How to Winter Holiday on a Budget 

I usually start gift shopping over the summer and throughout the fall. This helps to break up the costs so it's not overwhelming and gives me time to get gifts that are meaningful to my friends and family.

I really could have used this a week ago

I was about to comment that knitting gifts can be much more expensive than you'd think but I see there is some knitting knowledge on How to Adult. I say this, and one of my gifts this year is a hat I knitted out of yarn I spun myself. An actual tip: convince your family Secret Santa is great (assuming you are not relying on presents from family members). I drew my Dad, he gets said hat and a book he wants (we set a 20€ limit). I put several books on my wishlist, so I am pretty sure I'll get one nice thing. Less stress for everyone!

A few things I've learned: * You mentioned shopping local or paying a friend to make a gift for you to give someone. YES. My best Christmas (gift-giving wise) was a year when I bought only gifts from either friends, local places, or Etsy. Not only was it an extra-special gift for the giftee, it also helped give the maker some money to make their Christmas shopping easier too! * Paying for experiences are really great gifts. Just today I made my dad a cheaply framed Star Wars "ticket" which has poorly-drawn Star Wars things on it and says that I will pay for lunch wherever he wants to eat, pay for his ticket, and pay for whatever snacks he wants. Not only is it a memorable thing for us, but it also takes little planning and will often happen after the holidays, so you can kind of catch your budgetary breath. * Setting holiday traditions is my favorite part of Christmas, for reals. My family has an annual talent show where we earn our presents, we each read a Christmas book aloud, and we always play Dominos and watch Christmas movies while drinking my mom's punch. It's way better presents, really. Happy Holidays, adulters!!!

Yeah maybe next time this one should come out before project for awesome XD My tip was I used a lot of things I already had for gifts. I used an old mug that I had and filled it with chocolates for my aunt's and I used some old shirts to make tote bags for everyone like you put in the live stream at project for awesome. And my friend gave me the early gift of her old books she knew I would like, and my cousin is giving me her old headphones. sometimes hand me downs mean even more than something new and shiny from the store.

When I first graduated from college I was super broke. My wife and I were struggling to pay bills and I can vividly remember how sad it was that we had nothing under our Christmas tree. We wrapped empty boxes just to make it look more festive and less depressing. After that we decided we’d never feel like that again. So we started putting away $50/month in a savings account and by the next Christmas we had $600 to spend on gifts. We felt rich! Just a small amount each month can take the stress off during the holidays. And with less stress you’ll be happier and more likely to enjoy spending time with the people you care about... rather than how you’re going to afford gifts on top of monthly bills you might be struggling to pay.

Dollar Tree is great for cards (usually 2 for $1) or entire packets of holiday cards for $1. Cards can get EXPENSIVE at mainline stores...$4.99 for ONE card?!? Or make your own card! For fun family experiences, I once made a family crossword puzzle featuring a bunch of inside jokes from over the years, and it was really fun to see who could get the most answers!

Best tips: buy board games. They are fun during the holyday and years after. They are just a box full of hours of fun to have with others, great for everyone, and even more so for kids if you play with them.

Gift experiences! Write a card and take your loved one to get coffee or out for dinner. The vast majority of people enjoy coffee/tea/hot chocolate and food and you get to spend time together! It's really meaningful and can cost not much at all!

Buy your Christmas gifts at the beginning of November. Everything is still in stock and it’s right be before the holiday price increase. My mum does this every year and saves a lot of money (and also avoids the mall holiday rush). Also for Christmas decorations, buy them after the holidays when they’re half off and save them for the next year (this works for Halloween too)!

Instead of giving gifts to all my friends, I send them Christmas cards with thoughtful things written on them. And half of them I hand delivered because they live in my city. It cost me around 15 euro for 20 cards and 10 stamps. For my family it depends. For my brother and his girlfriend I bought something for when they move out of the house, same for my stepsister. My mother will get a thing she wants and a card with lovely text on it.

i have one small tip: make your cookies with oil instead of butter and water instead of egg, works good and is way cheaper

Tips for getting gifts for kids that are not your own: ask their parents! they will totally understand your budget concerns and will know what their kids want, what they already have, what they are allowed to have, and what will drive the parents crazy.

These are some great ideas. Learning how to say “No” is a very important life skill.

I recommend crafting fairs that are usually held around this time. Then you can buy those homemade things and give them as gifts at reasonable prices and you're supporting local artists and businesses as well. Also I get a ton of free christmas cards from charities I donated small amounts to ($5-20) and still get them every year even when I only donated once years ago.

I make hats/gloves/blankets and other crocheted goodies through out the year with yarn I find on sale. Then when christmas rolls around I can knock out a few people and not have to actually shop.

3:17 lol yeppp

My city hosts a lot of craft and gift making workshops that are free, especially in community centres or garden areas. Highly recommend checking out your local councils website.

this channel deserves more view

Aw act-y Hank is my favorite

...why would you wait until five days before Christmas to post this?

tips 3 and 4--absolutely. couple years ago, i was going to buy my sister a keurig (shed been wanting one for like a year), but before i could she got herself a cheaper coffee pot on cyber monday. now, i just have to ask her what she wants every holiday so as not to risk getting her stuff she wont use.

For cards, the target dollar spot is a really good place to look! They have lovely card designs, and cheap washi tape, all for one dollar or less.

I kind of want to hear that mailing something to Portsmith, NH story.

My family did a grab bag thing where we all were selected a person to get a present for. If we didn't know what to get them, we ask. $25 dollar limit and no gift cards. Boom we're there! Also if there's a college around with an art club, they probably have a craft show.

Make gift baskets of little things from dollar tree or if you get free things in the mail, which I keep through out the year, and use them for gift baskets. A 5.00 gift card for. College student for McDonald’s they will love! Gives them a break from Ramen!

Hahaha, loved that you called out in the video how late this is going up in the season. Thanks for uploading great content, I do appreciate it.

when giving gifts need and want are meaningless. context is king. when helping someone else, need and want are of the ultimate importance, but my cousin's favorite gift from me is the red swingline stapler i gave him the year he got laid off. as already stated, context is king.

make popcorn and watch old christmas movies , order a pizza , make christmas ornaments, cook food, sleep

Coupons! Writing “coupons” for me to do tasks for another person is something I do regularly. It like when you were a kid and would give your parents “coupons” to redeem for chores or whatever. Works for adults too. Almost every birthday/Christmas I give my best friend 5 times of me taking her dog out on my lunch break. To me it is just time, but it saves her over $100 in kennel costs when she had to go out of town for the day.

You can also usually save a pretty good chunk of money on Christmas presents by sharing your political beliefs on social media.

Arm knitting a scarf can be relatively cheap (certainly cheaper than buying one, especially if you're making a few), and isn't too difficult - I made my first one in about 2 or 3 hours. Baking can be great, but has hidden costs, especially if you don't have the staple ingredients. However, if you shop around for your ingredients a bit, and potentially substitute more expensive things it can be great. You can make A LOT of honeycomb pretty cheaply, and I always use this biscotti recipe, which yields a good quantity of biscuits and look really fancy: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8022/fruity-christmas-biscotti . Both these things also keep for at least a month, so you can make them in advance. Another relatively simple craft (though a little fiddly so it can take a while) is book bunting - get a piece of ribbon and a cheap old book from a charity shop, then make a triangle template, cut out however many pages you want depending on how long you want the bunting to be, then draw round the template on one half of the page, fold the page in half and cut it out (so you end up with a sort of folded in half diamond shape), then put glue on the inside sides and fold it over the ribbon, pressing the two halves together. You can even jazz it up by sewing on some buttons, or using a book that the person really likes.

Did they are the video on making a budget. I was wanting to watch that video. Oh well, I guess.

I'm an excellent baker and crafter. I have 5 nieces and one year I made everyone a chalkboard doodle bank and filled it with cookies ( about 10 cookies) and everyone loved it except for my sister in law who scoffed and said "yay more junk food" super sarcastically. so just be warned not everyone will appreciate the handmade gifts.

I always bought my present in advance (like real advance - could be month or years :P)

Hank wash your shirt. 😂

I spent all my hard-earned hair on fancy conditioner this year.

Wait so did you say there won't be a Santa to make all the gifts for us? :O

This is probably been said already, but one tip is to not do all your shopping all at once last minute...

but what about gifts for your boss?

My mom says I'll shoot my eye out. :(

Isn't a Christmas horse competition when you have children sit on adult's backs and had races and jousting? Was that just my family?

Parents are fucking impossible to buy for; they already have all the shit they would want or need

just don't buy anything be minimalist