How to Holiday Shop on a Budget

With Christmas right around the corner, you may be starting to stress a bit about how and where to shop for the ones you love…on a budget! There is no need to stress there is an easy way to shop and find gifts for everyone in your life without breaking the bank! For Blogmas Day Eight, I’m sharing eight different ways on how to holiday shop on a budget.

Whether your budget is $100 or $1000, all of these tips will help you stick to your budget, whatever that may be.

If you want to see gift ideas for everyone in your life, check out my holiday gift guides!

*Some of the below links are affiliate links and are at no additional cost to you. I have only included links to products that I have used myself and would recommend to others.*

Set a Budget

Obviously if you are on a budget, you are going to need to set a budget for your holiday gifts. Do this before you do anything else! This would be your entire budget for everyone. To make things easy, I’m going to say that my budget is 200 for everyone. This would be the MAX to spend on gifts for everyone.

**Write down Everyone You’re Shopping For**

This includes friends, family, neighbors and anyone else you want to give a gift to. So say that I have 10 people I am shopping for. With my 200 budget, this would mean that each person will be getting roughly a $20 gift.

Write Down the Big Gifts

Some people won’t need as big of a gift as others. For example, you may want to get your mom a $30 robe, but you know that you’ll be making your neighbor a dessert that’ll cost you only $5 to make! So it’s okay that you are going over your $20 per person budget because it’ll even out!

Think of Ideas

If you already know what you want to get your mom, then right that down with an estimate of how much it’ll cost. Plan out what dessert you’ll be making your neighbor. I like to write a long list of everyone, then next to it write the gift and the price of it! It really helps you see everything in one place!

Remember Free/Homemade Gifts

Maybe your friend is obsessed with her Instagram, offer to give her 2 hours of photography time! Make your neighbors treats! These gifts will be just as meaningful without breaking the bank. Some of my favorite vegan bakers are Minimalist Baker, Oh She Glows and Joy the Baker.

Download Ebates

I use Ebates literally every single time I shop online! Who doesn’t like free money right? It’s a completely free online cash back service where you can download the extension for chrome and a message will pop up saying how much you’ll get back for shopping on any given website! With so many stores to chose from such as Amazon, Ulta, Macy’s there is no reason not to sign up! You’ll receive a percent back every time you shop online. While I don’t normally get more than a dollar or two back with each purchase, those add up! If you join here, after you spend $25, you’ll receive $10!

ALSO: If you don’t want to wait for your package to arrive in the mail, see if you can pick it up in store!

Take Advantage of Sales

Now is the time to actually go shopping! Don’t forget to check out your favorite stores every couple days to see if they are doing a sale or not! There was a specific gift that I really wanted to get someone, but it was out of my price range. However, just a couple days later it went on sale for 50% off! This is the time to check out those store emails you get instead of trashing them! Even though Black Friday has passed, tons of stores are still having crazy sales!

Bring Your List Shopping

It’s so easy to get distracted when you are out shopping or even shopping online. Keep your list of what to get everyone on you! Make sure that you stick to it! If you are shopping in stores, take out the cash that you have allotted for those gifts to help you stick to your budget. Even if you’re shopping online, have your list right in front of you.