Getting Through the Holidays on LIMITED Income.

Before my baby girl was born, the thought of the holidays depressed me. Originally, I was to stay home until the baby was 12 weeks, meaning my leave would be through to Christmas. Living on one income gets us by, but leaves very little and sometimes nothing at our disposal, after bills, gas, and groceries. Consequently, that meant we would not have money for a tree, gifts, etc. After she arrived, my thinking completely changed. This was going to be her first Christmas, how can we not give her a real Christmas? Determined to do so, I searched the net for anything I could do for even the littlest amount money.

I looked into surveys and affiliate marketing. At that point I wasn't looking for a job to do at home, just something small to bring in some extra dollars. Affiliate marketing, I decided would take too much effort, so, I did surveys. Two particular sites that help me were survetmastermind.com and surveysponsors.com. You don't earn cash, but you get points for each survey you complete, and those points can be redeemed for things like gift cards. In just 3 weeks, I earned $125 worth of gift cards for target! I found a nice-sized tree on sale for $20, a 50 count, box of tree ornaments for $15, a 15 foot gold garland for $4, the lights, $6! This will be our first Christmas as a family, and I am glad I'm able to make it a real Christmas.

The star on top was $7:99, also from Target.

As for the gifts, I wrapped up some stuff that the baby will not be using until she is three months old. Things like clothes, teethers, and toys never worn or used that we received from the baby shower. I had a little bit of GC credit to get her some extra clothes and toys! For my husband, I got another gift card for Saks, with my Chase debit card reward points, and bought him a nice Jack Spade wallet. Without putting a strain on our very skimpy income, Christmas will be good this year.