10 Tips to Get Cash for Christmas!

Do you need to find the money for Christmas but don’t know how you’ll do it?

The average Christmas spend is $1,000 to $2,000 for most countries with Aussies totalling over $10 billion alone on gifts.

With Christmas only a few months away I know it’s stressing some families out.

Here we share how you can easily get $2,000 without changing too much or putting in too much effort.

In the second part of the post, we share all the ways to get what you need for Christmas discounted or free, including travel.

This post does contain affiliate links to products and services we use. Read the full disclosure here. 

Tips to Make Money for Christmas

My biggest tip, is for everything we suggest here and the money you save or make, put it in a designated Christmas fund!

It’s easy to have a small amount absorbed into what you do every day so make sure you transfer it to your Christmas fund.

1. Set up a Regular Payment – $600

It’s the 1st of October as I write this, but when you read it, it could be less…

Check out the countdown below. Knowing how long you have left, start saving for Christmas now.

$10 a week between now and Christmas will give you $120 which isn’t a lot but it’s better than nothing.

If you can up that to $50 a week you’ll have $600. Or use the tips below to get the cash you need.

2. Utilise Discounts – $100+

We have a list of Aussie freebies here and tips to get discounts on everything along with a list of coupons and discounts for Aussies.

Also, get up to $180 off EveryPlate with the code THRIFTYEPLATE.

HelloFresh offers your first box for free to new customers.

Get up to $144 off Dinnerly (49% off your first order, then 30% off the next two.) Marley Spoon offers up to $190 off 4 orders! That’s 53% off your first order, and 20% off your next three.

YouFoodz offers up to $200 off your first 5 boxes. Get healthy, prepared meals delivered straight to you. 

Funky Food is a new delivery service offering boxes of produce that are heavily discounted compared to supermarkets. The fruit and vegetables are high quality but all different shapes instead of ‘supermarket perfect’.

Check out Funky Food and get discounted fruit and veg now.

Plan for the sales coming up such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter too.

We share loads of tips plus a list of exclusive discounts for you in every issue. Just add your email below

3. Online Surveys – $500+

Most readers have told us they make $2,000 to $5,000 a year from online surveys, which is what I do too.

Check out the best online survey sites for Aussies.

I know you’re probably sceptical of online surveys.

The highest-paying one in Australia that I regularly get $10+ surveys from is Octopus Group.

Their surveys are accurate with how long it will take and they pay an hourly rate of over $16.

It is free to join Octopus Group and I wrote a full review of Octopus Group, both good and bad so you know everything.

Save up the points or cash to cash out in December or start cashing out now and putting it in your Christmas fund.

4. Sell Anything – $500+

I’ve made over $10,000 in a month buying things to resell.

Facebook Marketplace has been my favourite along with the niche buy sell swap groups on there.

It’s free to list whereas eBay takes so many fees.

Reselling is one of the easiest ways for me to make extra cash provided I follow my system, stick to what I know, take good pictures and aim to list things where I make $50 or more in profit.

Look around your house and list anything you don’t need for sale.

It’s amazing how much stuff we have when we look for it.

5. Cash In Reward Points – $100+

Flybuys are having some big promotions at the moment so check your points and either keep saving them or cash out now to put the money towards Christmas.

Activate all the offers as soon as they come in and check everywhere you can for bonuses.

Download the app and check it to see what offers you have.

Don’t spend just for the sake of chasing points, but do shop smart.

Check your Woolworths Everyday Rewards and any other VIP/Loyalty program you are a member of.

It’s surprising how much we can have sitting there which can be used.

Some banks offer bonus cash back and other offers now too so make sure you activate all of them as well.

If you haven’t already, check out this list of VIP and loyalty programs (many with sign-up bonuses you can use now for Christmas), plus this list of Aussie freebies.

Don’t forget when you’re shopping to use these tips to get discounts on everything!

6. Rent Out A Room – $2,400

One year, when I went away for Christmas I made $1,300 in 5 days on Airbnb.

In other years I have rented a room for around $200 a week to a boarder or $70+ a night through Airbnb to different people.

With 12 weeks until Christmas, that would be $2,400!

Check the price of Airbnb listings in your area and get a $61 bonus when you complete a listing/booking (and follow the T&C’s), or consider listing on Booking.com and similar now too.

Price your room accordingly, have everything you’d expect on hand such as soap, towels, and linen.

Be specific in your listing and use the tips in my article, how to make money with Airbnb to ensure success.

7. Mystery Shopping – $100+

Most mystery shopping I have been offered was clothing or food between $20 and $50.

Do a few shops to get both cash and items you can use for Christmas.

Find out how to make money as a mystery shopper.

8. Market Research – $100+

Market research companies typically pay $100 for an hour of your time giving feedback on a product.

Some are done from home, others on the phone but most are in an office.

Learn how to make $100hr doing market research.

Recently I have been getting offers for $200hr too so it’s a good time to try it.

9. Offer Services- $500+

Check out Airtasker, Gumtree and similar sites to see what odd jobs people need to have done such as delivering items, setting up furniture, connecting TV’s etc.

Offer your services for ironing, babysitting, cleaning, lawn mowing or anything else you want to take on.

This time of year requests for domestic services increase and you could easily make some money with friends and family connections.

Read how to make money with Airtasker to see what I did.

Most of these services pay between $20 and $50 per hour.

A few hours a week could easily make some good cash you can put towards Christmas.

When we were trialling things on Airtasker, we quickly made hundreds a week with little effort.

10. Rent Your car out $300+

If you don’t use your car all the time, UberCarShare could be a good option for you.

Sign up, list your car and make money when people book it.

Be aware, people do not care about your car the same way you do.

You will need to keep it clean, fueled up (many users return it empty), check your insurance and be prepared for scrapes etc from the extra use.

More Ways to Make Money

I have tried and tested numerous side hustles.

Try 22 ways to make money on the side in 2022, read how I made $33,277.57 on the side in 12 months and 43 ways for single mums to make money for more ideas.

Do the free 7 Day Fast Money Challenge.

You get a daily email with a theme and things to do that day to make or save money both immediately and change your finances long-term.

Get the money makeover bundle we have for only $29.95 which includes most of my ebooks, debt trackers, saving trackers and $1,500 in discounts.

Tips to Save Money for Christmas

Making money for Christmas is one thing, but what if you could get things for free, utilise discounts and make your money stretch even further?

You might be able to use your Christmas fund for something else instead! Here are some tips and loads of discounts for you.

1. Plan It Out

What do you need money for? Who are you buying gifts for and what gifts are you buying?

Are you travelling and how much do you need for that?

For example, I have my 4 biological kids here and family in Vanuatu we send money and gifts to.

Over there, I have my stepdaughter, her brother (he is not biologically related to us but we want the kids in both families to know they are loved by all and to be treated the same), a niece, nephew, grandparents and aunts/uncles to buy for.

It can get expensive but we have a list and know exactly what we are getting so we can look for the discounts between now and when we visit or post presents.

On my side of the family, we don’t do many gifts except for my parents and Oma.

I am 1 of 9 kids who all have kids of their own so we stopped gifts a while ago.

This year, we aren’t visiting Canberra for Christmas either so that changes the budget.

Usually, I budget for petrol to Canberra and sometimes we go on an extra trip elsewhere.

If we do the extra travel, I use Booking.com but in Vanuatu, we have no accommodation costs.

Write down all the gifts, travel, food, decorations and other expenses you need to budget for.

Decide what you are willing to spend and how you will do it then stick to it.

With travel, consider travel insurance. You can get 10% off travel insurance with Freely using our code Thrifty10 at the checkout.*

Gifts

Use a free app to organise your gift list then look at ways to do presents cheaper such as using sign-up bonuses, freebies, entering competitions and giveaways anywhere you see them etc. 

I have won thousands this year through competitions.

You can find a huge list of sign up freebies here that you can use for gifts or to get gifts discounted.

Alternatively, cash in your points from different loyalty programs to use towards gifts.

Can you make gifts or do you plan to?

Work out what items you need and how you can do it on a budget. We’ll share some easy, budget-friendly DIY gifts soon.

Read 17 cheap but thoughtful gift ideas and our gift guide to help.

Travel

For accommodation, I love Booking.com both for staying and you could look at renting your place out to make money while you’re gone.

Everywhere I have lived (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Noosa, overseas etc.) increase in price this time of year.

I’ve made enough to cover our trips and have a profit sometimes.

For your own accommodation, shop around, compare prices and make sure you get the best deal on everything you do.

Sign up for cashback programs and clear your cookies or use an incognito tab when searching.

My two favourites are Cashrewards and Shopback.

2. Get Discounts

Why pay full price when you don’t have to? Shopping around once you have everything planned out will save you heaps.

Plus, if you’re spacing the shopping over the next few months it won’t feel like such a big financial drain.

Be sure to keep track of it all though so you don’t accidentally buy too much for one person and nothing for someone else.

Read 9 tips I use to get discounts on every purchase plus how to get a discount on everything.

3. Use Cashback Programs

Your first step needs to be getting the apps and Chrome extensions installed.

They can notify you when you are on a site eligible for cash back and how much you will get. The ones I use are:

CashRewards: By far my favourite as it usually has the highest cash back offer, the payments are processed easily and customer services has been good.

Simply join CashRewards for free, activate it when you see the cash back offer and get a bonus $20 cash back with your first purchase over $20.

Shopback: Works the same as CashRewards. You can only activate and use one so I compare to see which one is offering me a better deal.

Join Shopback for free and get a bonus after your first purchase through them too.

Honey: Slightly different, Honey offers cash back but also scans for discounts and coupon codes. Join Honey for free here.

Swagbucks: Best known as an online survey site, they also have a cash back program with the cash being awarded in points you accrue and cash out. Join free here.

ReceiptJar: This is for after your purchase is final. Upload your receipt and get points. Once you reach 1,000 points you can get a gift card.

Join free with the code KYLIT3QH2 and get a bonus 200 points when you upload your first receipt.

4. Create Traditions

The important things to my kids are the ones we do every year, and our traditions.

When I was growing up we had a specific advent calendar, did a church service, put up the Christmas tree on a specific day and other things like that.

With my own kids, we decorate the tree together, they have an advent calendar and they pick a decoration from Myer each year.

We went to the Myer window display in Melbourne CBD when we lived there.

Driving around to look at Christmas lights is another activity they love.

What traditions can you do? Look at the events on in your area such as Christmas carols, Christmas markets and festivals then choose some to have as your traditions.

All up, if you did all of these you would have well over the $2,000 needed! How are you paying for Christmas?

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