More Ways to Save During the Holidays

More Ways to Save During the Holidays
You can never have too many tips on how to save money during the holidays. Dr. Rebecca J. Travnichek, Family Financial Education Specialist with University of Missouri Extension shares additional tips on how to spend less and get more over the holiday season.
Set some reasonable ground rules regarding gifts for relatives. It’s easy to lose control when it comes to family gift-giving. If you’ve always given a gift to your sister, but now she’s married with children, don’t get trapped into giving many gifts. You’ll end up spending a king’s ransom on present. Instead, suggest to family members that ground rules be set as to who will receive gifts and who won’t. One gift to each family, rather than one gift to each family member, would be an appropriate way to keep a financial lid on things.
Do your Christmas shopping early, when gifts are on sale. Draw up a Christmas shopping game plan well ahead of time. Your efforts will be amply rewarded. Once you know who is getting what, you can purchase gift items when they go on sale. Why fight frenzied last-minute Christmas shoppers for the privilege of paying full price?
Don’t go overboard when giving young children holiday gifts. Amid the general chaos and excitement that usually accompany major holidays, individual gifts receive only fleeting attention. Young children have short attention spans, which makes it unlikely that they will lavish much attention on most of their presents.
Don’t buy gifts that require batteries. Unless you want to bankrupt the recipient slowly.
Organize a "Secret Santa" at your office. If holiday gift-giving is getting out of hand at the office, organize a "Secret Santa." Each participant draws out of a hat a name of a coworker to whom he or she must anonymously give one present. Everyone is assured of getting a gift, and more importantly, each person has to buy only one gift.
Make your own wreaths. Rather than buying a wreath, why not make your own? It’s a fun family project, and it saves money. The best Christmas tree decorations are the homemade variety. If there are children about, take advantage of that no-cost source of enthusiastic labor to reduce the expense of adorning your tree.
Reuse tinsel. We use tinsel that has been used on the tree for the past several years. While the savings may be small, recycling tinsel sends an important message to the younger generation: Waste is wasteful.
Don’t spend a fortune in outdoor lighting. Drive around some neighborhoods during the holiday season and you will think that you’re in Las Vegas or Times Square. There must be some sort of no-holds-barred competition among the residents of these neighborhoods. Someday a jet is going to mistake these Xmas-happy locales for an international airport and attempt to land on someone’s front lawn. You don’t need a "thousand points of light" to celebrate the season, unless you own a large block of stock in your local utility company.
For more information on this or any other family or personal finance topic, contact Dr. Rebecca J. Travnichek at the Andrew County Extension Center (816) 324-3147.