Money-Saving Tips for the Best College Christmas Gifts

The following is a guest post by Savanna O’Conner. Enjoy!

Oh, Christmas, our joy and our wallets’ curse! No matter how much you love Christmas, it is almost impossible to ignore the fact that the winter holidays can be quite hurtful to our budgets. From the Christmas tree to the gifts and the dinner, everything can end up costing quite a lot of money. If you haven’t been thorough enough with your budget planning, you may find yourself scraping the bottom of the barrel – even more so if you’re a college student and your budget is limited.

So, how do you survive the Christmas season without turning from Santa Red to Sadness Blue? How do you offer gifts that are meaningful and budget-friendly?

Believe it or not, this is not Mission Impossible: The Winter Edition. It is doable, and achieving gift greatness will keep Christmas spirits higher than the Old Man’s reindeer-drawn sleigh.

Jingle your creativity, because your budget-friendly presents are going to be amazingly awesome!

Start Early

No, really, start early. The sooner you begin searching for gift ideas, the more time you will have to decide what presents your friends and relatives will genuinely love.

Not only that, but you will also have a better chance of saving money on gifts: running for the perfect present on Christmas Eve is not just exhausting, but it can be very pricy too. According to statistics released in 2014 by CreditCards.com, you are much more likely to over-spend when you are in a negative state – angry, for example, that you can’t find anything. It’s equally probable that you will over-spend when you’re in a good mood too, if you are overcome by Christmas spirit.

Add this to the fact that everything in supermarkets and stores is gorgeously arranged to tempt you to buy more during the holiday season, so you will almost definitely spend too much if you procrastinate on your gift buying plans.

Ready, Set, Hunt!

…for special offers, obviously!

The good news about the holiday season is that it starts with Thanksgiving. While this may be yet another holiday that pushes us to over-spend, you can use its aftermath the smart way – by keeping your eyes peeled for offers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

If you have a particular gift in mind (which may be a little over your budget), stay put and connect yourself to the aforementioned commercial events. You can get huge discounts on great products – and amaze your friends and family with gifts they will really enjoy.

This is not to say that you should buy everything you see on discount. Stay focused and hunt for those specific products you want to buy for Christmas – try to stay away from special offers you weren’t actually looking for.

Let Them Choose the Gift

Gift cards are an amazing way to save money and time, as well as making sure your Christmas gift will be warmly welcomed.

As long as you know that the recipient would buy from company “X”, giving them a gift card for its products will be more than well-received. Here are some ideas you could consider:

• A Netflix gift card.
  • We all have that friend – the one who binge-watches TV shows and movies online. So why not provide him/her with the chance to do it completely free for the upcoming months?
• An airline gift card.
  • Offering airline gift cards may sound like an awfully expensive thing to do, but here’s the trick: many airline companies accept credit card reward points/travel points, which you can use to buy gift cards from them. And there are many credit cards with special offers on reward points and travel points (Harvard Card, Venture from Capital One and BankAmericard Travel Rewards Credit Card, to name a few).
• A gift card for their favorite store.
  • If your friend or relative likes shopping in a particular store, they would be more than happy to use a gift card there. This way, they can choose to spend the money on whatever products they want.
• An Amazon gift card.
  • We all know that Amazon is the wonderland of everything you could ever need. So if you aren’t certain as to what someone would like, offering them this means the world is their oyster in terms of online shopping options.

Do It Yourself

Can you bake, sew, glue or knit?

If so, perfect – Pinterest is there to provide you with an almost infinite number of ideas! From the fanciest cake recipes to the cutest sweaters, the Internet can give you inspiration for just about anything you might be able to do with your own hands.

This type of gift works for people who are closer to you. They will appreciate the effort you’ve put into crafting a present from scratch. Plus, you know what they like and dislike, so you know what types of things they would enjoy more.

The key to making beautiful DIY gifts lies in making sure they are useful, unique and appealing. Avoid boring things people could easily buy from the store (e.g. a pair of handmade white socks). Don’t make presents people will never use (e.g. a crocheted photo frame). Last, but not least, don’t offer DIY gifts that are flawed or haven’t turned out as planned (e.g. a sweater that is smaller than you wanted it).

Be creative – not having the help of Santa’s reindeer and elves is the only limit when it comes to giving gifts that are appreciated and affordable! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happily Wealthy New Year!

How about you all? Do you have a college student on your Christmas gift list? What do you have in mind to get them?

Share your experiences by commenting below! 

***Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattnazario/13971207088/in/