash right there!

Meals kits can set you back around $50 a week for three meals for two people. Sure, you think you’re being somewhat frugal, but that still adds up. If you put it on hold for the next two months and buy basic staples to make multiple meals, you could save a couple hundred dollars! It’s time to get your cheap meal ideas from Pinterest or your favorite blogger.

Maybe you’re a book nerd and opted in for Audible to get through your books on the go. It’s handy, sure—but if you pause your membership for two months, you’ll have $30 to add to your Christmas budget. In the meantime, you can download Libby or OverDrive and get free e-books that you can read right from your tablet or phone. Try giving books a break and dive into a podcast or two!

You can live off of basic meals and podcasts for a mere eight weeks—trust me! You probably won’t miss those subscriptions too much anyway. After all, it’s only temporary. You can sign back up in the new year if you really miss them. Or let them go for good and enjoy the savings all year long.

6. Use cash back apps.

Disclaimer: Don’t expect to make 1,000 bucks using these apps. But after a few months, cash back reward apps such as Ibotta, Rakuten and Receipt Hog can start to add up.

So, how does it all work? It’s simple! Apps like these offer you rewards or points for doing certain things. Sometimes that’s buying bananas and milk or spending $20 at a popular store. The amount of points (aka cash) you get from each transaction depends on what you’re doing. You can usually expect to earn anywhere from 25 cents to $3 in reward points for things you do.

Keep in mind, most of these apps make you hit a $5 or $10 minimum before you can cash out your rewards. Just make sure you aren’t buying things you don’t need to collect the points (talk about not helpful). If you can get cash for things you buy or do every day, you’ll have $20 more to your name in no time!

7. Make coffee at home.

Do you treat yourself to a fancy latte every Friday morning? That might not seem like much, but it still sets you back about $5 each week. Just think: if you could cut the coffee habit and stash away $5 a week for eight weeks, you’d end up with $40 right there!

I’m not asking you to cut out coffee completely—I’m not heartless. But guess what? You can make your favorite drink at home. Look up copycat recipes to follow (they’re all over the internet). A lot of them surprisingly taste better than the “real deal” at the coffee shop. Enjoy your morning coffee while smiling at that extra $5 bill still hanging out in your wallet!

8. Look for deals early.

The early bird gets the worm—and the deal too! There are plenty of end-of-summer, back-to-school and economy-stimulating sales going on these days, so keep your eyes peeled. You never know what you might find after a little digging. Be on the lookout for stocking stuffers, end-of-season clothing and deals on those more expensive items like electronics.

Another good reason to get your shopping done earlier this year? Shipping time. It’s no secret a lot of people are shopping online these days (and even more thanks to the pandemic). Online holiday sales have been up over the last few years and things will probably be the same this year. So don’t wait till the last minute to tackle your Christmas shopping—you don’t want to pay for expedited shipping!

9. Have a DIY Christmas.

Hop onto Pinterest or Instagram to get some ideas for crafts that you can give as DIY Christmas gifts. Searching for them now gives you plenty of time to buy the materials and put the effort into creating something that has just the right touch.

How to Budget for Christmas

Take a look at how much you spent on Christmas last year to get an idea of where you might want to land this year. Where can you cut back? Once you’ve given it some thought, create a Christmas Budget grand total for this year. Now divide it by the number of months or weeks left until Christmas (ugh, nothing bums out the Christmas spirit like math—I know). The number you end up with is how much you need to set aside each month or week for Christmas. In December, your Christmas savings will be set and you can enjoy the season instead of feeling pinched for extra money.

Let’s say your budget for Christmas is $700. If you started saving in January, then you’d only have to put away about $58 each month to hit that goal. If you haven’t saved anything at this point, you’ve only got two months left if you want to hit your goal by December. That means you need to save $350 each month (or $87.50 a week). It might sound tough, but you can do it! These tips will help get you there fast.

Save Money for Christmas Now

Christmas will be here before you know it, so don’t let it sneak up on you! Start to save money for Christmas now!

Ready to start your Christmas budget? Grab my free template today as start planning!