This will be a tough year for many families. As I am writing this, I am thinking about the stack of property tax bills on my counter, and also the holiday gifts that my kids want. This may seem like a bad time to think about being frugal, but it is probably one of the best times. So how can I cut some expenses, like holiday gift giving, while sticking to a budget.

A Holday Gift Budget is Important!

Before you buy anything, write down a realistic budget. If you can set aside $300 or $1,000, I would suggest taking that amount of money out in cash. It is a lot easier to stick to your budget if you have to spend real money instead of just swiping plastic at the register. If you cannot use cash, try to keep a register of your expenses. The act of keeping a tally and writing it down will help.

So Where Can We Find Cheap Gifts that are Still Nice?

I have written about this before, but thrift stores can be gold mines of inexpensive gifts. You will also be doing triple duty with your dollars by recycling items and helping a charity like the Salvation Army. Now doesn’t that make you feel good?

There are a couple of large thrift stores near me. They have everything from housewares to furniture. Your 3 year old won’t mind that the kitchen set was gently used by another toddler. Your Uncle Bob won’t know that the tie hung in another closet.  And sometimes you can find some really nice things, like china and candlesticks that deserve another chance at usefulness and beauty.

Gift Exchanges

At our big family holiday gift exchange, we each bring one wrapped gift. Everybody takes a number, picks a gift, and gets to exchange it with anybody who is willing. It is actually a lot of fun and works out ok. Sometimes we bring some special kid friendly gifts for children, so they go home happy. But the adults are usually very happy with whatever they end up, and they are also relieved to only bring one gift instead of dozens.

Homemade Gifts

Now I know you are groaning, but you really can make some things that will be better appreciated than some store bought gifts. Holiday cookies, arranged on a holiday plate, and covered with colored plastic wrap are always appropriate. With a mix, some toppings,  a trip to the dollar store, and a little creativity, you can make up dozens of these for the price of one gift in a department store. You won’t have to apoligize for it either!

Stopping Materialism at Home

This does not work so well with younger children, but I find that adolescents tend to want a lot of expensive things, without really realizing how much they cost. I try to find some average amount of the valud of the things they want and give them cash instead of a gift. What I find is that they tend to purchase a lot less than they wanted me to buy them, and they save some of the money for something they might want later.

So if one of my kids wants a $200 mp3 gadget or a $150 digital camera, I give them the money. It is interesting to see if they still want the item enough to part with their riches. Sometimes they still buy it, but sometimes they delay the purchase.

This is not a bad exercise for people of any age.

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Look at her great article to get an example : How To Buy A Cheap Refrigerator

Here is a summary of the steps she took to save money, and these steps could apply to any applicance buy!

• Figure out what you want vs. what you can afford. For example, a fridge that makes fancy ice cubes may be cool, but is it really worth hundreds of dollars? If you need a reliable fridge, maybe you could buy the standard model and just spend a couple of bucks on fancy ice cube trays.
• Do not be afraid to go into a store and ask questions or do research, even when you do not intend to make a purchase that day. Of course, the salesperson is trying to sell you something, but that does not mean you have to make a purchase if it is not in your best interest.
• Many appliance stores can negotiate on prices or services. My friend managed to get free delivery and an extended warranty thrown in for less than another store wanted for just the fridge! She did that by stopping in at a couple of stores. If you are buying a $29 toaster this may not be worth your time, but if you are spending hundreds of dollars it is!

Anyway, her tips on fridge buying could be applied to many major purchases – TV sets, Cars, etc. So check out the article, and get a lot more free women’s articles at WemonAde.com!

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I grew up in a very frugal home. My parents paid cash for used cars, and we lived in older homes with small mortgages that were well within their means. My folks always had money for important things like health insurance, glasses, or emergency travel. They had what we used to call a depression mentality, and as a young person, I struggled against it. Of course, I wanted a better bike, a fancier bedroom set, and more clothes that had not come from my older sister.

So as a young adult, I saved some, but mostly felt as if some extra cash in my hand was a prime reason for purchasing new electronics, hip mall clothes, and whatever else I just had to have. And of course, I took out loans for brand new cars on the lot, and those cars seldom were paid off before being traded in.

I found this article on a term called Off-Consumerism, and it fits in with my new mentality. I like the shoe comparison, because well, we all need shoes. Maybe we even need a few different types of shoes. For instance, I still believe a reasonable person might need a pair of gym shoes, some dress up shoes, and a pair of sandals. It might even be reasonable to consider having a pair of beach shoes, or flip flops, and another pair of comfortable every day shoes. That’s five pairs of shoes.

The Shoes

So it can be reasonable to have five pairs of shoes, even as a frugal person, but can anybody justify having twenty-five pairs of shoes. In my mind, anything over 5 pairs of shoes means we need to clean the closet. Maybe shoes could be donated to an organizagtion that provides shoes to people who do not have any shoes. Maybe our own lives can be simplified by having to contain less clutter. Maybe the black pumps can be polished, and really, do not need to be replaced.

Also consider the cost of shoes. Now some people have foot problems, and their health and comfort justifies a really expensive pair of orthopedic shoes. In my mind, that is something they should have. But most of us can perform just fine in $35 pumps from a discount store, and we really do not need $135 pumps from a name brand retailer. Most of us are happy wearing $7 flip flops to the pool, and $27 flip flops do not enhance our experience.

So take those 5 pairs of shoes. If they are purchased at an average cost of $75 each, that is $375. If you provide shoes for a family of 4, that is $1500! If you are providing shoes for kids, they need to be replaced, sometimes a couple of times a year! So let’s say you are spending 2 grand on shoes because you buy the “best”. And by “BEST”, I mean you equate expense with quality, and the accumulation of goods with comfort.

But if you purchased those same shoes at an average cost of $30 each, you would have spent $150, or $600 for your family of 4. You have saved $900! Is there some other use you could put that money too? A savings account, health insurance, and a small donation to help people with no shoes comes to mind!

Blue Jeans or Butter?

Now, when I say shoes, I mean everything. A teenage boy’s blue jeans, off the rack, at the local discount store are about $12 each. The same jeans, from the name brand mall store, are $40 on a good day. And yes, I am cheating by using boys for an example, because girls are a tougher issue on blue jeans. I have found that clothing companies do not make girls as easy to fit as boys. The topic of another post…. But let’s attack the boy’s jeans first because it is an easier problem. So 5 pairs of jeans for a 16 year old boy can cost $60  plus tax. That same $60 will not even buy 2 pairs of jeans at the mall store, unless you hit a great sale!

So the deal I struck with my teenage boys was to accept 5 pairs of $12 jeans, and they could have half of the $140 savings to spend as they liked. The caveat there was that some portion had to be given up for charity, and that they needed to find their old, outgrown shoes for a donation at a local clothes drop. So we had a bag of 5 pairs of decent, but outgrown shoes for a clothes drop, and the boys each donated $10 for a local charity fund. They each had $60 to spend. The collaborated, and allocated the money for a couple of video games, a couple of bags of munchies, and still had $30 to stick in their drawers for their ready cash stash.

So I hope I am helping my own kids get in the habit of finding the lowest price item that will fill their needs, and by doing that understanding that some money can be left over for a reward. I also am trying to get them in the habit of giving. Charity should just be part of the process of spending.

Now, again, I am cheating here by not even reporting that this whole process seems to be tougher with my teenage daughter. She is under more pressure at school to wear name brands. And it seems harder to fit her with off the rack discount store jeans. So she took her $200 budget and found 3 pairs of name brand jeans on sale for $27.00, and accepted 2 pairs of crop pants on sale for $21.00 each. She spent $125, and had $75 left over. I gave her the same deal, so she had $37.50 left over. She still found a couple of pairs of outgrown jeans for the donation box, gave $10 to charity, and had a bit of cash left over. I felt a bit sorry for her because I understood that her clothes just seem to cost more, so I slipped her another $20. Unfair? Well maybe, but sometimes the needs of the one seem to outweight the needs of the many!

So think about off consumerisms, because the money you save on shoes could really help  out on a rainy day. And some of it could, you know, be used to provide shoes (or whatever) for people who have no shoes.

consumerism, retail shopping

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