5 Holiday Saving Tips

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  The holiday seasons are upon us.  For college students, this can be one of the greatest times for two reasons: no school and free homemade food!  But with Christmas approaching there's always the dread that comes with having the extra expenses of buying gifts.  Here are some ways to save this holiday season!

1) Make a list.  Before you go out and impulse buy, try to figure out who you need to get gifts for, a few ideas of what to get them, and how much you would like to spend on each person.  By making a list you'll already have an idea before you walk into the store.  Being prepared ahead of time will also allow you to shop around for the best price, find coupons, or try to find a diy project to make.

2) Make your own gifts. Pinterest is the greatest thing ever invented.  It has plenty of ideas of do-it-yourself presents that you can make on a budget.  There are a lot of blogs out there that have crafty ideas that you can make as gifts.  Not only will you save money, but your present will be more personalized and meaningful.  They will love it!

3) Use coupons.  If you're like me, you get about twenty emails a day from stores with coupons and deals.  I usually delete them instantly, but now is the time to start reading.  You can save by utilizing these promotional emails.  Some emails include 40% off plus free shipping, a great saving!  If you hate getting emails, only subscribe to them before Christmas and take yourself off the email list after that.  Also, take advantage of social media.  A lot of stores will put promotions on their Facebook page.  Like your favorite store pages, and save!

4) Save on gift cards.  If you like to give gift cards as presents, get them on sale.  A lot of stores, including Costco and Sam's Club, will sell gift cards for less than their face value.  There are also websites like plasticjungle.com and GiftCards.com where you can get gift cards for a discounted price.

5) Know your budget.  By knowing how much you can spend on holiday gifts, you'll cut down on spending.  Charging all your gifts to your credit card won't do you any good.  Figure out how much you can spend and divide it up among the people you need to get gifts for.  If it won't work, don't buy anything.  

Holiday Savings

With Halloween just passed, that means it's on to Thanksgiving then the final stretch til Christmas.  You may have gone out and gotten your Halloween costumes and candy, and are now thinking about Christmas decorations, Ugly Sweater parties, and all holiday food.  The best way to save on these holiday items is to shop right after the holiday!

Halloween costumes can be really expensive.  One way to lessen this expense is to make your own costume.  There are many websites nowadays that have lots of ideas of diy costumes.  Just check out Pinterest and you'll find all kinds of diy costumes.

If you're not very creative, just go online and start looking for costumes right after Halloween.  You'll find costumes for half as much as they'd normally be.  Another way to save is to trade Halloween costumes with friends.

Here's a website where all the costumes are half as much as they would be next year before Halloween.
http://www.cheaphalloweencostumes.us/default.asp

Check out this collage of diy Halloween costumes I found on Pinterest and online:

As Christmas rolls around, it's time to bring out the ugly sweaters!  The best (and cheapest) place to get ugly sweaters are consignment stores like Goodwill.  But don't wait til the last minute or all the ugliest will be gone!  Another way to save is to trade ugly sweaters with your friends.  

Above are pictures from last year's holiday season.  My friend Allie and I traded sweaters rather than buying new ones, saving money.  A great thing about ugly sweaters is that you can buy oversized ones and wear them with leggings and long Christmas socks to complete your outfit.  Throw in some cheap jingle bell earrings or accessories (think garland necklace, Christmas hat, reindeer ears, etc.) and you have a complete ugly sweater party outfit!  

Bottom line: Holiday parties can get expensive, but if you shop consignment and right after holidays you can save big time.

Buy in Bulk

If you're like me and tend to always buy the same groceries every time you go to the grocery store, you might want to try buying in bulk.  A good way to save money is to buy in bulk.  There are stores such as Costco and Sam's Club that specialize in bulk shopping, but this also can apply to Walmart or other places you get groceries.  Instead of buying a one or two boxes of macaroni at a time, buy the pack of six.  Instead of buying a few boxes of frozen lunches at a time, look for the bulk boxes.  This will cost more initially, but save you over time.

Some tips to use when shopping in bulk include: share with roommates, always make a list, never shop when hungry, avoid impulse buys, use coupons, and buy household staples.  Sharing with roommates lets you buy the huge packages of food and split it among each other.  That also cuts the cost.  Always making a list makes you stick to what you need and not just what you want.  Along with that comes never shop when you're hungry.  If you do this, you'll buy way more food than you would if you weren't hungry.  Avoid impulse buys, which are usually the middle aisles at Costco and Sam's Club.  Use coupons when you shop anywhere.  Costco and Sam's Club usually have coupon booklets at the front of the store so pick one up when you arrive.  Buy household staples like laundry detergent, soap, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc. because these are items you will always need, so buying in bulk will save.

Added bonuses of going to places like Costco and Sam's Club are that they save you gas because you will take less trips to the grocery store and they usually have food samples on weekends so you can basically eat a full meal walking around the store.

Sam's Club offers a Collegiate Membership for $40.  With this you will receive all the benefits of Advantage Membership, it will give you a $15 shopping card, and comes with a primary and household card.  That means that you could split the $40 between two people and each of you could have cards, so really only $20 a person.  Sam's Club also offers a gift membership that's $40 and gives you a year of membership.  This would be great to ask for for Christmas from your family!  Another benefit is that you can shop online.  Payment methods for Sam's Club include:

Payment methods accepted in Sam's Club	Payment methods accepted at SamsClub.com
Sam's Club Credit	Sam's Club Credit
Walmart and Sam's Club shopping Cards	Walmart and Sam's Club shopping Cards
Cash or Check	Check
Debit Card	Debit Card
Discover	American Express*
MasterCard	Discover
SNAP	MasterCard
Walmart Credit

 

Costco has a $55 annual fee. You can get a Gold Star Membership or gift of Gold Star Membership as a present.  You can shop online at Costco as well.  They also give you one primary and one household card, so you could split the cost between you and a friend.  Costco accepts cash, checks, debit/ATM cards, EBT, Costco credit cards, American Express, and Costco cash cards.

Buying in bulk can save, but for some things it might not be a great deal.  By calculating the individual product cost, you will find out if it is a steal or not.

Bottom line: Buying in bulk may initially cost you more money, but can save you money in the long run.

Sources:
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4565369_buying-food-bulk-save-money.html
http://www.familycircle.com/family-fun/money/save-money-at-costco-and-warehouse-stores/?page=1
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/
http://www.costco.com/.product.3164.html