Christmas for Kids on a Shoestring Budget: What I Did

Holidays are stressful and when money becomes an issue the stress levels can rise even more. With the economy in such a tight spot many parents are feeling the stress this Christmas. However there are some things that you can do to still have a great Christmas without spending a whole of money. The below suggestions are all the things that I had personally done when my husband and I first got together and had 4 kids between the two of us. My husband was so fearful of Christmas because we had no money. I on the other hand knew that all the kids would have in their eyes a great Christmas while I only had to spend just a few bucks.

Decorations:

Decorating for Christmas can get expensive. Everyone thinks that they need a whole bunch of Christmas themed items throughout the home to make it feel like Christmas. This is just not true. What I have done when I only had $100 to spend on everything was focus first on the tree. We bought a cheap medium sized tree at the Dollar General Store. I then looked for the cheap packs of glass Christmas ornaments and lights. I bought 2 packs of glass Christmas ornaments and 1 pack of lights. I then bought some tinsel to spread over the tree.

Now that I had the tree covered I focused on some household decorations. I bought some Christmas pot holders and dish towels for the kitchen and a Christmas welcome mat.

Tree: $15.00

Ornaments: $1 x 2 = $2.00

Lights: $ 1.50

Tinsel: $1.00

Pot holders: Pack of three $1.00

Dish towels: Set of three $2.00

Welcome Mat: $5.00

Decoration total: $27.50

Remember that each year you can add to these decorations so that eventually you will have a house full of decorations. But do not despair if you have very few decorations like we did, it actually still manages to proved a good Christmas for kids even when your budget is on a shoestring.

Presents:

At the time that my husband and I first started out we each had two small kids from a previous marriage each. So we had four small kids to buy presents for. I did not have a lot of money to purchase gifts but I was determined to make sure that the kids had more than one gift a piece under the tree. I went to the Every Things a Dollar store and purchased each child 5 gifts.

Gifts: $1.00 x 5 = $5.00 x 4 kids = $20.00 total for gifts.

Christmas Dinner:

I had spent a total of $47.50 on decorations and gifts. Next I had to get the food for the Christmas dinner with the remaining money. I went to Save A Lot, Salvaged foods and Wal-Mart for the food. I took the time to shop at all three places and compare prices and then purchase each item at the store that it was the cheapest. We kept our dinner scaled down by not having to have everything that seemed traditional. Growing up in my household we had both a turkey and a ham. But as the wife and mother in my own home on a shoestring budget I talked with my husband we decided on going with the ham. By choosing only one meat we were able to save on the dinner. We then chose which dessert we wanted most and then which we wanted next and settled on having only two desserts.

While as an adult we see things that are not as big as we want them to be as a disappointment. If we can not give our children the big fancy Christmas then it was not a good Christmas. I know this is how my husband feels. The thing is though is kids remember most the warmth of home once they grow up, so as long as your provide love and family time then you have provided your child with a Great Christmas for kids on a shoestring budget.