I like to plan Christmas presents far in advance to make sure that I stay within our gift budget - one way to make sure you don't overspend (or worse, go into credit card debt) for Christmas is to find ways to buy presents without spending money out of pocket. I've got several ways of doing this, they really work and none of them require shoplifting or scams! I've purchased almost all of our childrens birthday and Christmas gifts for the past 2 years using these methods!
Idea #2- Sell your junk on Ebay
If you’ve got some items around that would be worth something on ebay, now is the time to think about selling them and using that profit to buy gifts!
Several great ways to make some extra money on ebay at this time of year:
Halloween costumes- From now until mid-October, people will be buying Halloween costumes on ebay like crazy. ESPECIALLY higher-dollar items like Disney-store costumes and high-quality handmade costumes. If you have costumes leftover from last year, or if you can sew pretty well, you can sell costumes on ebay to make some extra $. If you wait too long (like the week before Halloween) it will be too late to get top-dollar because most people want to be sure they will get their costume in time for the big night.
Anything that might be purchased as a gift, even if it is used (in good condition of course)- like that DVD series / season that you have watched once but has been sitting on your shelf for two years, or toys or collectible items that you don’t want anymore, etc. From now until mid-December, people will be buying gifts on ebay, it is the best time of year to sell, so it is not too soon to start selling anything that could be a gift.
Handmade holiday items- If you are handy at making crafts like greeting/Christmas cards, you might try selling them on ebay, just make sure you get them listed by November at the latest, as many people send out their cards around Thanksgiving.
Your old cell phones – This is for any time of year, actually, but I’m always amazed how much older model (used!) cell phone sell for on ebay. Whenever we upgrade our phones we always get a nice profit off selling our unwanted, used cell phones on ebay.
THE DOWNSIDE: As with selling anything on ebay, there are fees involved – and they are not cheap. So you’ll want to factor that into your asking price and decide for yourself if selling an item is worth your time/effort. I don’t sell regularly on ebay, so I generally don’t sell an item if I’m not going to make at least $10 profit on it. Consider the time you will have to spend taking photos, writing the description, dealing with emails, and packing/shipping the item.
HELPFUL TIPS: If you have multiple higher-dollar things that you’re going to sell, list them all at once. Its easier to buy gifts using your ebay profits (paypal balance) if you have a larger $ amount to work with at one time (it would be easier for me to find a couple things I could buy with $30 profit at once than if I had a profit of $15 one week and then a $15 profit the next week)
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