Christmas is coming...(Frugal Friday)

I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled about my children's Christmas this year!

(Now, I know this is going to make me sound materialistic, etc, but come on now, what parent doesn't like to see their kids' faces light up on Christmas morning?)

I finally had time today to go through the pile of Christmas presents and start wrapping. It gave me such joy to see the presents that each of my kids will be getting, AND, thrilled me to no end to know that I only spent $100 for the whole lot.

That might seem like a lot to you, but I've spent way more than that on Christmas before,and I added another kid this year.

How did I do it? By being willing to think outside the box.

1. All 3 kids will be getting a nice collection of books. Cost: $0 thanks to this Border's deal

2. Katelyn will be getting an Easy Bake Oven and Tyler will be getting a science experiment kit. Both bought on sale for $20 each. The oven was purchased back in October. My husband was thrilled to find out that it had already been bought and paid for.

3. Jason will be getting two fun toys. Cost: $0 thanks to this Amazon deal

4. Katelyn and Tyler will be getting nice Bibles with their names imprinted for them to take to church. This was a last minute addition, but one that I felt was important. They have Bibles, but they stay at school and I wanted them to have one for home and church. I searched around for the best deal in the store and am happy with what I got. Cost: $40

5. The older two will be getting wall calendars. For some reason they think these are cool. I found a bunch of cute ones at Michael's way back in August for $1 each. Cost: $2

6. I have Christmas-y coloring books, pens and pencils, cups and candy that I will put into their stockings. I purchased these for free or almost free at Walgreens using their sales with coupons and paying with Register Rewards and Rebate Gift Cards. Cost: $ 1-2

Grand Total: $84!! For three kids!!!

Also, this year my husband and I are exchanging gifts. We don't always, just kinda however things work out each year.

I wanted to get him the Bible on CD as read by Alexander Scourby. He's mentioned before that he would like to have this. Well, at the Christian book store, it was $80. I searched around online and found it for $50! I was able to order that, plus a new Super Giant Print Bible with his name imprinted for the cost of the CDs at the bookstore.

So, here are my tips for Christmas shopping.

1. Be willing to shop year-round. The best sales don't always come on Black Friday. They may be in April. Think ahead about your child's size, interests and projected needs and shop early. This will of course require a hiding place, but I'm not here to talk about that. ;)

2. Subscribe to email newsletters from your favorite stores like Borders, Amazon, Victoria's Secret. They will often send online coupons to their subscribers or let you know about online only sales.

3. Read blogs. Seriously, I had no idea about all the free stuff out there until I started reading blogs. My favorites for free stuff are Money-Saving Mom and Money-Saving Methods (the links are in my blogroll). Reading the blogs was how I found out about the Borders and Amazon deals.

4. Shop the drugstores. Walgreens and CVS have great gifts out this time of year. If you have ECBs, Register Rewards, or Rebate Gift Cards, its almost like getting it for free! Buy your shampoo, get an ECB, then turn around and buy that toy. And don't forget about the batteries! There have been some great battery deals at CVS lately and all those toys need batteries.

5. Earn points with Swagbucks, Mypoints, Lightspeed Panel surveys and the like. You can do this all year around and then cash in for giftcards that you can give as gifts or use to buy gifts. Our unmarried siblings are getting gift cards this year that I earned from these sites.

I'm sure that there are lots of other tips, too, this just scratches the surface. The point is that by changing the way that you shop you can have nice things without breaking the bank.

Merry Christmas!

For more frugal Friday tips, check out Biblical Womanhood!