The best way to save money is not to spend it, but if you have to, you do not have to go into debt for it. A recent Bankrate survey found that 63% of U.S. adults felt pressure to overspend on travel and gifts during the holiday season. This is not normal and should not be accepted. If you are carrying around consumer credit card debt then do not use them to pay for these gifts.
The best time to start saving for next year is now. If you know about how much you will spend on each person and add the total up, you should be able to divide it by 12 and figure out how much you need to save for everything.
For example, let us say you have 10 people you buy gifts for but you only spend about $20.00 a person. This means you need $200.00 saved to buy all their gifts. Divided by 12 is $16.68 that needs to be saved each month. A recently added printable is available in the shop.
Christmas comes once a year, every year. This means it is an expense that can be saved for! It is not an emergency so you should not use your emergency fund.