Hey There, I’m Melanie! I am a former CPA turned personal finance blogger and mom of three. When you ‘Budget With Mel’, you’ll develop monthly budgets, cost-cutting tactics, and learn new behaviors and beliefs about money. It’s time you took the stress and confusion out of your personal finances.
Hey There, I’m Melanie! I am a former CPA turned personal finance blogger and mom of three. When you ‘Budget With Mel’, you’ll develop monthly budgets, cost-cutting tactics, and learn new behaviors and beliefs about money. It’s time you took the stress and confusion out of your personal finances.
If you don't love breaking the bank every holiday season, this post detailing the best frugal gift ideas is for you!
Let's be honest, sometimes we have a hard time paying for Christmas presents because we spent the majority of our Christmas budget on ourselves ;)
It seems like I struggle every single year to think of unique and creative gifts for people!
We don't buy a ton of Christmas gifts, but what we do buy I like to be valuable to the person receiving it!
Here are some gift ideas that I thought would be a great idea for pretty much anyone!
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What I love about buying gift cards is that you can a lways get them at a discount.
If you're not buying them at a discount, you're seriously missing out. I buy all my gift cards from Sam's Club or use Groupon and never pay full price.
For instance, you can buy $50 of Starbucks gift cards for $40 through Sam's Club!
The higher dollar amount the gift card, the higher the discount!
Buy gift cards in bulk and have a gift for literally anyone- spouse, coworker, child, teacher, etc!
Why not give the gift of a store membership?
Costco and Sam's club (only $35 after $10 gift card for joining) are awesome wholesale membership stores!
I recently signed up for Black Rifle Coffee Co.'s coffee subscription after trying their whole bean espresso... amazing! I don't have to worry about running out of coffee beans anymore, they deliver to my doorstep on a custom to me schedule!
Coming from a family of small business owners, I wanted to try and diversify products I buy. After trying their coffee on a whim, I was hooked.
My favorite part? They are VETERAN OWNED & over 50% of their staff are veterans.
This is a great gift for any coffee lover! You could cover the subscription for 3-6 months, or however long you can afford!
An awesome feature is that you can choose to have 1 bag, 2 bags, 4 bags, etc. delivered, so you can customize for your budget.
If you're budget isn't big this year, you can't go wrong with a classic bottle of wine! Put a bow on it and call it good. Let's be honest, half the excitement of Christmas presents is how they're wrapped :)
Chatbooks takes high quality photos from your camera roll, Instagram and/or Facebook and converts them into a photo book!
You can get these babies delivered to you (or someone else) for under $25!
This is the perfect solution for people who don't have hours to spend putting photo books together on other photo book sites!
If you have a busy mom in your life with lots of littles, or one who is expecting a little, a freezer meal plan or dinner meal plan is a fantastic gift to give!
For freezer meals, using MyFreezEasy you can sign them up for a monthly, quarterly, or annual membership!
They will get instant access to recipes and instructional videos complete with customized meal plans and shopping lists sent directly to their phone!
If you're thinking more a traditional dinner meal plan instead of freezer meals, $5 meal plan is a great service.
It costs $5 per month and every meal should average to cost less than $5 to make!
A meal plan is delivered right to your inbox every week complete with a shopping list organized by ingredient. If you don't like any of the recipes, you can go to your member portal and build your own meal plan!
For a full review of $5 meal plan, see this article !
I am SO not in the crafty department, but I found a post with 25 adorable mason jar gift ideas that are extremely budget friendly! If you're crafty and like to save money, this is your jackpot!
Don't under estimate the value of books! Of course, my favorite book to give is Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. This book honestly changed our lives and makes a great gift for everyone.
During the holidays, you can get most of Dave's books for $10! Just head over to their website.
Who doesn't love some good baked goods? Not ideal if your New Years resolution is to get on a diet... but it's all about moderation, right?!
You can easily make baked goods in bulk and package them all cute for gifts! This is perfect when you're gifting to other family members.
While this seems pretty standard, it's a gift that you can get for a reasonable price that is also a necessity. Get a more expensive piece of clothing (under your gift limit) that the person you are buying for normally wouldn't buy for themselves!
My favorite place to shop for reasonable priced boutique clothing is Jane.com.
I was introduced to their website by a coworker and love it! You support small business because thousands of boutiques sell their clothes on Jane.
No, i'm not talking about credit cards. That's the greek word for demon. Kidding.
Since we don't believe in credit cards, for cash back I use Rakuten , which gives you cash back for both online and in-store purchases!
They even do double or triple cash back offers during the holidays!
I installed the browser extension on google chrome so when I visit a site that offers cash back, I automatically get a pop up showing me the cash back:
They also have a mobile app that you can use when purchasing in store! This is easy money to save, all you have to do is click the button! Once you earn $50 or more, they will kick out a check to your account!
I highly recommend doing your Christmas shopping with cash, especially if you tend to overspend on gifts!
You can check out my cute floral watercolor cash envelopes !
Only take the amount you've budgeted for gifts in cash to the store.
This will change your behavior , which is the source of the spending problem!
If you want to bless others but don't feel like you have the funds, try and make some extra cash before the holidays!
Do NOT bust your budget without having the cash to do so.
Instead, wait until you have the extra money. Some great ideas to earn additional cash include:
Related: How to Make Extra Money at Home
I hope this gives you some good ideas for your Christmas shopping!
Keep an eye out on the blog for a Black Friday guide! I'm working on putting together the BEST deals to shop online or in-store.
Cause everyone hates deals that aren't really deals.
Don't worry, I will be your Black Friday warrior ;)
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