Pinetop White Mountain Blog

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I came across some ideas today for those of you who are trying to save to buy a house. We all know the temptation is there to spend, spend, spend during the Holidays.  The retailer spend most of their advertising budgets during the Holiday Season trying to entice you in to their stores to buy "things".  Yesterday was Black Friday, a travesty in my opinion of commercialism at it's worst.  But that is a statement for another post, today's post is about ways to have a nice Holiday without breaking the bank.

Here are some ideas that might help:

1) Instead of trying to buy a gift for everyone in the family, draw names and each family member gets one nice gift from one person

2) Set a spending limit and stick to it! 

3) Instead of eating out, hold a Family Pot Luck and everyone bring one dish to pass.

4) Consider buying something useful like a Gift Certificate to the local Car Wash, Spa, or perhaps Movie Passes.

5) Keep children's gifts small and inexpensive.  They can still have lots of gifts to open and they will enjoy those little inexpensive gifts just as much as more expensive ones.  The fun is in unwrapping the packages.

6) Give special home made treats instead of store bought gifts.

7) Set your outside lighting displays on a timer.  This will cut your electricity consumption.

8) Make your travel reservations for the Holiday Day, the rates are usually less and the ports and transports are less crowded.

9) In lieu of giving a gift, make a donation to a local charity in someone else's name.

10) Use an inexpensive e-card service for sending Holiday greetings. Save the cost of the postage. 

11) Instead of everyone in the family sending cards to everyone else, send one card from the Household to another Household and share the cost of the postage.

12) Most of all, if you are going to shop, look to your local small businesses instead of the big box stores.  In these trying times these small businesses need your patronage more than ever, the big boxes will survive no matter what.

Now that you have all these wonderful ideas for saving money during the Holidays, one last suggestion, take every dollar you have saved and put it away for your New Year home buying adventure.  I'll be waiting to hear from you.  I'll help you "Find Your Perfect Place!"

Thanks for reading, until next time......!

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® (928) 242-0300