The holiday season can be a very trying time for many as we scramble around trying to pull everything together to entertain guests or find the right gifts for everyone on our lists. Below are a few ideas that will help to eliminate some of the stress. There is no special order to the list, just some thoughts to help make the season a little bit more manageable.
1. Plan out your spending
One of the most helpful ways to help yourself not overspend during the holidays is to create a spending plan. Decide how you would like to spend your money and stick to it. Create a list of the gifts you would like to give and the meals you’re wanting to prepare. From those lists determine how much you need or are willing to spend on each item.
2. Set a limit
When January comes around, it never fails that many people end up singing the holiday blues. Those bills start rolling in and you realize you’ve acquired a mountain of debt or spent well beyond their means. A sure way to avoid another negative new year’s surprise it to set a spending limit for the holidays. It’s easy to get carried away with the purchases, so setting a limit on how much to spend and sticking to it, allows you to stay within our means.
3. Avoid credit cards/Use cash
Using credit cards to help make holiday purchases may seem like a good idea. Many may think it to be a good strategy to rack up on points. But, if you’re honest with yourself, using credit cards can have a way of getting away from you and can lead to overwhelming and unmanageable debt. Add compounding interest and fees and you have a bill that’s increasingly more than the original cost of the purchase. You can have much more control over what you spend if you use cash. There’s more to gain with using cash – no added interest or fees and if you start saving each year for the holidays, you can even gain a little bit of interest.
4. Be wise about the sales
Black Friday and other holiday sales are much anticipated deals that we all like to take advantage of. Just be careful not to fall for shady marketing tactics. Do your homework and know what deals are real and those that are not. In the past, I’ve witnessed what were supposed to be deep Black Friday price cuts to be nothing more than just a dollar discount off the original price. We can easily get caught up in all the sales and forget to check the discounted price against the original price. Just keep your eyes open and make sure to be smart about those items labeled as deep discounts and presented as a deal.
5. Be real
Be realistic about what you have available to spend. We can easily go overboard with spending for meals and gifts during the holidays, especially if we don’t have a list or a plan. Make a spending plan for holiday spending. Consider things such as work parties and Secret Santa’s that will add to your holiday spending. Figure out what you realistically have available to spend without bringing credit cards or loans into the picture. This will give you an idea of what you can truly afford to spend on gifts for family and friends. From there you can make your gift and/or meal list according to what you can afford.
6. Redeem Credit Card Points/Clip Coupons
I’m not encouraging the use of credit cards, but if you’ve used credit cards throughout the year and have racked up reward points, consider the holiday season a good time to redeem those points. This could help to cut down on your out of pocket spending on gifts. Clipping coupons is another great idea. Some stores offer coupons that can be used on top of any seasonal deals and mark downs. Any extra deals or stacking discounts is a sure way to help fit much of your gifting into your budget!
7. Claim price adjustments/save receipts
This may take a little more effort on your part. Prior to and during the holidays, stores may run lots of deals from week to week. If you find that you’ve purchased an item that soon after your purchase was marked down, check with the store that you made the purchase from about giving you the marked down price. Some stores will have no problem giving you the lower price.
8. Save on online orders
When ordering online, try bundling your orders. Making several purchases from the same online store increases your chances of receiving free shipping. Also consider, shipping gifts directly to recipients. This not only saves additional shipping costs (to you then to the recipient), but time in having to go to the post office or other shipping outlet.
9. Cut down your giving list
Know your spending limits. If you’re finding that you have more gifts to get than cash to spend, you simply must cut down
your giving list or find alternative ways of gifting. Prioritize the most important gifts to get, say maybe your kids or parents come first. Those at the bottom of the list will either need to be left off, if your budget doesn’t allow for additional purchases, or alternative gifting will have to suffice. This doesn’t make them less important, but that you may not necessarily have to purchase a gift for them or can find an alternative way of gifting them. Handmade gifts are always a good option. Also consider baked goods or simply spending time with those you’re not able to buy gifts for.
10. Group Giving
Both my husband and I come from big families which can make it tough on a holiday budget to try and get something for everyone. One thing my family used to do is group giving. We always had big get togethers for Christmas and instead of trying to buy gifts for everyone, each family would take turns drawing another family’s name to gift to. This made for a fun and exciting time at Christmas because no one family knew who drew their family’s name, so it was like a secret Santa of sorts. As a bonus, it helps to cut down on expenses.
11. Send an E-card
Holiday cards are fairly inexpensive, especially if you can grab some during a Black Friday special or even after the holidays when most Christmas items have been deeply discounted. But if you like to save even more when it comes to holiday cards, try sending E-cards. There are many websites that offer free or inexpensive e-cards. Plus, no postage and no shipping delays with the holiday mail.
12. Take a Bus Instead of Flying
Traveling during the holidays can be tough, expensive and cumbersome. Depending on how far you’re headed and the travel time you have available, you may want to consider other ways of getting to your destination. More and more people are taking to the road to get to their destinations. Either driving yourself or taking a bus might be less of a hassle than taking to the airways. Paying for gas or buying a bus ticket might be much less expensive than a plane ticket and additional baggage fees.
13. Give Cash
Cash is rarely a bad gift idea. Think of the person who has everything or those pre-teens and teenagers that are hard to buy for. Cash might include actual money, gift cards, pre-paid Visa and Master cards. Setting up a savings accounts or getting someone started with investing are ideas that can impact a person for a lifetime. In the past, to get our kids started with investing, we gifted them a gift card for Stockpile. You can start investing with just $5 and gift cards start at $10.
14. Shop Post-Holiday Sales
Post-holiday sales are many times just as good as or better than Black Friday deals. After Christmas many stores are trying to get rid of inventory and have deep price cut on holiday products. I have seen deals as much as 75% and even up to 90% marked off items. Post-holiday sales can allow you to get a jump on next year’s holiday shopping, especially for items such as wrapping paper and holiday lights. You might also consider this a good time for picking up birthday gifts for the upcoming months.
15. Save for Next Year
It’s never too early to start thinking about next year. Although most of our focus is on the current holidays, when you successfully complete all your holiday shopping for this year, turn your attention to how you can do even better next year by starting to save as soon as the new year hits. Several banks offer Christmas savings accounts. You might also want to consider a 12-month CD that will mature just in time for Christmas. You can make a little interest while working towards cutting cost for the year ahead.
Even while we’re amid the holiday season, many of the tactics listed here can still be implemented to help save YOU money and prevent you from going broke this season. It never feels good when all the dust settles after the holidays and we find that we’ve spent well beyond what we can afford. Be wise, shop smart and be “Centsable” about your spending!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Thanks I found this to be very informative and useful. I would like to know more about stockpile though. Thank you