November and December are always the most expensive months for me. Sure I could ban Christmas presents, but my family would be very sad—assuming they would allow such a thing.

I’m not a Black Friday kind of girl, I’m too nice, polite and passive to even think I could hold my own in that crowd. So I skip Black Friday each year, even though the massive savings are plastered everywhere, in stores, ads, websites and of course…the blogosphere.

I know I could probably save a couple hundred dollars each year on Christmas presents, but still I shy away from the Super-Scary Black Friday.

Just in case there are others out there like me, or you want to further your savings on Christmas (or Hanukkah) shopping, I thought I’d share some of the things I do to save.

Cash-back Shopping

This is one of the easiest ways to do Christmas shopping, and I use this as my primary avenue. When you buy stuff online, it’s much easier to compare prices and get the best deal out there.

I have 3 favorite cash-back shopping places I use regularly: Ebates, Shop at Home and Big Crumbs. Day to day, the cash-back percentages can vary between the 3 sites.

What I do, is to compare the price of the items I plan to purchase and then check out which cash-back shopping site is offering the most cash back that day. Then I browse through the available online coupons to see if any can save me some additional money.

It’s really easy and I love getting the checks. Why not earn some money back on your purchase? For more information about Cash-back Shopping, you can read about it on my page here.

—Current Promotions at the Cash-back Shopping Sites—

Ebates will either give you $5 in your account or a $10 gift card *new accounts

Shop at Home will give you $5 into your account with your first purchase *new accounts

Amazon.com

Amazon is awesome! They have almost everything, and more often than not, you can score some really good deals. I like to save up my Amazon.com gift cards I earn from taking surveys and reward programs to help us spend less.

Most of their items ship for free when you spend $35 or more, and those with the Amazon Prime accounts get free shipping all the time (I think, I could be wrong). Depending on what you’re looking for, you might be able to save even more if the product is one of their Subscribe & Save products.

It’s like signing up for a subscription of that product, but there aren’t any strings attached at all. I use this a lot, I’m sure they hate me for it. When I buy something with the Subscribe & Save option, I always choose the “every 6 months” option, just in case I don’t remember to cancel it right away.

Then, after I receive my product, I cancel the subscription immediately. I get to save money right away, but don’t have to worry about getting additional items in the future. You never have to receive an additional shipment to save money with Amazon’s Subscribe & Save; Amazon even tells you that you aren’t under any obligations and can cancel anytime. Easy peasy.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is my favorite way of earning money online, hands down. It’s just so easy, I honestly don’t understand why everybody doesn’t just sign-up and install their toolbar.

Free money, HELLO!

Anyways, you can earn money, gift cards and other stuff from Swagbucks throughout the year and use it to reduce your Christmas spending.

The most popular thing to do, is to cash out for the Amazon.com $5 gift cards every time you earn 450 Swagbucks. It’s the best deal I’ve seen so far. You can cash out up to 2 of them a day, with a monthly limit of 5. That’s still $25 in Amazon gift cards each month, multiply that by 12 months, and you could save $300 on your Christmas shopping.

I usually go the PayPal route and get cash, it a little more than the Amazon gift cards (by 50 Swagbucks now), but it offers a lot of flexibility. If you want to learn more about Swagbucks, you can read about it in my post: Earn Money Online: Swagbucks.

Rewards

Many debit and credit cards offer rewards for using the card. I use my credit card all the time (responsibly) to earn rewards back, and I love it. This year, I’m going to be saving a couple hundred dollars on my Christmas shopping just by saving and using rewards to reduce my spending.

I will also be earning rewards back on all our Christmas shopping as well as our regular purchases. There are other programs out there aside from debit cards and credit cards. I have a couple on my page here.

I just got two things a couple of days ago from my Disney Movie Rewards account that I’m going to use as Christmas presents. Recylebank is also another great place, but it can take forever to earn a gift card through them.