Good morning to those of you who caught me on Sunday’s WTHR Weekend Sunrise!
Holidays are bright and merry but budgets should be coal black and not bright red. Here are some holiday budgeting tips to help you keep your season bright and help you avoid becoming a grinch.
Consider Limiting the # of Gifts you Give Within Your Family: For kiddos, we give 3 gifts and a stocking every year. It gives us a boundary to hold and keeps us accountable {just because it’s SO fun to buy gifts for the kiddos}. We typically purchase 1 toy, something to wear, and a book. I’ve heard the adage something they want, something they need, something to wear, & something to read, too. Whatever your limit is, set it NOW and hold to it.
Consider Who You Give Gifts To & How: For extended family, neighbors, and friends, maybe it’s time to hang up the habit of giving a gift to everyone. At some point everyone ends up pushing around a $25 gift card in a circle. So get creative, decide to have a pitch in dinner, draw names, host a White Elephant/Yankee Swap where everyone re-gifts an item, do something like decorate, winterize, or paint. It will be more meaningful and create better memories than a restaurant gift card or a necktie. If you do give gifts to your extended family, consider setting a dollar limit for the entire family – for instance to our brothers’ families we give a gift totally $25 for everyone in the family. It might be a gift certificate to get pizza, or a movie with some popcorn, something they can do as a family rather than buying for each individual.
Use CASH: I’ve said it a MILLION times, but I’m going to keep on preaching it. When you spend cash, you spend less than you do with plastic, even if it’s a debit card. Put the cash in an envelope {you can even cute them up} for each person or category of spending and then once it’s gone, it’s gone. DON’T haul out the credit cards. Your Christmas might end up merry but your January will be DISMAL.
Up Your Grocery Budget: I know you’ll be surprised but I think you should increase your grocery budget during November and December. It might be something you have to plan for an advance for next year or it might mean decreasing spending in other categories for the next few weeks. But the holidays mean that there’s an extra pitch-in here and classroom snacks there, and before you know it, you might end up blowing it all together. So if you can plan for extra food expense at the beginning of the month, it will help guide your spending more effectively.
Give Experiences: I always tell my readers spend time, not money with the people who they love. If you can focus in on the fun things of the season that cost very little or nothing at all. Go for a ride and gaze at lights, bake cookies, go sledding, read a book. I guarantee if you think of your favorite Christmases, the majority of your memories revolve around people and experiences and not things.
Hopefully these tips will keep your holiday budgeting on track and leave a little something under the tree for you that’s not a lump of coal! For more Frugal Christmas ideas, check out my Pinterest Board: A Very Merry Frugal Christmas or read some of these posts:
- Royal Ramblings: Christmas & Your Marriage, Don’t Believe Kay’s Hype
- Frugal Flashback: Christmas Giving Strategies for Kids
- What Do You Do Wednesday? Teacher Christmas Gifts or What Your Teacher Doesn’t Want
- What Do You Do Wednesday? Black Friday Shopping Strategies
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