There’s never a good time to be without money, or at least much of it. Being broke during Christmas can be especially tough.

Being broke during Christmas happens to almost everyone at least once in their life when they discover there is more month than money, life happened, they didn’t plan well enough, or there just wasn’t enough extra money to set aside for the holidays.

Whatever your reason is, don’t despair. There are a number of ways to create a memorable Christmas without needing to spend a lot of money. Here are some:

Manage your family’s expectations

Make sure that everyone is clear about the family’s finances. If you have very small children they probably are pretty oblivious to most things in general.

Cat Alford of Budget Blonde specifically gave her infants very few toys because they are too small to remember what is going on. Don’t feel guilty about taking this approach to gift giving as well.

Manage your own personal expectations

A lot of people want things to be perfect during the holidays. Don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself.

Do the best you can with what you have — don’t go into debt or put yourself at risk because you have unrealistic expectations of what you can do this holiday season.

Repurpose items

Some people call this re-gifting. Regardless of what you choose to call this, it’s a great gift option for people who are feeling the financial squeeze.

Many of us will purchase an item and not use it. I have lost track of the number of times I’ve gone to Goodwill and found new clothing with tags still on. I’ve also lost track of the number of times that I’ve gone through my closet and found new items that I’ve never worn — with tags still on them. Give those items to someone who will use them!

Use caution when repurposing or re-gifting an item. Be very, very careful that you don’t give that item back to the person who originally purchased it for you. That is why I suggest starting with items that you know that you purchased.

Being broke during Christmas isn’t forever

Everything has a season. You might be broke during Christmas, but that doesn’t mean that you will be broke forever. Take time to practice gratitude and enjoy what you already have.

Challenge friends and family who aren’t broke during Christmas to also get into the spirit of things and make homemade gifts or coupons for services such as free babysitting, dinner preparation, or dog walking when they need it.

You will be amazed at how combining creativity, communication, and a well thought out plan will help you create a memorable and fun holiday, even if you’re broke during Christmas.

This post was written by Michelle Jackson, a personal finance and lifestyle blogger sharing her story at The Shop My Closet Project. Her goal is to help people cultivate their best life. When she’s not blogging or podcasting for Girl Gone Frugal you can find her riding her bike, going for coffee, or hiking in the mountains.

What to do When You’re Broke During Christmas? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

The holidays are here, giving everyone a chance to be overwhelmed by the potential spending landmines that Christmas offers the average consumer. But not everything has to cost money. Some frugal and free fun can be found around Christmas.

Here are six things you can do to for free fun and enjoy your holiday for less:

1. Go to a parade

Most cities host a parade during the holiday season. Denver has a long-standing event called the Parade of Lights. It’s a fun event that almost always ends up happening on one of the coldest weekends of the year — but people still attend it!

2. Christmas lights tour

Find out where there are great holiday light displays for some free fun. Places to start: City zoos, downtown displays, or neighborhoods that are know for elaborate holiday light displays.

If you’re fortunate enough to live near homes with a super light display make sure to check those out too! Be aware that there are usually long waits and a lot of traffic for the mega-displays.

3. Go to the mall

Most shopping malls have huge interactive holiday displays that also include Santa. You can go with your kids or on your own but there is some free fun for the whole family during the holidays.

4. Volunteer

There are numerous opportunities to help others during the holidays. For people who haven’t volunteered before you will find that it can be amazingly fun. Giving to others just feels great.

5. Participate in a giving drive

Organize a giving drive. Partner with a homeless shelter and give unopened toiletries and clothes in good condition. Find a school that needs supplies and do a supply drive.

Get your friends and family involved as well. You will be amazed at how much you have to give.

6. Throw a potluck

Food, drink, and your closest friends are a wonderful combination for free fun. You can go with an anything goes theme or get super creative go from the traditional Christmas theme, to a Roaring 40’s theme. Provide a space to allow people to come together during the holidays and connect with one another.

Free fun saves everyone money

Don’t feel pressured to spend money you might not have or don’t feel like spending to create long lasting holiday memories. There are a number of ways to creatively and inexpensively experience the holiday season with free fun.

Take some time to brainstorm about what how you would like to experience the holidays, with whom, and how much you would like to spend.

Be clear with your friends and family about your budget related goals and objectives. Let them feel good about saving money as well and get them in on the action. If everyone in your circle is on the same financial page it will be much easier to manage expectations and meet the budget related goals that you’ve set for yourself.

There is no reason to go broke this holiday season. Use creativity, some planning, and a sense of fun to create a memorable, inexpensive and enjoyable time without breaking your bank account.

This post was written by Michelle Jackson, a personal finance and lifestyle blogger sharing her story at The Shop My Closet Project. Her goal is to help people cultivate their best life. When she’s not blogging or podcasting for Girl Gone Frugal you can find her riding her bike, going for coffee, or hiking in the mountains.

6 Ways for Free Fun During the Holidays is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

If you’ve never volunteered before and are intimidated by where to begin there are a number of organizations that are looking for the following types of help:

• Financial. Many organizations run fundraising drives at this time. Take time to figure out what causes are important to you and work on your budget to see what you can donate comfortably.

• Your time. There are a number of clothing/food drives that can’t happen without volunteer hours. Volunteer at one of these events so that they can successfully meet their organization’s goals. According to The Nonprofit Times a volunteer hour is now averaging around $23.07 an hour. Volunteers save organization huge amounts of money on wages, tax contributions, and health care that they don’t have to pay for paid employees. This savings allows organizations to remain focused on the organization’s mission.

• In-kind donations. There is an organization for everything. Find the organization that resonates with you as a good volunteer: hunger, animals, kids, clothes, or shelter and then find the items needed for those organizations. Items include: canned food, dried beans, animal food (for animal shelters), toys, cold-weather clothing, or even housing stipends.

Be a good volunteer

Now that you know the types of help organizations are looking for here are a couple of reasons why you should add volunteering to your holiday plans and how to be a good volunteer:

• Volunteering keeps what is going on in your life into perspective. Your life may have some difficulties but you may find encouragement, or encourage others by spending time with people who are in need.

• People need help. If you have the capacity to help someone else, why wouldn’t you help them as a good volunteer?

• It feels great! Helping other people feels great. Studies have shown that people who help others also receive a benefit from the act of helping other people. Ask your friends to join in.

• Be one of the “Good Guys.” There are a ton of good people out in the world making a difference. Counter the daily barrage of negativity by being one of the people out there who is making a difference in the world. What you do as a good volunteer does matter.

• Practice gratitude. Volunteering helps people to tap into gratitude. When you’re dealing with other people who are in need, hungry, homeless, friendless or without family you become very aware of the things in your life that you are grateful for.

Volunteering during the holidays doesn’t have to be a painful process. It can be done in one hour, a day, over a course of days over a month. It’s up to you and howe you want to help as a good volunteer. 

Finally, begin looking for volunteering opportunities before the holidays begin. You will be amazed by how many people will be volunteering during the holidays as well. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to help others and make yourself feel good at the same time because you waited too long.

Start with the following types of organizations: Food pantries, Salvation Army, Homeless Shelters, animal shelters, or even your child’s school.

This post was written by Michelle Jackson, a personal finance and lifestyle blogger sharing her story at The Shop My Closet Project. Her goal is to help people cultivate their best life. When she’s not blogging or podcasting for Girl Gone Frugal you can find her riding her bike, going for coffee, or hiking in the mountains.

How to Be a Good Volunteer is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Pinterest might be responsible for the uptick in interest in homemade gifts. Gorgeous photos with detailed instructions reassure the uncrafty that they too can produce fabulous homemade or sort-of-homemade gifts for their friends and family.

If you’re not a naturally crafty person the key is to pick an easy gift that looks classy and has very few steps to it.

Here are 10 fun and easy homemade gifts to create projects straight from Pinterest.

1. Limoncello

A fantastic drink that you make with vodka, sugar, water, and lemons, limoncello is easy to put together but you will have to plan the different steps because it’s an easy multiple day process.

The key to managing the process is to put reminders in your cell phone. Or, schedule the steps on your Google calendar.

2. Infused olive oils

Infused olive oils are super easy! The trick is to figure out the types of food or flavors your friend or family member doesn’t like. Once that’s figured out you can begin with creating a simple infused olive oil. Make sure to include a cute ribbon or twine with a cute cardboard label to “tie” it together.

3. Homemade bath salts

For those of you who have family members who enjoy a nice soak in the tub or need a nice soak in the tub, homemade bath salts are the gift for them.

4. Sugar scrubs

You usually just need sugar, oil, and a scent to make sugar scrubs for the skin.  A super recipe and all you will need is a measuring cup and a cute container.

5. Body butter

Body butter might seem a little frightening because most people think where should we begin? Body butter is actually a little easier to put together. You might get messy but it will be great when you’re finished.

6. Cookies

Get a cute box with lovely tissue paper and bake two or three types of cookies! They will be fresh and delicious without you having to do all of the hard work.

7. Pre-made mixes

You’ve probably seen them already premade mixes in a cute glass jar.

You just have to make sure you’re measuring everything out properly and putting everything in the jar carefully so that it looks cute.

8. Fancy toffee

Toffee dipped in chocolate with sea salt sprinkled on it is easy to make. You can purchase the toffee and then melt down the chocolate and sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on the bar. After the chocolate cools off then wrap it in brown paper wrap and top it with twine or a cute ribbon.

9. Mason jar plants

Mason jars are all the rage and they are easy to find to use to make mason jar plants. You can pick up jars from thrift stores or Ball jars from your local grocers. Put nice rocks in the jar and then place a succulent or other plant on top.

10. Everything bag of homemade gifts

A bag with a little bit of everything is my favorite among homemade gifts! Get a cute basket, bag, or box and collect a number of cute little items that the one you love would enjoy. Socks, shaving cream, chocolate, a favorite beer, and the list goes on. Be creative and have fun!

If you’re trying to be frugal, or are a lover of homemade gifts this list is a great place to start. You may spend a little time to put these gifts together, but people will love the perceived time and energy you put into the gift.

This post on homemade gifts was written by Michelle Jackson, a personal finance and lifestyle blogger sharing her story at The Shop My Closet Project. Her goal is to help people cultivate their best life. When she’s not blogging or podcasting for Girl Gone Frugal you can find her riding her bike, going for coffee, or hiking in the mountains.

10 Homemade Gifts for the Uncrafty is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Was holiday gift giving a disaster last year? Did your Christmas giving go way over what you initially budgeted?  Maybe it was as simple as looking in the eyes of your adorable kids and your loving spouse and you just couldn’t say “no.”

Months later you’re still dealing with the aftermath of your Christmas giving and by the time you finished paying off Christmas 2014, Christmas 2015 is just around the corner. 

Avoid Christmas debt

Every time you look at your credit card statement you see that you’re still paying off your daughter’s Tickle Me Elmo. The question now becomes how do you manage your 2015 gift giving so that it doesn’t linger into 2016?

You have to actively manage your family’s holiday expectations. There are a number of ways to do this without killing the holiday spirit. How to do this? Here are three pain-free ways to manage your family’s holiday expectations:

• Schedule a family meeting and discuss what you would like the holiday to be like.  Talk to your loved ones about what is important to you in terms of what you would like to experience during the holiday. Would you like lots of little gifts, one big gift, a dinner party, or a trip.

• Talk about gift giving price limits, events you would like to attend, should everyone give one gift or three, white elephant gifts, or homemade? Having a half an hour conversation will create clear expectations and eliminate any negative surprises.

• Talk to your friends about your expectations for the holidays. They will most likely embrace anything that allows them to save money — but still have a lot of fun. Suggest alternatives to what you normally do. If you exchange purchased gifts suggest a gift-giving alternative or host a themed pot-luck.

• Set family goals and be clear about the role your holiday related savings plays in the bigger picture. If it’s not clear why you’re making these changes then it will be difficult for your family to buy into the idea.

Communicate Christmas expectations

The key to managing your family and friends’ gift giving expectations is to communicate. People aren’t mind readers and need a certain amount of guidance and reassurance about a change from the normal status quo.

Remember that it’s an ongoing process. Some of your family members will be resistant to the changes if at least the majority of your family is onboard it’s still a positive situation.

Remember that practice makes perfect. After Christmas talk to your family and friends to see what they like and disliked about how you celebrated the holidays. What would they change and how? Were they surprised by the outcome?

Finally, spend some time looking at your budget. Did you save money? Where were your highest levels of savings experienced? Was it food and alcohol because you had a budget? Or, was it in the gift category? How would you adjust your budget so that next year you can experience an even higher level of savings?

Taking time to ask these questions and examine your results will help you have a fun and relatively stress free holiday season.

This post on Christmas gift expectations was written by Michelle Jackson, a personal finance and lifestyle blogger sharing her story at The Shop My Closet Project. Her goal is to help people cultivate their best life. When she’s not blogging or podcasting for Girl Gone Frugal you can find her riding her bike, going for coffee, or hiking in the mountains.

Managing Christmas Gift Giving Expectations is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

In the past I’ve tried to cut Christmas costs by setting a budget for my gift-giving but I never even considered all of the other costs associated with my family’s Christmas celebration.

However this year is different, I’ve got a plan to help cut all of my Christmas costs. The only hang up I had was seeming like a Scrooge. Fortunately, I’ve found 4 ways to cut Christmas costs and avoid the Scrooge factor.

Decorations

I don’t go all out and decorate my house for very many holidays or occasions, but Christmas is one of them. This year I’m going to avoid some of the hype by re-using decorations from past years and I’m going to avoid getting anything new for the inside of my home.

For the outside, I’m going to cut down on extra electricity costs (and labor) by doing something similar to this:

Go Minimalistic with Gifts

My family has agreed to try something new for our gift giving exchange this year which should also cut down on the cost of Christmas, limiting our gifts to one/person.

In past years we’ve given many, many gifts to each person in our 4 person immediate family and it had gotten a bit out of hand. Now that my brother and I are both adults, we are both able to buy almost anything we want and need without having to ask our parents to provide it for us.

Limit Expensive Activities

My family’s never been too big on expensive activities around Christmas time, but if yours is consider trimming down the activity list to the basics. There’s no need to spend  a lot of money on entertainment and activities in order to celebrate Christmas. In fact, some of my favorite holiday memories are centered around free (or cheap) activities. My family enjoys decorating the Christmas tree at my mom and dad’s together, driving around town to look at lights, and having our annual board game night/sleepover at my parents’ house on Christmas Eve.

Have Less Food

No one needs to eat as much food as Christmas as what is usually provided. Our extended family’s feast is usually must too big even though it’s quite a bit smaller than it used to be. In order to cut costs for the hosting family, we all chip in with food (potluck style) and then we all share in the leftovers to cut down on waste too.

Implement Changes Gradually

My family Christmas is a work-in-progress. We have made small changes every year in order to cut down on the Christmas costs. Implementing lots of changes in the same year might be tempting to help your budget, but for most families that won’t fly as Christmas is generally a holiday of tradition. Instead, try to make small, gradual changes that lead to a cheaper Christmas in years to come without sacrificing the things your family loves most about the season.

Has you family done anything to cut down on the Christmas costs?

4 Ways to Cut Christmas Costs and Not Seem Like a Scrooge is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.