How To Save Your Wallet and Sanity During The Holidays
How can I stick to a budget during the holidays
I'm ex-military, so I consider holiday shopping on a budget to be guerilla warfare. It's a fight between my wallet, tempting black Friday ads, my desire to give everyone a gift. My heart and family are big, but my wallet is not, so I like most people need a strategy, for my financial goals, like not getting into debt, to survive the upcoming holiday season.
Surviving holiday shopping on a budget, with your sanity, wallet and financial goals intact requires strategy. A certain mental toughness, not to fall into guilt when your kid wants an outrageously expensive give, and you start thinking about last year when you fell apart trying to teach your kid common core math- or maybe that was just me.
Mental toughness to not use Black Friday sales as your shopping strategy. This means you don't use Black Friday Sales as an excuse to buy the stuff you can't afford because it's on sale.
To make it through holiday shopping without future credit card regret take the following three steps:
Decide to holiday shopping on a budget BEFORE you start shopping
List who will or will not get a gift from you
Choose a gift giving strategy that fits your budget
1. Decide on your Holiday Shopping on a budget spending goals.
I primarily work on our budget, so I based our holiday shopping on budget goals on the amount we can spend without compromising our family's financial security, or as I like to call it, an amount that won’t give us a “wallet hangover” on Jan 1. Below are our Christmas budget rules:
An amount that will not put us in debt
An amount that does not require a withdrawal from savings
An amount that is not going to prevent us from paying our bills
Consider placing the amount of your holiday budget on a generic gift card so you won’t overspend. You can get a gift card at a local drug store or supermarket and ask the cashier to load your desired amount on the card.
2. List who will or will not get a gift
Your love for your family and friends may be infinite, but your budget is not. You have to decide who will and who will not get a gift.
You also have to decide on your spending limits for those that are on your gift list. During this time, everyone understands that budgets are tight, so it’s Ok only to give the gift of your love to some people.
Write down your list and estimated spending amounts on something easy to access, like a notes section on your smartphone so you can keep it handy.
3. Choose a gift gift-giving strategy.
I know it’s tough deciding who you will and will not buy a gift for this year. Remember, not buying a gift doesn’t mean you don’t love that person less; it means you are honoring your role as a financial steward and safeguarding your family’s financial security.
For those you can’t buy a gift for (or at least an expensive gift), get creative.
Use your weapons of mass cuteness- your kids, to make homemade cards.
Paper, crayons, and cute artists that work for free (OK, maybe a juice box and goldfish) are all you need. If you have a few bucks and want to take it up a notch, get pictures of your kids and put them in inexpensive frames. I find family pictures have taken on a special meaning during the last few years.
The Joy of Sharing website has an excellent blog on 25 Simple Christmas Cards your kids can make. If you want to get fancy, you can get all supplies at your local Dollar Store.
Bonus- the activity is also a kid distractor, so you can get stuff done around the house.
For the group on your gift-giving spending list, write down possible gifts before gift shopping.
Financially surviving the seductive sway of 65% of sales is all about pre-planning and the resolve to stick to your budget. If you already know what you want to buy, you have a much better shot of sticking to your budget. Better yet, consider shopping online. Below are a few websites to help you research holiday sales:
Next Steps
I know it's hard enough managing money, much less holiday shopping on a budget. But, the time to take to plan how, will help you ring in the new year without extra credit card debt. Your future self will thank you.
