Tips for a low cost Christmas with the family
Christmas is a date of high consumption, but we do not have to fall for it with these tips to save.
We currently live in a very consumerist society, and Christmas is the time of year when the most money is usually spent on average. This puts the majority of Spanish families in a bind that cannot afford this expense. Many associate Christmas with expensive gifts, pretty decorations, and lavish dinners, yet few can afford it.
Actually the objective of Christmas is to spend a moment with the family , with your loved ones, enjoying the joy of being all together, it is what is really important. That does not mean that you cannot do it with money, but if you want to save a little during the holidays and go beyond the typical consumerism of the dates you have reached the right article.
Index
LOW COST DECORATION FOR THE HOUSE
The good thing about creating your own decoration is that, on the one hand, you will have a Christmas house for less money and, in addition, you will enjoy doing these crafts with your children:
1. Make your own creations with recycled materials
There are a thousand things you can do to save money, but not time. You can start by creating your own Christmas decorations with recycled materials. For example, you can create figurines with the polystyrene trays that are sold in supermarkets along with vegetables and meats, if you don’t have it, you can use cardboard or even buy rubber foam. Draw shapes and shape your creations. On the internet you can find all kinds of ideas. There are even blogs that are dedicated to making crafts and that explain step by step what you have to do to create original ornaments.
2. Do you like crochet? You can make ornaments using t-shirt yarn
On the web there are very easy patterns that you can follow to create all kinds of shapes. The most popular are flowers, reindeer and stars. Once finished you can hang the figures from the tree, from the doors, walls or even use them as covers or coasters. Combine colors and shapes!
3. Homemade Christmas tree
Lately DIY trees are very fashionable, which in English means “Do it yourself”. The proposals are very original and creative. Some of the most used is to create a Christmas tree by stacking books. Another is to draw the tree in chalk on a part of the wall that you will have previously lined with craft paper and then hang Christmas lights following the shape. Finally, another original proposal is to hang all kinds of ornaments, photos, souvenirs and figurines on a wall, making the shape of a tree on the wall, like a giant collage, also adorned with lights that follow the shape.
4. A homemade nativity scene
It is the same as with the tree. You can use all kinds of materials to make the figurines. You just need a little skill and time. Cardboard, eva rubber, cardboard, plastics, fabric … anything goes!
LOW COST DINNER AT CHRISTMAS
Christmas dinner is perhaps one of the things that are most desired at this time in addition to gifts. There are things that no matter how hard we try we cannot include in a low cost dinner at Christmas, such as seafood, but anyway we propose some alternatives that can get you out of trouble.
1. Create the entrees yourself
On the internet there are thousands of recipes for cheap and easy to make entrees. You can try to make delicious chicken or shrimp skewers with pineapple, you just have to pass them through the grill and insert pieces of pineapple between pieces, you can bathe them with a little honey on top.
Have you heard of puff pastry ? They are not very expensive and you can fill them with anything you can think of. For example, you can put cream cheese in the puff pastry, leave it in the oven until the cheese melts and sprinkle it with icing sugar. Delicious and cheap!
2. Choose inexpensive pieces of meat and fish
Economic does not have to mean less tasty. If you want to save a good amount of money, change the sirloin for other cuts that are tighter but equally delicious if they know how to cook well, such as cheeks. With the fish we will have to do the same. Change the typical sea bass for the hake roasted in green sauce, which is an inexpensive and delicious dish, you can also try with red mullet stuffed with herbs or pickles.
3. Cheap seafood?
It sounds incompatible but you may be lucky. Sometimes some fishmongers lower their prices on the afternoon of the 24th because they know that all that seafood will not be able to be consumed in the following days. They will have no choice but to throw it away. However, have a plan B just in case this one fails you.
4. Homemade desserts
It is very typical that people buy an excess of desserts because it is something that goes very well through the eyes and through the mouth. But in the end, most of the time the nougat and marzipan (how expensive it is) end up left over. Prioritize and choose tablets that you know will not disappoint you. Anyway, the cheapest option is to make the dessert yourself. A homemade cake, a mousse of the flavor that you like the most, sorbets … There are thousands of delicious and easy recipes for those who do not have much art in the kitchen, so you have no excuse not to try.
LOW COST GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS
In Spain, many parents prefer to give their children a gift on Three Kings Day instead of Christmas because it is a more Spanish tradition, so we advise you to choose only one day to give gifts. Anyway, regardless of your final decision, we leave you with suggestions to save a few euros.
1. Cheap toys
It may already be a bit late for this option but for trying it won’t be. One month before Christmas, some supermarkets like Carrefour put their toys at half price !! What difference does it make to buy children’s toys in late October or early November ? the only thing you will have to think about later is where to hide them. Another option if you have not arrived in time for the previous one is to wait a few weeks after Reyes . If your children are a little older you can give them a preview of the gift (for example something made by you ) and a promise that they will have their gift later. Finally, there are outlet pages where you can buy cheap toys online, there will not be much difference with the “most fashionable” toys but with the rest.
2. Cheap books
For your partner, a family member, friends … Both in physical bookstores and online there are both new and classic books for 1 or 2 euros.
3. Give time
Does a family member or friend complain that they do not have time for themselves or they continually leave activities pending? Offer to do their homework for them while they relax by doing other things. For example, if you are a handyman, you can offer to paint that room in the house for which they never have time or you can offer to babysit on a couple of Saturdays.
4. DIY gifts
We are talking about gifts made by yourself. On the internet you can find millions of ideas that you will spend very little on, they are original and very beautiful. At PregDream we propose these homemade gifts .
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.