How to Save Money on Christmas Cards

Christmas is just around the corner and it's time to get those Christmas cards out to all your family and friends. As we all know, the finances tend to get a little strained during this wonderful holiday season and Christmas cards can tend to be quite expensive. To help ease the pain, I have researched various ways to help you save money when purchasing this year's Christmas cards.

Get That List Ready

The first thing you need to know is exactly how many Christmas cards you will need to have on hand to send out to family and friends. Whether you use a pen and paper or use an Excel sheet, count up how many Christmas cards you will need to make - a good rule of thumb is to add an extra 5-10 Christmas cards for those people that you forgot to add to your list. This list will help cut down the number of cards you will need to purchase, therefore, saving you money in the process.

You will need to decide what kind of card you are going to send by asking yourself these questions:

• Do you prefer the traditional store bought cards? Hopefully you shopped the clearance aisle last year and stocked up on the marked down boxed sets. If you did not clearance shop, check out places like dollar stores who will surprise you with their nice selection of boxed sets at a discounted price.
• Do you prefer a more personal photo card? If so, research the internet for some great money saving deals going on right now on sites like Shutterfly, Snapfish, etc.New members will always get a great deal so sign on to multiple sites to see what kind of Christmas card specials they are running this holiday season.
• Are you a person that likes to make your own personal Christmas cards? If you are a computer whiz, try making your own personal Christmas cards on the computer. This will take up some of your personal time but will help to save a ton of money. If you are a do it yourself, crafty kind of person, shop the various craft stores like Michael's who always puts out money saving coupons to pick up items to help make your cards. Also be sure to search the internet for some free templates to help make your crafty cards.

Since the economy is in such bad shape, I thought I would include an optional method of sending e-cards out as your Christmas cards. There are many sites online that will let you design, insert a family photo, and send your Christmas cards to family and friends by email. Even though this is one way to completely wipe out the cost of sending Christmas cards, this method does have a couple of downfalls. One negative aspect is that not everybody has an email address or use a computer to be able to send them an e-card. Another downfall is that many people do not appreciate this method of card sending deeming it rude and not very personal. But if your family is feeling a serious strain on your budget this holiday season, I say go for it - the people who mind don't matter and the people who matter don't mind!

Helpful Tip:

Wait until the first or second week of December to order from photo service websites. Their holiday deals on their Christmas cards get better the closer you get to Christmas.

Now let's go more in depth on a few ways to get help you get some Christmas cards at a discounted price or even a few for free:

• Check out the larger photo service websites such as Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Vistaprint for great money saving holiday deals on photo cards. Starting mid to end November, they will run several different savings events on photo cards. I have seen BOGO deals, up to 50% off entire website, and free shipping with your order. The longer you hold out from ordering your cards, the better the deals get so try to wait until the first or second week of December before ordering your photo cards.
• Keep your eye on the daily deals from websites such as Groupon. They have been known to put an incredible money saving deal up to half off on the purchase of Christmas photo cards.
• Walmart photo center always offers a great deal on printing 4x6 pictures. Many stores offer their prints as low as $0.09 a photo. This makes a great way to personalize your regular Christmas cards by inserting your favorite family photo while saving a few dollars.
• Attention all Pampers Gifts to Grow members - Have you redeemed your points on all those diapers you have been purchasing all year? If not, you can exchange 600 points to get 25 free 4x8 photo cards from the Shutterfly website.

Hope these tips help you to save money this holiday season when sending your Christmas cards to friends and family! If you have some money saving tips for the upcoming holiday season that help you through this budget straining time, I would love to hear them so please share in the comment section located below. Hope everyone has a very happy holiday season!