If you know me, you know that two things I love to do are making goals for the new year and thinking about how I’m going to save money in the coming year. I like to look at my previous years’ budgets and think about what worked well and what we can do better in the future (and if you’re not using a budgeting app, why not?!).
Changes I’ve made in past years include adding online savings accounts for things like Christmas and vacations, or moving recurring monthly payments to their own account and auto drafting that amount each month so I don’t forget and I don’t miss it as much. This past year, I also interviewed a financial advisor, but apparently for our age, we are pretty much doing as much as we can to be on track for retirement. That’s not to say that we couldn’t be saving or contributing more, but when you have kids and a mortgage and all the things that come along with real life, your paychecks can only spread so far, am I right?
One new thing I’m utilizing this year is something I’ve done sporadically in the past. I’m making my reward dollars from places I already shop work for me, specifically, for next Christmas. You may not shop at the same store as I do or have the same phone provider, but I bet wherever you shop has similar reward programs. And while on their own they may not seem like a big deal, if you have a significant amount of money off your grocery bills and phone bill in the month of December, that really helps with Christmas spending. December is just an expensive month and there’s no way to get around it. But you can be smart with your money all year and give yourself a pat on the back next Christmas!
So here we go:
Sam’s Club Cash: I love having a Sam’s Club Plus membership. I get it with a discount each year, I can shop two hours earlier than people with a regular membership (which is great if you’re taking a baby or toddler with you), AND I get reward dollars based on how much I spend. I generally get around $6 a month in Sam’s cash. If I save that up and don’t apply it to my normal trips throughout the year, by the time I’m doing my Sam’s Club trip for December, I’ll have close to $70 off my December purchases! That sounds like a win to me.
Walmart Cash: All you have to do to earn Walmart cash is shop on the app and click the little “Walmart cash available” button when you get items you would normally buy anyway. I usually get anywhere between $0.50 and $2 a week on my Walmart pickup grocery order, so let’s average it out to $1 a week. By December, that could be $50! Money off groceries in December? Nice!
Amazon Slow Shipping Credits: If you scroll through your shipping options in your Amazon cart, you’ll frequently see an option for slower shipping that earns your anywhere between $1.50 – $3 in Amazon promotional credits. These can be used on Prime Video rentals, so come Christmas time, all those Christmas movies that suddenly go from free to a $3.50 rental are an easy “yes” because you can rent them for free!
Verizon Dollars: If you use a Verizon credit card to pay your phone bill every month, you get a certain amount of cash back in your Verizon app. Save it all up until your December bill and apply it for a cheaper phone bill in December! Or use it at the Verizon store if you have to buy something like AirPods or an iPad as a gift for someone! And if you would normally use a credit card for things like gas and groceries, use your Verizon card and maybe have no phone bill for the month of December thanks to your reward dollars. Just watch out that you don’t run up a credit card bill that cancels out any advantage to using it in the first place.
Christmas Savings Account: Now here’s the biggie I mentioned earlier: put a small amount of money away into a separate account for Christmas each month. Or if you get paid biweekly, do it each paycheck. Auto draft it out of your account and you will never miss it! It does not have to be a crazy big amount when you do a little bit each month. If you do $25 a month January through November, that’s $275 to spend on Christmas. If you do $50 a month, January through November, it’s $550 for Christmas. The other advantages to having a separate account are that your spouse can’t see where you got their gift from, and you can see when your Christmas budget is running out and stop spending. And if you have money in there already and see it something you want to buy in August, September, October, etc. and get your Christmas shopping done early, you can!
These are my tips for having a little more money in your pocket next Christmas! If you’re really out to save more money this year, check out my other money saving posts:
Money-Saving Tips In Inflation Times
Five Steps Toward Financial Fitness
