Holiday Spending

Are you the financer of the holidays?  Are you the one left paying all the bills long after the turkey, wrapping paper and tinsel are put away?  The best way to hold onto reason during the holiday season is to ignore the hype and to simplify.  In order to do this you need to make a plan.  Create a holiday budget and set limits on the amount you plan to spend.  Be sure to include all the holiday expenses you may not automatically think about – decorations, holiday cards, postage, gift wrap, baking ingredients, etc.  Analyze your past holiday expenditures and try to estimate how much you’ll spend this year.  Consider eliminating unnecessary expenditures.  The goal of taking a holiday inventory is not to make you feel your should sacrifice tradition, but to help you prioritize what’s most important to you.

 

 

Lists are a great organizational tool.  Creating and sticking to holiday lists can help you save money.  Make lists of gifts, decorations and food items that you need to buy.  If you’ve had a tough year financially, shrink your gift list or gift price amount.  Place spending limits for each family member.  Have family members suggest four or five desired items within your price range.  Allocate dollar amounts for everyone on your gift list and be sure to stick to it.  Perhaps it’s time that extended family starts giving gifts only to children or draw names for a grab bag.  Another way to stay organized is to plan a time to shop.  Running around on lunch hours and evenings after work or shopping with young children is exhausting and not very productive.  Arrange for a day or half-day off to do your shopping.

 

 

During the holiday season it’s easy to make unplanned purchases.  There is nothing like an unplanned purchase to throw a monkey wrench into your holiday budget.  It is very easy to make impulse purchases when holiday advertising starts in October and displays are set up so that you’ll “remember” things you “need”.  You want to make an effort to limit these unplanned purchases.  Why?  You’ll end up spending more than you comfortably can.  Tips for limiting spending on unplanned purchases include planning for impulse purchases in your holiday budget.  That way, you’ve turned it into a budgeted item and won’t get as carried away.  Make a list before you go shopping with names and dollar amounts you intend to spend.  Stick to the list.  Pay with cash.  Sometimes it’s harder to charge the time on your credit card. 

 

 

Try some of these money saving tips so you don’t break the bank this holiday season.  Buy holiday wrapping and cards after the holidays for next year.  You’ll save 50% or more.  Use yarn instead of ribbon to trim gifts.  Buy an entire family a gift instead of one for each individual.  Send gifts by the most inexpensive method.  Plan enough time so that you can avoid overnight or express shipping.  Involve your guests when entertaining.  Have everyone bring something.  Have an “open house” instead of a number of small dinner parties.  Shop throughout the year and take advantage of sales.  Take a pre-determined amount of money with you to keep from overspending.  If you use a credit card, paper clip an index card to it.  Write down each purchase.  This way you can monitor your spending so you don’t go over your allocated amount.

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