GUEST POST: Three Tips for Frugal Holiday Decorations: Keeping your Costs Down while Staying Seasonally Relevant

Whether it’s a new garland for your front door or a handful of fake cobwebs for the porch, the cost of store bought decorations can really put a damper on your holiday budget. Seasonal decorations are in fact best bought after the season ends during price slashing clearance sales. However, most people probably had not thought ahead a year in advance and stocked up on loads of Halloween, Thanksgiving, or fall decorations. Not to worry, here are a few at home fixes to make your own seasonal decorations.

Canvas rules all
Canvas board ought to be a staple in any frugal family’s to-buy list. Canvas boards are exceptionally cheap and can be found at your local crafts store, Wal-Mart, Target, or even Home Depot.  An easy way to make a piece of plain white canvas come to life without pulling out trays of paints and brushes a la Picasso is to simply find a statement piece of fabric. Fabric can be bought by the yard at a proper store or it can be stripped down from cloth you have around the house. Seasonal fabrics come in a variety of textures from cottons to suedes to velvets, so get creative! Choose your favorite seasonal prints and pin the fabric tightly around the canvas board for a quick fix decoration. You can even buy canvas boards in a variety of sizes and arrange them in a mix and match collage style to make an entire wall in your house holiday-themed in a jiff.

Yummy centerpieces
We put so much time and money into creating grand feasts during this time of year that it’s easy to rationalize our way out of creating decorative pieces on top of all that cooking. An easy way to solve this dilemma is to literally make food the centerpiece at the dinner table, or even around the house. With the resurgence of mason jars, the possibilities of functional food art are endless. If you brine your own cucumbers or create your own jams, the mason jar is a gorgeous way to showcase your craftsmanship. If you’re not quite yet into making your own jams and such, the mason jar can store colorful pieces of leftover Halloween candy or layers of different dried goods like beans or rice to yield the same decorative effect.

It can be Black Friday everyday
Very few sales can match the adrenaline of a Black Friday sale. However, there are quite a number of sales leading up to the holidays that can match Black Friday deals. Keep an eye out for store specific sales both online and in-store. Stock up on your holiday goods and gifts this way and in turn make your wallet happy.
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GUEST POST BY:
Amreen writes for NerdWallet, a financial literacy website saving consumers money on shopping, credit cards, travel and more. Her current focus is checking out the best Black Friday sales and passing on the discounts to her readers.