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Frugal Shopping for December
Although you have probably already spent a lot plenty for the holidays, December still has some bargains worth taking advantage of. There are still some discount-priced foods and consumer goods to be had, and don’t forget to use loyalty cards with the stores, and coupons.
Make your holiday dinners extra-special by taking advantage of these December deals at your grocery store:
✴ Dairy, such as butter and cheese
✴ Breads, like ready-made dough, dinner rolls and pie crusts
✴ Dessert items, such as cake mixes, icings, refrigerated cookie dough, pie filling
✴ Baking supplies, like yeast, sugar, flours, chocolate chips, spices, nuts, baking chocolate
✴ Ham
✴ Sweet potatoes
✴ Mushrooms
✴ Pears
✴ Tangerines
✴ Soda pop
You’ll enjoy some fantastic deals on a variety of consumer goods, given the time of year. Watch for big discounts on toys, tools and electronics. Plan to buy extra paper products for the kitchen. Make it a point to explore incredible savings at your local big box stores on the following goods:
✴ Toys
✴ Tools
✴ Gift cards
✴ Electronics, including computers
✴ Plastic wrap
✴ Aluminum foil
✴ Disposable bake ware
✴ Winter clothing, including coats
Did you know that you can also enjoy fantastic buys on wedding attire and home theater equipment this month? Save on these specially-priced items and watch your local sales circulars for even more in December.
Shop only the sales, and don’t forget to hit the after Christmas sales for anything you were putting off buying until you could get the bargain price.
Hint: If it is bright red, consider it as a gift for Valentine’s Day in a few weeks!
Shop smarter, live better, save big. That should be your resolution for 2012. Happy holidays, everyone!
Success Strategies for Saving Money at the Holidays, Part 1
The best way to save money at the holidays is to be honest with yourself and others about what you can and can’t afford. Don’t burden yourself with debt, or feel guilty if you don’t have much or indeed any money for the holidays.
The holidays seem to be synonymous with gifts, parties, food and alcohol. But not that long ago in England, the Christmas stockings hung from the mantelpiece by the fire were considered stuffed to the brim if there was an orange and a sixpence in them (about a dime).
We are not sure how things have become so commercialized in the past few decades, but with the current economic recession still biting hard, this year is the right time to get back to basics. For example, do you really need to buy a gift for everyone in the family? Or more than one gift per person. Is quality important, or quantity?
Each family will have to decide these things for themselves, but it is important to ask the question. If you have a large family, can you do a Secret Santa in order to just gift to one? Or can all the adults agree that Christmas this year will just be for the children, and that they get to ask for a list of three things and Santa will be bringing them one as a surprise?
(Continued in Part 2)
Success Strategies for Saving Money at the Holidays, Part 2
Success Strategies for Saving Money at the Holidays, Part 2
Continued from Part 1
You can create a lot of family fun without having to spend a lot on food and alcohol. If you do want to indulge yourself by going out for a meal or drinks, don’t starve yourself all day in preparation for a feast. Also don’t buy a lot of expensive and watered down drinks. Your friends might consider taking turns hosting and getting in cases of beer from the warehouse club, or larger bottles of wine. In many cases the whole bottle will be cheaper than what you are paying for one glass of wine in a restaurant.
Have a potluck holiday supper in which everyone brings a dish, or you assign people appetizer, main course, sides and so on. You can provide all the cutlery and drinks or have everything bring a bottle or six pack and you provide the tableware, glasses and desserts.
Make do with the decorations you already have, or get some free resources online and use crayons, colored pencils and whatever else you already have in the house to make your own decorations with the children. Spend time using the toys that the kids got last year for the holidays and probably have not played with since.
In fact, one great way to spend early December planning for the holidays is to take the time to start clearing out things in your house and especially in each child’s room and start gathering all the things that you and the children don’t use or have outgrown.
If they are decent quality, put them on sale at eBay or donate them to the Salvation Army and be sure to get a receipt. Then look on their website to calculate the values for the items and deduct those amounts from your taxes next April.
Use the money you earn on eBay or the money you save on your taxes as the foundation for next year’s Christmas savings account. Don’t feel pressured to spend what you don’t have. Practice saying, “I can’t afford it,” or “If we want it, we have to save up for it.”
Also be sure to revise your Christmas list in light of what you find as you do your holiday cleaning and sorting. You may find yourself crossing a lot of items off the list.
Try to stick to practical gifts for your loved ones, such as attractive items that double as school supplies, for instance, can make great stocking stuffers. Clothes, shoes, boots, a new back pack and so on also make excellent gifts, especially if they are at the right price and your child did not get very many new back to school supplies.
As for re-gifting, we are all in favor of it provided it is not fruitcake. But seriously, if you have no use for it, by all means pass it on to someone who will appreciate it, so long as no one will find out or expect you to use or wear the item you were gifted. Also consider if it is genuinely that person’s taste or not. Re-gifting can help fill in blanks in your list, and it can also enable you to give a gift to someone you would like to be able to give one to, but might not have in the budget.
Everyone has different perspectives on Christmas and what they wish to spend versus what they can afford. If your gap has widened this year, be honest about it and focus on all the fun and free ways you can celebrate the holidays. The new found financial freedom you start creating for yourself and your family will be well worth it and the best gift you can give to your children.
For more top tips on how to save money at the holidays, see How to Save Money this Holiday Season
Frugal Shopping Ideas for November
In anticipation of Thanksgiving, November is an excellent month for deals relating to cooking, baking and housekeeping. Now is the time to get ready for the holidays, and winter.
November is also the month where Cyber Monday and Black Friday offer some truly excellent deals on electronics, toys, games and other holiday gifts to kick off the gift-giving season.
There are deals to be had all over the place during the month of November.
Fruits and Vegetables
✴ Oranges
✴ Cranberries
✴ Tangerines
✴ Pomegranates
✴ Pears
✴ Pumpkins
✴ Persimmons
✴ Sweet potatoes
✴ Broccoli
✴ Spinach
✴ Mushrooms
✴ Winter squash
Grocery Savings
✴ Turkey
✴ Cheese
✴ Butter
✴ Baking supplies
✴ Pie crusts and readymade dough
✴ Frozen pies
✴ Dinner rolls
✴ Cake mix and frosting
✴ Pie fillings
✴ Nuts
✴ Spices
✴ Dried fruits
✴ Halloween clearance candy
✴ Soup
✴ Broth
✴ Marshmallows
✴ Oatmeal
Other Non-Food Items:
✴ Trees, bulbs and shrubs
✴ Carpeting
✴ Flooring
✴ Electronics
✴ Tools
✴ Toys
✴ Christmas gifts
✴ Aluminum foil
✴ Baking pans
✴ Plastic wrap
✴ Cookware
Remember: There’s nothing wrong with buying during the right season to save money if you’re buying products that you intended on purchasing anyway. Shop smarter, live better! That is our motto.
November Finance Calendar
November1-30 Real Jewelry Month.
With silver and gold prices steadily increasing, this month is the perfect time to start investing in silver and gold with some wise jewelry purchases. Don’t get taken in by diamonds-the man-made ones are everywhere. Precious metals have shown long-term value for centuries. Look for a high K rating; the higher the number for example 18K gold, the more pure it is. (24K is completely pure, but too soft to wear safely.)
1st Request a free annual copy of your credit reports.
Get your free copy of your credit report from one of the credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian or Trans Union. Alternate which report you request every four months to ensure you have a balanced look at your credit throughout the year, rather than getting all three at once and then not knowing what is happening until next year, unless you want to pay to find out more.
1st Seniors age 70.5+ need to start to draw down on their IRAs.
This is the deadline to take out your required minimum distribution from your tax-deferred retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(K). An accountant can help you calculate the required amount you need to withdraw by the end of the year. Remember that the IRS will penalize you if you don’t take out the required minimum. If you don’t want to spend it, put it in another form of investment, or start shopping for the holidays.
3rd Sandwich Day.
This day is a tribute to the now global phenomenon of the sandwich, named after the Earl of Sandwich, a notorious gambler who didn’t want to leave the gaming tables. He had his servants put his meat between two slices of bread, and the rest, as they say, is history.
You will not want to gamble with your family’s fortunes, however, so use this say as a reminder to save money by brown-bagging your lunch at least 3 days each week to add to your savings. If you can manage to do it for all 5 days, you will be the king or queen of frugal lunches. Start today with a tasty sandwich made with your favorite ingredients and celebrate your road to more savings.
4th Use Your Common Sense Day.
Turn Common Sense Day into Common Cents Day with smart saving techniques like clipping coupons and shopping supermarket sales. Your savings can really add up when you use strategies like these every week. Set financial goals and online bank accounts for each of the goals, for example, college savings, a Christmas fund and a vacation fund. Apply what you save on lunches out and unskillful shopping to these accounts and watch yourself get nearer and nearer to your goals.
11th Veterans Day.
Remember how veterans are the reason you can celebrate the freedoms you have today. Volunteer your time or money to help a veteran. Think about hiring a veteran if you are a business owner. Think about helping the families of those who are still serving overseas. To help completely free every day, go online to theanimalrescuesite.com and click on the purple button to donate free food to animal shelters around the country. Then click on the tab for Veterans, and click on the button to help support veterans in need and their families.
The Great American Smokeout.
The American Cancer Society sponsors this movement on the third Thursday of every November. Today is the day to give up smoking for 24 hours to see if you can quit forever. Think of the savings that can add up if you get rid of your $10 or so per day habit.
Thanksgiving.
This is an important holiday in America in which people get together with family and friends to give thanks. It falls on the last Thursday of November every year. Even though you may be preparing a huge holiday meal for family or friends, you can still do Thanksgiving on the cheap by shopping the sales beforehand for all the canned and packaged goods and getting a frozen turkey at the start of the month. Plan your meals and menu carefully to stretch all the food as far as it will go. Don’t make yourself and everyone else miserable (and fat!) by forcing them to eat leftovers for days after.
Instead, package up a little of everything into your own ‘TV dinners’ that can be heated quickly in a microwave for lunch or dinner. You will save on eating out this way and have healthy meals on hand any time. Just be sure to go light on the butter and cream in all your recipes. There is really no need to drench delicious potatoes or sweet potatoes in butter, milk or marshmallows. Some careful shopping and common sense can ensure that you don’t break your budget or bloat your belly.
Black Friday.
Traditionally the Friday after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, with bargain hunters out in droves. Get some early Christmas shopping done and you may save some money on popular items such as electronics and toys. But know what things cost before you buy and keep all receipts in case you need to return anything. Also pay attention to price match guarantees-if you find a lower price, take advantage of it.
Cyber Monday.
The Internet age brought in the addition of Cyber Monday, similar to Black Friday but for online businesses to run their own super sales. Try to plan ahead so you can buy what you need and save money on some early Christmas shopping. Be sure to comparison shop and buy from trusted retailers. Also be prepare for errors on websites or even crashes as some sites struggle to cope with desperate bargain hunters.
Be careful with those credit cards.
Remember that if you are shopping online, you will most likely be using a credit card. Keep track of your purchase to avoid credit card fraud and overspending. It isn’t a great bargain if you will be paying for the item months or even years after you buy it (or even after it has broken and been replaced!).
Keep in mind that credit card companies make their main profits from people who get into trouble with debt. Make sure you will be able to pay off the bill in full when it arrives at the end of the month, and you should have happy holidays indeed, especially if you manage to snap up some bargains in the month of November.
Further Reading
How to Use the Internet to Save Money
YOUR RECESSION SURVIVAL GUIDE: How to Save Money and Even Boost Your Income in This Recession
Money Matters Q and A: Saving Money at Halloween, Part 3
Q. How do I save money on candy at Halloween?
A. Candy prices go up during the last couple of weeks of October because everything adopts the Halloween packaging and is sold specifically for this purpose. Beat the price jump by buying your candy a couple of weeks before the big rush. Store your candy in a cool, dry place, so it’s fresh when it’s time to use it. To save big, shop the sales after the holidays and buy anything that is not specially packaged for Halloween. This candy will do just fine for the Christmas holidays and can be up to 90% off the list price. If it is orange and other fall colors, it will probably do just fine for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Halloween has become a huge holiday in the United States. If you want to get into the holiday spirit without spending a fortune, shop smart and try a bit of DIY and enjoy the sense of accomplishment that you and your children will experience in having a do it yourself Halloween.
YOUR RECESSION SURVIVAL GUIDE: How to Save Money and Even Boost Your Income in This Recession