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The holiday season brings heart-warming memories -- but it can also leave a hole in your wallet.
So Bankrate wants to play Santa and hand out some cash in a frugal holiday tips contest!
Tell us how you make the holidays special without overspending. Your frugal holiday tip can be about anything from cooking and gift-giving to decorating and entertaining.
We'll award a $500 grand prize to the person with best frugal, festive tip and a $250 second-place prize.
Bankrate judges will determine the grand prize winner based on the creativity of the frugal holiday tip. The second-place winner will be chosen at random.
Entering is easy, and there are five ways to do it. Some entry methods will earn you more chances to win than others.
You can enter each way, each day! Go ahead and get started:
- Pin an original, awesome frugal holiday tip onto any of your Pinterest boards. Tag @Bankrate and #frugfabholiday in the pin so we can repin it onto our holiday contest board. (Earn 10 entries.)
- Tweet a shout-out to someone you know who has mad holiday savings skills. Just use the "click to tweet" box above. Personalize the tweet by adding your friend's Twitter handle. (Earn 10 entries.)
- Comment on this blog post with a unique money-saving holiday tip. (Earn 10 entries.)
- Tweet this blog post. (Earn five entries.)
- Pin this blog post. (Earn five entries.)
Use the widget below to document your entry. The email you use to sign into the widget or to comment will be the one used to contact winners.
You can read up on the Official Rules here.
Good luck!
UPDATE -- Dec. 20, 2012: Thank you to everyone for participating! We had fun reading everyone's frugal holiday tips!
Our second place winner was Kenia from Texas.
Our grand prize winner was Susan from Florida. Her tip said:
"I buy unique items at ShopGoodwill.com. You never know what you will find AND it all goes to a great cause. Like other auction sites without the mark-ups."
Congratulations, ladies!
Always look for coupons
My best tip is to shop clearance sales year round, and keep a gift closet that you can pull from at holiday time. Saves time and money!
Try to shop a little at a time thru out the year, use couons from Drugstores for free items which make great stocking stuffers
Dec 17 is a great day to get free shipping when ordering online!
Buy gifts off season whenever possible.
Do grocery shopping on double coupon days and wait to buy products until they go on sale to save the most money.
Always research your purchases online, compare pricing and print coupons before going to the store and purchasing. Also consider sites like ebates that give you cash back for your purchases.
Check your local ads/paper! ALmost always a 40% off at michaels, 20% off at kohls, etc. That adds up!
Coupons, coupons and more coupons. Start saving all your emails and coupons from October from all the stores you shop, combine them with the Clearance rack items, and before you know if, you purchased quite a few gifts for Penny's. Yes, Pennys!
Work out a plan and stick to it. Don't overspend because you weren't prepared. If you plan to spend a specific amount than that is what you should spend. No last minute shopping trips.