Image of a person holding a Christmas present with a Secret Santa label

Tips for buying Christmas presents on a budget

The festive season is a time to spend with friends and family. Sharing experience, memories and the exchanging of gifts. Yet, sometimes, the joys of gift giving can be overshadowed by worries of affordability, especially for those with smaller budgets.

We know that you still want to give the best gift experience for Christmas, even when budgets are tight.

To help you through navigating buying Xmas gifts on a budget, our team and service users have shared their Christmas present buying tips so that you can still give a meaningful present, without having to stretch your Christmas budget.

Christmas budget planner

To keep tracking of your spending and who to buy for, you can download a budget planner on Money Saving Expert.

The planner is free to use and printable, and designed to help you manage your budget for all your festive activities.

Send free digital Christmas cards

Christmas e-cards, or digital cards are a great alternative to Christmas cards. They are free to send and with the cost of greetings cards and postage is increasing every year, for those with lots of family and friends, this can be a great way to save money.

Plus, digital Christmas cards are more environmentally friendly, with some Christmas cards not being as recyclable due to the materials used to create them.

The following websites offer free Christmas E-Cards:

All you need is an e-mail address for yourself, and your recipients e-mail address.

Alternatively, you can send personalised text messages to your friends and family.

Create a Secret Santa ballot

Secret Santa isn’t just for work colleagues, you can also do this with your friends and family. Reduce the costs of having to purchase for multiple people and focus on one person from your ballot.

Simply set a budget, draw names, and enjoy the spoiling the chosen person! This could also help share the cost of Christmas dinner, so everyone is allocated what food to buy, and a budget can be set.

Alternatively, you can use a free Secret Santa Generator such as Drawnames.

Use discount vouchers and codes

Many products and gifts are discounted by retailers around the festive period. These discounts can add up to big savings on your purchases. You can also recieve big savings on products that have been returned but are in perfectly giftable condition.

Use MoneySavingExperts discount finder to find gifts at huge discounts on previously return items, including gadgets, toys and clothing.

Create Christmas gift cheques

For those friends and family member that are hard to buy for, or if you’re struggling for ideas you can create Christmas cheques. These are cheques that enable you to gift your time and offer an act of service, whether it’s babysitting, offering to make a meal, or undertaking the house chores, there’s something for every occasion. You can create and print your cheques using the Xmas gift cheque tool.

Sell, refund, or exchange old gifts

You can try selling items on eBay, local Facebook selling groups and other sites such as Gumtree and Vinted – but bear in mind that in January lots of people will be doing the same, so prices can dip. See 40+ eBay selling tips, Facebook selling tips and Vinted selling tips for more.

For CDs, DVDs, computer games and books, there are specialist trade-in sites which make selling quick and easy.

For those families that are really struggling, the Salvation Army operates across, England, Wales and Scotland and provides gifts to those that are need.

Eligible families will receive gifts donated to the charity. If you would like to register, you will need to create an account and share details about your finances and family. You can apply here.

Applications will then be reviewed by the Salvation Army team.