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One Simple Way To Help Pay For Christmas

November 30, 2016 by Jenny 13 Comments

I understand the financial stress that the holidays can bring.  For many people, gift buying becomes another chore to check off a long holiday list of to-dos.  With a large family and a larger extended family, gift giving can be very expensive.  There have been years where we've been very financially strapped and were so stressed out about gifts that it became almost impossible to enjoy the holiday festivities.  Although I don't know your personal situation and I realize that we're less than a month from Christmas, I wanted to share with you one simple way to help pay for Christmas.

Who finds the holidays more stressful than joyful each year?  For some of us the stress of buying extra gifts, food, and traveling quickly makes the holiday season the most unjoyful time of year.

It doesn’t have to be that way!  With a little holiday planning and a lot of self-care, the holidays can once again become the most joyful time of year.

I understand the financial stress that the holidays can bring.  For many people, gift buying becomes another chore to check off a long holiday list of to-dos.  With a large family and a larger extended family, gift giving can be very expensive.  There have been years where we’ve been very financially strapped and were so stressed out about gifts that it became almost impossible to enjoy the holiday festivities.  Although I don’t know your personal situation and I realize that we’re less than a month from Christmas, I wanted to share with you one simple way to help pay for Christmas.

One simple way to help pay for Christmas is to save your gift cards throughout the year.

Hear me out before you go shaking your finger at me saying, “Really?”  This simple way to save money can take many forms.

If you are a credit card user (and I only recommend that if you pay your balances off every month) accumulate your rewards all year to use towards Christmas.   My husband saves his rewards all year from his card (we pay several of our household bills using that card) and then requests the rewards in form of Target gift cards.  There are other gift cards that we could request but I love Target and can get a lot of my gift shopping done there.  This year I paid for over half of our 5 kids’ Christmas gifts with these and since he pays the balance off each month it was essentially free money.

I have another friend that saves all of her Target gift cards she receives all year round from Target’s weekly gift card promos. When it’s Christmas time she uses all of those gift cards to pay for her gifts.

I love Target’s gift card promos as well but I’ve never saved them up all year.  I think I may do this with half of my cards for next year.  (What I usually do is use the gift cards I earned for buying one promotion and getting a gift card, to purchase the next promotion and receiving another gift card.)  I have no problem having an extra Tide in the closet by buying 2 at a time, using 2 coupons when I check out, and earning a gift card.  When you use your Target debit or credit card you get an extra 5% off on top of that which usually makes these a very good deal.  Target is always offering these type of promos whether it’s deodorant, laundry soap or cat food.  They even work online if you hate going out to shop or don’t live close to a Target.

I know some of you may be nervous about keeping that many gift cards and not losing them throughout the year.  A few solutions to that would be to put them in your lockbox or safe, keep them in a special Christmas box in your closet so you know that is what they are for, or even store them in your desk.  Be creative and I would love to know what works for you!

Have you ever used this simple way to help pay for Christmas?

P.S. I have received zero compensation from Target from this post.  We simply shop there a lot and I do love their gift card promos!

Happy Wednesday! Thanks for joining in the party!

Sometimes I feel hypocritical writing about marriage because I have one failed marriage under my belt. On the flip side, I've seen what really doesn't work and have experienced the pure joy of what a "good" marriage is all about. I've been married twice (for a combined total of 14 years) . Luckily the second time has worked out much better than the first! So please grant me grace, but I hope my experiences will only help you in your own marriage (or a friend's)! Here are 10 things I wish I'd known before saying, "I do".

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  • This is a link up party where you come to encourage one another, have fun, and share your best posts to help women live their best life!
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  1. You must link directly to your post (no homepages, please).
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[inlinkz_linkup id=681278 mode=1]

Community building question: What is one simple way you either save for the holidays or pay for the holidays?

I also like to stock up on gift cards for teachers, friends, and family when restaurants have their holiday promotions on gift cards.  My bonus dad loves Buffalo Wild Wings as does my stepbrother so last week when we were at BWW they had a promo of spend $25, you earn a gift card back from BWW.  I did 2 of these and now we have some money to use after the holidays and I’m tired of cooking! 😉  Win for all!

Have you enjoyed what you read here today? Do you have friends or other women you know that could benefit from this resource? If so, please do me a favor! I have included the links below to share with other intentional women! They’ll be glad you did!

Filed Under: Women With Intention Wednesdays

Comments

  1. Elizabeth says

    November 30, 2016 at 8:03 AM

    That is a great idea about gift cards! I usually set aside a small amount every month – about 20 dollars – (I can automate this through my bank into a little saving pot) so that when Christmas comes around, there is a pot waiting to pay for the gifts. The bit that always catches me out, though, is the Christmas food and entertaining – it can be expensive 🙂

    Reply
    • Jenny says

      November 30, 2016 at 8:41 AM

      Great tip! We have a jar like that for vacations. It works great! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Debbie Wilson says

    November 30, 2016 at 8:13 AM

    I hadn’t thought of using credit card rewards for Christmas. I’ll have to see if mine work. I’ve used them for travel. Great idea!

    Reply
    • Jenny says

      November 30, 2016 at 8:39 AM

      I know not all of them do but we have 2 different companies and both offer gift cards. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Michele Morin says

    November 30, 2016 at 8:19 AM

    We shop all year long. I can’t stand the pressure of the last minute, so I usually spend December wrapping the things that we started buying the previous January. I just have to make sure that I keep a pretty good list of the things I buy or . . .

    Reply
    • Jenny says

      November 30, 2016 at 8:39 AM

      Great tip, Michele! 🙂

      Reply
    • Jenny says

      November 30, 2016 at 8:39 AM

      Great tip, Michele! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Erin says

    November 30, 2016 at 8:50 AM

    This year, we saw that Old Navy was having a big sale of 40% off, plus 30% more if you signed up for their e-mails, and another 10% off of sale items. We knew we would be shopping there for at least some of our family, so instead of spending full price for the gifts later when we would usually shop, we went ahead and ordered a bunch of stuff. I don’t know that we actually saved though because the sale just ended up allowing us to get more things per person… Whoops! 🙂

    Reply
  5. Heather says

    November 30, 2016 at 9:12 AM

    I’m finding that my dread of the holiday season is stealing the joy from it. So this year I’m purposefully focusing on the things I enjoy about the holidays. I was teaching my kids that mindset makes a difference and it clicked that the same can be true for the holidays. We don’t shop target, but we do use a credit card that gives us cash back.

    Reply
  6. Brooke Grangard says

    November 30, 2016 at 9:28 AM

    This is a great idea. Very practical and something we can all do. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  7. Susan Shipe says

    November 30, 2016 at 10:58 AM

    That would take discipline but what a fabulous idea!

    Reply

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Hello! I’m Jenny!

I'm a wife, a mom of 6 and daughter of the King. I love my chocolate, cute cloth diapers, DIY and self-improvement projects, and curling up with a great book!

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