Times are tight for everyone this holiday season. Wouldn’t it be great to have a little more cash?
Wouldn’t it be great to figure out how to make the cash you do have stretch farther?
Thanks to Nickelodeon and Walmart you can do both!
Yes, Nickelodeon and Walmart have teamed up to sponsoring a contest that will not only collect together some of the BEST holiday money saving tips on the web, they are also giving one lucky Frugal Upstate reader a $500 Walmart gift card!
Talk about a present that will always be the right color and size!
Since the stakes are high for this contest, so is the bar! There are multiple ways to enter this contest, but for each entry you must submit a separate-that means different folks-holiday specific money saving tip.
Be sure you leave an email address with each tip. If I can’t contact you, I’ll have to choose another winner!
You can enter 5 separate times by doing each of, or any combination of, the following:
#1-By commenting on this post and leaving a holiday money saving tip.
#2-By writing a blog post mentioning a) this contest, b) Nickelodeon, c) Walmart & d) Frugal Upstate. Then in that post you have to give a different holiday money saving tip (don’t just repeat your original tip) and link back to this post. Then you have to come back here and leave another comment with the link back to your blog post.
#3-If you use twitter, you can tweet a holiday money saving tip, using the #nick11 hashtag in the tweet, and then return and leave another comment.
#4-You can create a Video Blog (Vlog) with a holiday money saving tip. You must mention a) the contest, b) Nickelodeon, c)Walmart and d) Frugal Upstate in the video. Then post it to Youtube & come back to comment here and link to the video.
#5-Subscribe to this blog, then leave a comment letting me know you have with, yes, another holiday money saving tip. If you are already subscribed you don’t have to do it again, just tell me that and leave your tip.
I WILL THROW OUT any entries that are not about the holidays, or that do not follow the directions above (ie didn’t link back to this post in their post, don’t mention Nickelodeon etc)
The winner will be chosen at random (using the random number generator) out of all the valid entries. I say again-the VALID entries. Make sure you read and follow those directions above folks!!!
The contest runs from today-Friday November 28th through Monday December 15th at 12 noon, EST.
You can enter to win a $500 Walmart gift card not only here but at all of the ElevenMoms’ sites. You can only win once, but you can try to win at each site. Each contest may have slightly different rules, so make sure you read carefully! Many of the tips will be featured on the Elevenmoms site-maybe even yours!
So good luck! I am looking forward to seeing all the great ideas. . .
Keep a few kids meal toys aside whenever possible and use them to stuff young childrens’ stockings.
Online shopping! Reed diffusers (those smelly things with sticks) are $12-$30 everywhere in the stores. I found three for $11, including shipping!, online.
http://mickiwendt.blogspot.com/2008/12/holiday-money-saving-tip-for-frugal.html Here is the link to my last holiday tips, I entered every way I could except the video, we are having technical difficulties in upload movie files all of a sudden. Might need a new memory card, they are on sale at Radio Shack 12.99 for a 4g. I have tweeted, blogged, commented and talked about you on the phone. Thank You Walmart, Nickelodeon and Frugal Upstate for giving me something to do other than the dishes. Happy holidays!
A good way that we can limit our funds on gifts for family and friends is we get out the calendar and we jot down a night that’s good for both of us.
I invite them over for a yummy dinner and dessert.
There are 5 in my house here so cooking for a couple extra mouths really isn’t much considering we usually have leftovers that I freeze for quick lunches or dinners.
We not only get to save some money on gifts, but in the end it’s priceless because we get to spend some quality time with them.
To us, that’s the gift that keeps on giving.
To cut holiday expense I save and reuse gift bags, boxes, and bows.
Nancy W.(nanbob06_76@yahoo.com)
Subscribed to your feed. The best way to save is NOT give gifts. Give of your time & love, the real valuables of life. Mrs.Clark
Another way to save is to cook/bake & give as gifts. Busy moms really appreciate a nice cooked meal for them & their family verses cheap toys & trinkets that will get broke, thrown away, or put in the next goodwill pile. Mrs.Clark
mrs.clark12345@hotmail.com
(Forgot to put e-mail on other comment)
Hand-made gifts. I’m a knitter so this is easy for me…but there are TONS of sites out there than can help you create a great hand-made present!
I subscribed!
My other tip: I loved decorating pine cones with glitter. A little messy…but oh so pretty for the holidays!
I always do research before I buy anything to make sure I’m getting the best price.
Tip for saving a $ a day: We use “Brown Paper Packaging tied up with String” for our holiday wrapping. I buy the postal shipping paper instead of holiday wrapping paper and then decorate them with an assortment of items… Pine Cones, holly greens, Holiday stickers, even hand drawn notes! We’ve been doing this for about five years now and I think it’s so much more fun than regular wrapping paper. Very personalized and MUCH less expensive.
Sharon_Hujik at yahoo
Tip for saving $ a day: instead of buying Christmas Greens and Berries, we have been going to the backyard and local parks and collecting greens there. With a little ingenuity and willingness to try something new we have made our own wreaths and door swags. What would have cost over $50 only costs pennies for the floral wire and ribbon. Plus, I think they look just as good!
Sharon_Hujik at yahoo
Tip to save around the holidays: Instead of buying gifts for neighbors and friends, I bake coffee cakes. I have a favorite recipe that I only make at Christmas time so it’s special for me to make and people really enjoy them. Last year someone even asked me if I was going to do it again since they like it so much!
First I would like to thankyou, Walmart and Nickelodeon for hosting such a generous giveaway. My best money saving tip is to start your shopping early. Always keep a look for items that are on sale or clearance and start stocking them up for your loved ones.
syeda_lubabah@hotmail.com
For the christmas season we like to save on the wrapping things. We save and shred junk mail, newpaper ads, newspaper, old wrapping paper, brown grocery bags, they make great filler for the reused gift bags we have, or the ones we buy from the dollar store.
For anything we want to wrap, we use brown paper bags, which we get free from our grocery. Or I use a coupon to a craft store and buy a large roll of brown craft paper. You can personalize it by stamping it or letting the kids go crazy with coloring supplies.
It’s so easy to save money on these things and people love the creative wrapping jobs.
mom2maria at hotmail
I’ve been using the internet on my phone to make sure I’m getting the best deal, when I’m out buying presents. It works!
Wait 24 hours before buying anything. Make you think whether it is worth it
I would have to say the best way to save for the holidays is to shop right after Christmas and save for next year, you can find so many things at up to 75% off, the stores want to get rid of all kinds of things (toys, home goods, electronics, decorations etc.) to make room for their new stuff.
Thank you for entering me!
Dustin Rose
tworoseboys@yahoo.com
I know a lot of people aren’t going to like this one, but get a fake tree! I only did this a few years ago, when my oldest was born, because I was afraid of having a live tree for safety reasons. But now we’re saving $75 each year just by re-using the fake tree! (Of course, I do miss the scent …)
We love giving each other coupons as Christmas gifts. My favorite presents from my husband are his coupons for a massage, shopping with me without complaints, making me my favorite dessert etc.
According to the US Department of Energy, if all conventional incandescent Christmas lights in the country were replaced with LED lights this season, annual energy savings would total two billion kilowatt-hours—enough energy to power nearly 200,000 homes for an entire year.
One way I save money during my holiday shopping is to buy anything I can the week after Christmas, when it’s up to 90 percent off–not only decorations for our own home but also wrapping items and gifts for others.
My money saving tip is for gifts for teachers and friends. I always try and find cute containers or bags on clearance throughout the year. Then I find items to fill up the containers. I try to use a theme on each gift, such as Pasta Night (pasta, sauce, breadsticks) or Warm and Cozy (hot chocolate, marshmallows, cookies). These make for inexpensive yet heart-felt gifts!
edible gifts…that way you know they won’t go to waste!
The best money saving tip I can think of for the holidays or anytime of year is to manage expectations. Relentless exposure to TV and endless trolling down the toy aisle is asking for a discontent heart Christmas morning.
Work on making a child very aware of the bountiful blessings in their life (security, freedom, food, warmth) and that some do not have these things. Parents play a big part in this. Make a big deal of shopping for a gift for someone in need. I’ve heard it called a “Jesus Gift” but it doesn’t have to be Christian. Our son still talks about the juice we took to the Rescue Mission for the boys and girls. Juice is big in his 3-year-old world. And he has thanked me several times for his juice since then.
Beyond that, I troll yard sales and dollar stores to add a lot of pop to Christmas morning for not much. And I put things up, sometimes years in advance.
Tell older children the budget and love on them and be firm. They should be used to seeing a budget followed the rest of the time.
Don’t let children trash their toys ; they shouldn’t have so much stuff that they are indifferent.
I don’t know if that’s much of tip but it surely is a mindset and heart that saves money at this house. And our children are happy.
Cindy
cbright at winford dot com
Doing crafts with my daughters to give as gifts. I also keep all of the appliances unplugged unless I am using them, except for the items that need to be plugged in at all times in order to operate properly. It all adds up for a few more dollars to spend on Christmas, while saving energy also.
Sarah J
sariesue_18@yahoo.com
We save our pocket change all year long and change it in at a change machine or our bank early in December. I then use the money we have saved to purchase our holiday meal and other pantry items for making holiday goodies. I have been able to spend over $100.00 each year with this “free” money!
millermama613@yahoo(dot) com
Here's my twitter tweet 🙂 – Frugal-Christmas gift idea-pick up unique & inexpensive gifts at Trader Joes.They have delish Truffles-$2.99 for nice size box.yumm #nick11 http://twitter.com/SandwichINK
I save money at Christmas by signing up for emails from companies I like to shop at. That way I get a heads up on any and all sales and coupons. I then carefully pick and choose when time permits to order gifts at a discount.
My biggest savings is buying items AFTER Christmas for the next year when they are 50% to 80% off. I usually get my Christmas cards, wrapping, stocking stuffers and new decorations this way.
This year we are doing a gift “exchange” where everyone only brings one gift and we will play a game to see who gets what. Fills up the time that would be spent opening the excessive amounts of gifts. To make sure everyone doesn’t spend too much we are putting a $25 limit on it. Makes everyone be creative!
I’d probably use the giftcard to buy groceries for the festivities
I’m saving money this holiday season by making my own Christmas cards.
One of my favorite new money saving ideas is to start cutting back on the number of Christmas cards we write and make them wonderful! We sent out almost 200 cards between personal and business ones last year…yikes. We kept a list of who sent us cards and this year we are only sending cards to business folks who ‘should’ get them and to close family and friends who we want to send them to and then to those that sent to us. We love to correspond, but I realized that some people probably don’t really care that they are getting our card, letter, photo and such. It will save a bunch on postage! I’m not a scrooge at all, but really want the holiday to be more meaningful and not just ‘mass marketed’ even to my extended friends and aquaintances!
Heather
heather@pagesbyheather.com
My husband and I buy our children’s toys throughout the year so that we aren’t in a rush and spending more at the last minute before Christmas.
colleenjeffery@yahoo.com
Instead of sending Christmas messages out through “snail-mail” to everyone, I include our Christmas letter on our blog to save on stamps, envelopes, etc.
colleenjeffery@yahoo.com
I use CVS extra bucks and sales to buy candy and other items that can be given as gifts to friends, neighbors, and teachers.
colleenjeffery@yahoo.com
My best holiday money saving tip is to use reward programs from your credit card company to pay for presents. Every 2 years we cash in our reward points and it’s usually enough to pay for the majority of our gifts. This year we got $600 in Amazon and Target gift cards. It’s a good thing too as money is super tight this year. Just make sure to not pay late and pay your bill in full each month or it isn’t really free money.
Here is my blog 🙂
http://www.clarke-family.net/brittany/wowzers
This is a great site. I save money by using things found in nature to decorate………..pine cones, acorns etc. We also recycle cards from last yr.as tags on presents which we recycle gift bags I have made out of cotton I bought after Christmas
My tip is to shop online. I save gas that way.
Make a list of potential gifts and recipients in January, then shop clearances/sales throughout the year. This also gives you lots of time to complete those special handmade gifts, too. Just be sure to keep notes of purchased/handmade gifts and where you’ve stashed them (don’t ask how I know!). Merry Christmas! ssway at juno dot com
I shop all year round for my children, hitting sales and buying when I have extra money. I also do homemade items for other family
Soon we’ll be starting to make the last of our holiday gifts. The knitting is done, because that gets started early in the year, and the baking gets finished closer to the holidays. Consumable gifts don’t clutter up friends/ family’s homes, are more personable, and are less expensive to give
stephanie
sgurnsey at yahoo dot com
I just subscribed.
I buy my wrapping paper after Christmas when it goes on sale and shop throughout the year when items go on sale.
stephanie
sgurnsey at yahoo dot com
i like to make a holiday list of names and gifts for each person that i buy for. i find that if i don’t keep a list going that i will over buy for everyone and we all know that is costly. i save money by setting a dollar limit for each person and i keep track of the amount spent so that i will know when i am done shopping for them.
I’m running out of tips to give
to show the frugal way I live.
But another tip I have to share
has to do with what you wear.
Organize a clothes/shoes swap
instead of stopping in a shop.
You’ll find your friends have things to share.
And you’ll still have new clothes for your family to wear.
I blogged about it here: http://themomnerd.blogspot.com/2008/12/cowboys-wife-beingfrugal.html
You may have to read a bit to find my tip though.
I tweeted about this contest. My username is momnerd. I really hope I did all the rules correctly!
I’m a subscriber and another holiday tip I have is for those hard to buy nieces and nephews you can get $1 books from scholastic book clubs. It’s the only way I can get a meaningful gift for every child in mine and my husband’s families.
We let everyone in my extended family (parents, grandparents, siblings, etc) know that we are not “doing presents” this year, and are just happy to have the “gift” of everyone’s company. Of course, most still buy something for my baby daughter!