With the inflation having an increasing impact on household portfolios Portuguese, this year, more than ever, it is essential that we find ways to save at Christmas. THE Christmas time is, for most families, a magic and meeting height🇧🇷 And even in a context of greater constraints, is it possible to keep the magic, adopting some strategies to contain spending on supper, decoration and gifts. In this article we give you 15 ideas for you to achieve spend less money this Christmas🇧🇷
Save on the table and Christmas dinner
1. Avoid already cooked food
To save with food on this day avoid buying ready-made food🇧🇷 In addition to being more expensive, we tend to buy in larger quantities, due to the wide variety of products on display at this time. Buy the ingredients to cook the food – starters, main courses or desserts – it will be cheaper than buying everything ready-made in hypermarkets. Gather the family in the kitchen and get creative. You’ll be able to save money, avoid excesses and still create a fun family time.
2. Replace traditional foods
There are foods with an almost obligatory presence at Christmas dinner. However, the price of many of them has increased significantly in recent months, as is the case, for example, with shrimp. You can always find alternatives to replace these foods. In the case of shrimp, you can choose simpler and more affordable entries such as bread, cold meats or nuts.
3. Reinvent recipes
O cod is another example of a food whose price has increased significantly🇧🇷 But also in this case it is possible to save. Why not replace the cod loins with shredded cod and reinvent the traditional recipe? Opting for cod with cream, for example. if you choose salted codinstead of frozen cod, too can take more into account so that Christmas dinner doesn’t have so much impact on your wallet.
4. Divide the evil among the villages
If Christmas dinner is going to be at your house, that doesn’t mean you have to pay all the bills. If you haven’t already, this year is the perfect time to ask your family to share the evil among the villages🇧🇷 They can decide, for example, that each one takes care of a part of the supper, because that way the total value is divided by all and it doesn’t cost so much to those who organize it.
5. Organization is key
The trick to not spending so much on Christmas dinner is to prior organization🇧🇷 It is important to define: the complete dinner menu, which part of the family brings what (if they so decide), the necessary ingredients on a shopping list and the budget with the maximum amount you can spend. Only by organizing these points and sticking to them as much as possible, you will be able to save more this year with food this Christmas. Read also: Is it possible to save even with rising prices?
Save on Christmas gifts
6. Make conscious purchases
When buying the Christmas gifts you want to give, consider the sustainability factor🇧🇷 In addition to being eco-friendly gifts, they also end up being wallet-friendly for a more sustainable Christmas. don’t make impulse purchases or buy extra gifts start by making a list with the people you want to offer and what kind of gifts. Then try to think of gifts that last in time, with meaning and value to the person, not products that have little durability. Or, instead of offering products, offer experiences, such as a ticket to a show, a massage, a boat trip, activities that you can buy in Odisseias packages, for example. can still opt for DYI – Do It Yourself. Making your own gifts is more sustainable and spends less money🇧🇷 Whether it’s food, painting, sewing, just take your creativity and build something you know the person will like, offering a useful and original souvenir.
7. Organize the “secret friend”
So that too many gifts are not offered, why not do the “secret friend”🇧🇷 This game consists of a raffle among several people, in which each one is in charge of giving a gift to the other🇧🇷 That is, each person only offers one gift to another, instead of each offering one to everyone. The maximum gift value can be set beforehand.
8. Offer group gifts
As an alternative to the “secret friend”, you can offer gifts in Group so that so much money is not spent on gifts. That is, for example, in a family with three brothers, instead of each offering a gift to the parents, they offer one for the three. This may even be useful in the sense that, by being divided, they manage to offer a more expensive gift with higher quality🇧🇷 The more people you include in the group gifts, the lower the price of gifts for eachbeing a good deal for everyone.
9. Reuse bags and wrapping paper
Why not reuse bags and wrapping paper from one year to the next? can use paper bags, more sustainable, or even cloth bags, so you can use it the following year. Regarding wrapping paper, since it is often torn, it is more difficult to reuse. But to avoid this paper waste, you can wrap in newspaper sheets, brown paper, satin ribbons or even fabrics🇧🇷 
Also read: Save on Christmas gifts? A handful of suggestions up to 10 euros
10. Compare prices between stores
One of the tricks to find cheaper products, in this case, to offer, is to make a price comparison between the various stores. Compare values across platforms like KuantoKusta that gather the prices of the product you are looking for in each of the stores.
11. Bet on a regulated budget
Before setting off on your search for Christmas gifts, it is important that you have a maximum budget the amount you want to spend. can set individually how much you want to spend on each person/gift or stipulate a general value of how much you want to spend on all the gifts🇧🇷 If you exceed the amount you had set for one person, you can try to save on another. Following this budget in a regulated way, every time you make a purchase, you have a sense of the value you still have for the other gifts. The essential thing is that you don’t go over the general budget and manage to save on Christmas gifts.
Save on Christmas decor
12. Build your own Christmas tree
Rather than spend money on a Christmas tree, if you need one, why not build your own🇧🇷 You can do it in countless ways, just give wings to creativity. With various materials and objects, it is possible to create an original tree, such as: wood, fabrics, wool, paper, cardboard, lights, tree leaves, pine cones, among others. search on internet some suggestions to be inspired and be able to make your own Christmas tree from scratch. In addition to saving money, it will certainly impress family and friends.
13. Reuse decor from other years
If the plan is to save on Christmas decorations, maybe buying more ornaments is expendable, because most likely you don’t need it. He can reuse decorations from previous years, or even ornaments from other times that you may have, and that may suit Christmas. Or you can let your imagination run wild and recreate the ornaments you already have🇧🇷 For example, painting Christmas balls from other years in a new color, gluing glitter on ornaments or even decorating candles you already have, making them Christmas.
14. Buy in a timely manner
Whatever you need to buy, you must be careful to do so in advance to guarantee the best prices. The stores that sell Christmas decorations are making promotions until the day, and it is important to keep an eye out in advance to be able to find good deals and spend as little as possible.
15. Opt for LED lighting
To save on the electricity bill and not spend too much on Christmas lights in your home this year, the ideal is to buy LED lights🇧🇷 LED lighting requires a higher upfront investmentbut it is also more durable, has more capacity, is more sustainable and can reduce energy consumption by up to 80%. A traditional 84-watt incandescent light is equivalent to a 36-watt LED bulb, both of which provide the same level of light. That is, this option consumes much less energyand makes the house more efficient. Therefore, opting for LED lights to light your Christmas decorations this year can represent a significant savings at the end of the month on your electricity bill🇧🇷 Read also: How to adjust the family budget until the end of the year and save?