Christmas . . . . it’s a magical time of year. It is also an expensive time of year – or at least it can be. Knowing that Christmas is a time of year where we are likely to spend a lot of our hard earned money – well this can certainly cause a lot of stress.
As no one wants to feel stressed, especially during the holiday season, it is important to eliminate this stress by finding various methods of spending wisely while still maintaining the joy and wonder of Christmas.
Here are 5 ways to help you budget for Christmas this year.
1) Create a Budget
The first way to watch your spending this upcoming holiday season is to take the time to devise a realistic holiday budget. While this might not seem like the most fun – or even a necessary step for you – budgeting, especially at this time of year, does help to lay the groundwork for the entire Christmas spending process.
Here, you can start by identifying how much money you currently have coming in, as well as the exact extent of your monthly expenses. Gaining perspective on how much money you are required to spend towards all of your expenses, can help you to identify just how much you can realistically spend towards your overall Christmas expenses.
At this point, you may also find that you don’t have a lot of extra money to spare. If so, then can give you a bit more time to find ways to obtain some extra spending money over the next few weeks. All in all, in order to budget for Christmas, regardless of whatever amount you have, or you will have – you will want to set a goal of spending only unto a certain amount of money and of course sticking to this amount as best as you can.
2) Save Some Money
The next way you can stick to your budget is to add a little more to your Christmas spending budget. Starting to save ahead of time will also help you to ensure you’ll have a successful Christmas spending season. Not only can saving money help you avoid spending beyond your means, it can also mean that you will minimize any further credit card debt.
While on one hand, you could use your credit card and then pay the card off as soon as possible with the money you have saved, the other option is to just use cash or your debt card to pay for all Christmas-related purchases. In the long run however, this second method might be more beneficial overall, since with cash or debit you won’t risk incurring interest charges, as opposed to if you choose to pay with credit.
Therefore, saving money ahead of time can be beneficial, especially when it comes to avoiding borrowing more credit, as well as being able to have the money at your disposal when the time comes to pay for everything you need this Christmas.
3) Make a Christmas List
Just as children compile a Christmas list full of toys and other special items they would like to receive from Santa, you can also make out your own list of sorts this year. Your list, however, will of course be the one that outlines everything you will buy, including gifts for others, food, decorations, as well as any other purchases you will make during the holiday season.
Making a list can also help you to plan for how much you think you will need to spend. If, when all is said and done and the items of your list add up to too much, then try to find alternatives for this items – or even try to eliminate certain purchases that you may just not have to have this time around.
Lastly, an added way to reduce your spending this year can involve setting a limit of 1 present per person – or if these are gifts for children, you can set your own limit of what you think is reasonable and realistic for your family. Either way, you can still be generous, yet also set limits of having presents are absolutely necessary.
4) Avoid Impulse Shopping
In addition to saving the necessary amount of money you need for Christmas this year, you can also look to reduce the amount of money you will spend. This can also start with a little pre-planning. Here you may want to be enlist some patience, when it comes to your shopping by trying to avoid rushing out and buying something without giving it some thought.
The reality is that nothing good ever really seems to come from impulse buying and this also applies to Christmas spending. Instead, look at how much all of these items cost and compare prices across a variety of locations, such as online and in different stores. Pause and ask yourself, can you purchase this for less? Is there an upcoming sale?
The goal here of course, is not to wait too long, however by not rushing into making these purchases, you have a better chance of sticking your budget and even in some cases spending less in the process.
5) Pay with Gift Cards
Last but not least, we have talked about shopping with credit versus cash or debit, but what about shopping with gift cards? At first, you may think that this idea sounds a bit redundant, since you are buying gift cards and then going and spending them yourself. However, gift cards can be a good method of helping you to avoid overspending.
If, for example, you know you have set a limit of spending $25 dollars in a certain store or for a particular person, for food and beverages or on decorations, then consider buying a gift card for these places and then using the gift card to pay. With gift cards, you can’t go over your set spending limit and this is yet another method of lessening the chances of exceeding your budget.
All in all, with gift cards, there is no interest to worry about, not debit account overdrafts, and ultimately a lower chance of creating more debt for yourself this Christmas season.
With about 2 months to go before Christmas, now is the time to start thinking about and planning for how you will spend your money. When all is said and done, it really is about finding a balance between saving some extra money, but also looking at implementing ways to save and reduce your overall costs this Christmas.
In the end, if you can remain committed to sticking to your holiday budget, by the time 2017 rolls around you can rejoice in the fact that you have not accumulated more bad debt as you turn the page towards a new year.
