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Thursday, December 27

Two Ways to Save on Christmas Cards

We're wrapping up our 2018 Christmas posts with a few quick tips for saving money on Christmas cards! We love to send a little something to let friends and family know we're thinking about them this time of year, but with all the fancy new photo cards I know it can get expensive. So here are our best tips for saving money on Christmas cards!

The details: We typically print 100 cards a year. This is enough for friends and family plus several extras for anyone else we think of later (because I always seem to forget someone when I make my list!). Postage is usually our biggest Christmas card expense. You can cut this down by hand-delivering as many as possible, but for the rest this is just a reminder to  include postage in your card budget! Here are our two favorite low-budget card tips:

Traditional Card + Photo
The first money-saving method (we did this last year) is totally different than the snapfish/shutterfly cards we used the last few years and actually saved quite a bit of $$. These cards took a little forethought and planning, but they ended up better than ever!

It all started the Christmas before when I found some beautiful cards on clearance after Christmas. I've always been a sucker for a real card, especially with a handwritten note, and these beautiful little fellas caught my eye! And the best part? They came out to about $0.13/card! So, yes, I bought these a year in advance and stashed them in the basement until Thanksgiving rolled around. Like I said, there was a little forethought involved!


But we didn't just send a card (because we all know photos are half the fun). I used Photoshop to add "Merry Christmas" to a regular 4x6 sized photo and printed them during a $0.01 print sale on Black Friday (snapfish and shutterfly both run this sale occasionally). The card + photo brought my total up to under $0.15 per card (well under half the price of most photo cards!).


So we got to include both a beautiful card and a family photo... but guys, that's not even the best part.
The boys and I worked together to include a handwritten note in each card. Some cards got stuck with a friendly greeting from me, but the lucky ones got the most adorable drawings from the kids! I can't even deal with this one by m2:

Daddy Octopus + Baby Octopus

Pro tip: use a cup of water and a paintbrush to seal those envelopes instead of licking them. It's another job the kids will love!


The second method cost a little more (still less than most cards!) but it's super easy if you're short on time!

Two-Sided Photo Cards
A friend gave me a tip that every year Staples does a Groupon deal with 100 double-sided cards for $25! Yep, just $0.25/card for these beauties. So this year, when we still didn't have cards in mid-December, we went that route. It saved a ton of time over handwriting notes or making my own card in photoshop.


I didn't even look through all the options. I just picked one of the first cards that popped up because late was the hour in which this mama chose to print cards (do people still quote LOTR?). And you know what? It still turned out great and I didn't have to stress about it. It was a perfect solution for this year.


Those are our best Christmas card tips! Let me know your favorite tips and where you find the best Christmas card deals!

And while we're on the topic of Christmas savings - anyone else using the post-Christmas sales to stock up decor for next year? I found a few garlands, wrapping paper, and plenty of lights!

Merry after-Christmas, peeps!

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