3 Mum Hacks to help you Save money at christmas
This year, Christmas is already a huge strain on many financially hard-hit households. It’s not unusual to see women posting anonymously on Facebook in local groups, mentioning that they need to access just food for the following week for their family because they had to pay their outstanding bills.
These 3 mum hacks will help you save money at Christmas - and in fact, throughout the year as you choose to use them.
Learn these mum hacks to save money at Christmas, and save money throughout the year, too! Mom Money hacks!
1: Do what you can now
Get saving as much as you can, as early as you can. Even if that means we are 6 weeks out from Christmas and you can find $10 per week, that can go in a jar towards your kids’ Christmas. That means no bought coffee, or going off chocolate until Christmas; no lunch orders or extra activities until after Christmas. Even if you have cut out these already, is there anything in your house you can sell, or make to sell in order to make a tiny bit extra money?
One great example is buying a few succulents and finding second-hand pots, some potting mix and then planting them out to grow. Add a little tinsel or a cute sign like this one, and you could be able to sell them for $10-$15 each, making you around $5 on each one. Is this worth it? While gardening may not be your jam, it might be a little side gig that saves you money for Christmas, too.
It’s all about thinking laterally!
Try this multi-award-winning bestseller The Barefoot Investor as an audiobook for many helpful hints around saving in all areas of household life!
2: Use a cashback app for online shopping to save money at Christmas.
This one has been an absolute game-changer for our household. I use both the Cashrewards app and the Shopback app - and between them both, I manage to save some from many of my online purchases. They even work on sales in the online store! So for instance, when Adidas had a 40% off sale on school shoes for my daughter, I managed to get an extra 10% cashback again through Shopback!
How do these work?
You grab the app (and also the Chrome extension, super simple if you join and then look it up. They literally have pop-ups everywhere sharing this on both sites.)
You search on Google for your desired shopping item. The extension alerts you that you can save 5% or 3% or so on. Activate it through the button. Then you proceed with your shop as normal - you need to pay normal price first through the website, as you would. Then, the cashback site will let you know (or you can look) that you have extra funds coming your way - maybe $5, maybe .90c, and more if you are making bigger purchases.
They take a little while to return to your account sometimes, but you can see the pending cashback whenever you check in your cashback app account. It’s an extra $150 per year for me (and I’m not a huge online shopper, either.)
Find out more about Shopback here.
Find out more about Cashrewards here. I’m with both and take the best percentage cashback of the 2 each time!
Note: you cannot use both to do cashback on the same transaction. They cancel each other out.
3: Give smaller, meaningful gifts.
Save money at Christmas by making smaller gifts. If you usually give to the whole extended family, give them each a smaller gift. If you feel guilty about this, don’t. Others mean well, but if you can’t afford to make Christmas special for your children as a result, it’s important to make a good choice here.
Ideas for making beautiful, well-meaning gifts at Christmas:
-Mugs like these with a beautiful bookmark, a a stunning pen and some Lindt balls or chocolate eclairs
- Teatowel-wrapped candles with beautiful string and a handmade label.
-A plant with a bag of chocolates attached
-A funny book or something small but personal
Simple, meaningful gifts are not old-school: they’re smart and they save the earth at the same time, often!
Grab some labels like these gorgeous ones…
It’s not simple, but it’s possible to save money at christmas with these mum hacks.
Christmas is supposed to be for celebrating Jesus’ birth - and family. It is not supposed to be a huge, insane pressure on every mum (or dad). Stress is bad for not just our minds but our bodies, too, especially long-term, so let’s find start fighting those unrealistic expectations and start giving ourselves a break! Use these 3 Mum hacks to help you save money at Christmas so you can start to feel less pressure, less mum guilt on Christmas morning, and more peace and gratitude instead of stress.
>>>Read my little ebook STOP MUM GUILT here - and start some deep work with the workbook!<<<
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Need to work on some of that crushing mum - guilt?
Miranda is a teacher-turned stress management and emotional wellbeing coach, for mums who are finding life overwhelming and stressful. She also authors wellbeing books such as Stop Mum Guilt and fantasy novels, as well as creates physical journals and products for women.
If you feel overwhelmed, or are sick and tired of feeling that horrible guilt you carry around in your chest for ‘not doing everything well enough’, you are definitely not alone.
Learn these mum hacks to save money at Christmas, and save money throughout the year, too! Mom Money hacks!
