How we paid $0 for our Family's Christmas Presents

For years now my husband and I have been finding interesting ways to pay for Christmas Presents. Usually, it results in using overtime money he brought in, saving for Christmas instead of saving in our normal savings accounts, and inevitably the "third paycheck". You know, every month you get 2 checks but because you are paid bi-weekly two months a year you get 3 checks. We have always just made it work.

This year I had a brilliant idea. I found a way that we were able to pay for ALL of our family's presents without paying a dollar. 

We used credit card points. We use our Citi Forward Card for everything. We accumulate so many points but we can only get so many gift cards to use for ourselves. So Amazon recently teamed with Citicards and offers the opportunity to use your points to pay for your order. 

My daughter's birthday was a week ago, so I didn't even start thinking about Christmas until Monday. That's right..no need to adjust your screen..Monday. Amazon Prime makes it super easy with two-day shipping to get all of my last minute gifts and now to use my Citicard points! This is my kind of Christmas. 

The only gifts we said we were paying for are the gifts for our daughter and our gifts for each other. We have budgeted for our daughter's gifts and our presents for each other will be paid for out of our own savings accounts, but will for sure go on our credit card for points. My husband already knows he is getting his Year of Dates from me. 

In the new year I will be going into more detail on how we budget and use our credit card for everything. In the meantime, how do you budget or pay for your Christmas?

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