As many of you know I am an overachiever and sometimes take things to the extreme and that includes EXTREME SAVINGS! Yes, I also LOVE CHRISTmas time. My absolute very favorite holiday ever!! Not because of gifts, but because our Savior was born – THANK YOU JESUS!! I was raised by parents that taught me at a very young age the value of money and how to stretch every dollar. For that I am thankful as it has made me a more frugal adult.

I am going to show you some of my secrets for saving for CHRISTmas. These are tactics that I use all throughout the year. I don’t believe in going into debt for anything, especially CHRISTmas. With my strategies outlined below, everyone should be able to implement one or two of these to save for CHRISTmas. Remember every little bit adds up and if you do these things all year long when CHRISTmas comes, you are ready to have a DEBT-FREE, STRESS-FREE CHRISTmas!!

1)  My favorite thing is – Purchasing GIFT CARDS from Grocery stores that offer fuel rewards!  Usually beginning the first week of November, if not sooner, both Kroger and Giant Eagle offer double points for gift cards. This means when you normally earn $0.10 per gallon for a $50 gift card, they will give you $0.20 per gallon for every $50 gift card. So here is the math:

If I buy, 1, $50 gift card and get $0.20 per gallon in fuelperks for 30 gallons that is equivalent to $6 ($0.20 x 30 gallons = $6), which in essence means my $50 gift card actually only cost me $44 now!! That is an instant 12% discount. That is why it is so important for me to plan my Black Friday shopping trips out. The average person spends $1000 for CHRISTmas (per online polls).

So here is the math for that:
$1000 worth of gift cards = 20 gift cards; 20 gift cards x $0.20 fuelperks = $4. Now take that $4 x 30 gallons = $120, so your actual cost for all those gift cards was $880!! Amazing savings! This is such an easy way to save money and most people don’t even think about it!! YOU SAVED $120!!

2) Start taking advantage of Ebates!!This is such an easy site, but so many people over-think it and determine they cannot really save money. I have earned over $1100 this year alone with Ebates. That pays for Birthdays, back-to-school shopping, and CHRISTmas for my family. You can receive your money back via check or directly deposited into your paypal account, which I always do and keep it in there until close to CHRISTmas when I want to use it (unless of course I find a killer deal before then).  Anyone that does online shopping should Sign up for Ebates HERE now and watch your funds grow! Through Ebates you earn cash back for ALL purchases. Rather than going directly to the online site to shop, you will first sign in through Ebates!! and then type in the store you are looking for in the search box – see picture below:

It will tell what percentage you will earn in cash back (please note total is before tax and shipping.  Once you click on “shop now” you will see the screen below showing you your purchase is being tracked so you receive your cashback credit –

Within 2-3 days your cash back will be deposited into your Ebates account. Every quarter (3 months) you will receive your Ebates cashback! Here is the best part for newbies, after you make your first $25 purchase you will receive a $10 gift card to Target, Home Depot, or many other stores  you get to  choose from so you are actually only paying $15 or a 40% discount.   If you have not signed up for Ebates yet, I highly recommend doing it now and saving 40%! I have went through Ebates when I have rented cars and stayed at hotels. I rented a car and earned 8% cash back for a $60 rental, so that was $4.80. You may think ONLY $4.80, but over 12 months that adds up. Even if you only earn $10 cash back over 12 months ($10 x 12 months = $120) – Yes, $120 for taking one extra step by going through Ebates!! It is a win/win!!

3) Are you using Swagbucks yet? This is another easy way to earn gift cards, paypal money, etc for simply doing what we already do – search the internet. Most people use google to search for things on a daily basis, but if you use Swagbucks you will actually earn points for certain searches. 450 points = $5 Amazon gift card. Once again, as I earn these cards I put them in my Amazon account and keep them until it gets close to Birthdays, back-to-school, or CHRISTmas. You never know what searches will earn points, you just search as you normally would through google (but now use swagbucks). There are surveys you can take through Swagbucks and many other ways to earn extra points. On an average, if you switch to using the swagbucks search engine you will average at least 450 points every two weeks. Now let’s calculate that –  450 = $5 Amazon card. There are 52 weeks in a year divided by 2 weeks (since it takes about 2 weeks on average to earn 450 points) = 26 weeks. 26 x $5 = $130. So in one year’s time you could easily have $130 put aside just by doing what you already do, search the internet!! If you are ready, sign up for Swagbucks HERE and start earning some money!!

4) Yep, my absolute favorite. Survey companies. You all know my favorite is Opinion Outpost! It is the fastest and easiest way to earn extra cash!! It adds up very quickly. I would save the average person could earn about $50 from this site a month easily. $50 x 12 months = $600. The biggest thing with survey companies is if you do not do the survey within an hour of receiving the email notification, chances are you will not be eligible. They fill quickly. What I recommend for all survey sites is going to your dashboard (your home page) and click on the “take survey” tab. You will enter some of your demographics and it will hook you up with some surveys. The next important point is, if a survey is a long survey, but you are not earning many points, opt out of it. You DO NOT have to take every survey. I only take the surveys that I am earning more points for. You will be offered more surveys so just wait until you get a good one, which are frequently!! If you have not signed up for Opinion Outpost yet, I would highly recommend signing up now – CLICK HERE!!

I also have a blog post about all the other survey company sites that I recommend. CLICK HERE to be taken to that post!! I would NOT recommend signing up for every single survey company to start out with. If you are new to survey companies, I would pick 2-3 to start out with. Just because I love a survey company does not mean you will, so if you start out with 2-3, you will be able to see if they fit you. If you find that you do not like one of them, then unsubscribe and try a different one. I will tell you that everyone on my site so far loves Opinion Outpost so that is one I would strongly recommend joining first!

4) Lastly, when items are offered for a FREE trial through the blog, if you have someone on your list that you think would like the item, purchase it. Most of these offers are at least an 80% discount if not more. I had one reader tell me she felt bad because she only paid $8 for an item. The retail value was $100. The person receiving the gift is not concerned with how much you paid for it. Think about it, you can go out and spend $100 for that same item, but why would you when you can save $92!! Be creative in your gift giving. There are so many offers for the reusable grocery bags that can be personalized. I love to order those and fill them for my ones with coloring books and crayons, play-doh, etc. For my older kids, I fill them with bath and body stuff that I have gotten for FREE with couponing. The coolest part is they are personalized items and filled with things that each of them like. This is truly an easy way to be frugal and give some very wonderful gifts to your family while saving your family a TON of money!!

I hope you all found this helpful and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I want to challenge each of my followers for 2013 to take advantage of the above items and see if each month we can ALL earn at least $100, so when CHRISTmas 2013 comes, we will have at least $1200 – THAT IS EVERYONE!! With that extra money, we can then PASS THE BLESSING ON and help some less fortunate families and have a DEBT-FREE, STRESS-FREE CHRISTmas with our own families!!

GOD IS GOOD. . .ALL THE TIME!!

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