With the holidays upon us, and the New Year coming in at full speed, everyone is getting ready for the expensive gift of giving. It’s the same every year. You shop, you give, everyone has a smile on their face, and then, your scary financial statements come in. You start to sweat, thinking about ingenious ways to repay everything after you spent way too much. Below is a collection of tips to help you prepare for next year. Make them part of your new year’s resolution, and you will be all smiles next December.
- Make a budget for the Holidays
Have you read our wonderful blog titled “How to start a budget?”, written by our very own Shelley Koehli? If you haven’t, you should check it out
here. The blog contains a lot of great tips for you in regard to how to start a budget, which will help with your holiday financial crisis. If you start planning your budget in advance, and you stick to it, you should be able to control your finances and not have any surprises when you receive your credit card statements
- Make a list (and check it twice) ;)
Lists are not just for Santa. They are helpful for everyone. It’s always a good idea to organize yourself and make lists of what you need to buy and for whom. Then, whenever the time comes to start heading to the stores, just focus on your list. If you are like me, and you get easily distracted by all the shops in the mall, you can always shop online. That way, you are not tempted with all the items as you walk through the aisles.
- Wait for sales throughout the year
You can start in January. All throughout the year there are sales showing up in flyers, your inbox, online.. After you made a budget and created your list, watch out for sales. You can start as early as Boxing Day, during which there are plenty of Christmas sales, especially if you want to buy Christmas decorations. You buy your gifts throughout the year and keep them safe. Then, when the holidays come around, you already have your presents ready and no stress. A word of warning….resist the temptation to buy “more than you planned” and make sure your gifts are in one place so you don’t lose them. As an added failsafe, make a list of what you buy and for whom and put that with the gifts.
If storing gifts throughout the year is not an option, you can set a financial goal for how much you need for gifts, parties and food and gave a savings account that you contribute to each month. That way, the funds are set aside.
- Group shopping – put money together with family/friends
This is something useful that I do with my family. Whenever it is someone’s birthday, we usually have everyone put a few bucks together and we buy a big thing for the person’s birthday. It could be a trip or just something that’s a little bigger and something that this person always wanted. Each person can contribute a little and collectively give a lot. More bang for your buck (pun intended!).
One final tip for those who are creative. If you like to “Do-it-Yourself”, then this is perfect. Make things instead of buying them. For example, if you have pictures of your kids, you can make your own personalized frames and gift them to your family, or if you have a special talent in woodwork, then maybe you can make something out of wood and gift them to your friends and family. The options are endless and are more meaningful. Who knows, this special talent can turn into a lucrative business someday.
We hope you enjoy the tips above, and they save you in stress and money next Christmas. In fact, they can also be applied for any other events that require bringing gifts.
Happy New Year
