6 Ways to Celebrate Christmas on a Nothing Budget

Christmas is a time to celebrate, enjoy and relax with all of the important people in our lives.

Unfortunately, it’s also a time that many families find financial stressful.

In the tug-of-war between wanting your kids and family to have an enjoyable Christmas with all the trimmings, and not wanting to blow your budget out of the water, the biggest loser is often the stressed parents. It can be almost impossible to balance. But, not totally impossible.

In fact, there might be a way for you to enjoy Christmas this year with almost no money in the pot. We’ve got the top tips below, so read on!

1. Sell Your Useless Treasures

We all have some things around our house that although they aren’t being used by us still have a level of value. Well, guess what

One man’s trash really is another’s treasure.

The first step here is to go through your entire house from top to bottom. What isn’t useful, but might be useful to someone else? If you haven’t used it in the last couple of months, or you’ve been thinking about throwing it, clean it up, take a nice picture, and post it online.

Choose either a website like Gumtree or if there’s one for your area a Buy, Swap Sell page on facebook. These facebook pages, in particular, have a high number of visitors, and things tend to get sold very quickly. All of the money you make from selling your old stuff can help to fund Christmas, and your house gets a clean up at the same time!

2. Inventory For Gifts

At the same time as you’re going through your house looking for things you might be able to make money off, also keep an eye out for things that you might be able to give to a friend or family member as a gift. It’s amazing once you start to get down to it just how much stuff you have that you don’t need. An item of clothing you don’t wear, a nice piece of jewelry that just isn’t your style or even a pair of shoes that you bought a size too small, they might all make great gifts. Ditto for anything you’ve got two of, which is often kitchen stuff.

Just clean it up, wrap it and it makes a great gift!

3. Search the web for ideas

If you’ve got some old things, but nothing that really screams ‘Christmas present’, it’s time to head online. For those not in the know, the best place to go for good ol’ homemade DIY inspiration is Pinterest. There are a few very ambitious projects on here, but you’ll find that there’s still a pretty large portion that even the not-so-crafty can manage. Do a search for ‘DIY Christmas gift’ or even ‘simple DIY Christmas gift’ and you’ll have more than enough inspiration to get you started. So much cheaper than shopping for everyone!

More tips to enjoy Christmas on a nothing budget next page