Use These 10 Tips to Reduce Your Holiday Spending

With Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and the new year coming just around the corner, many families find themselves splurging and going over their budget. That doesn’t have to be your family, though! With a little planning, and a litle effort, you and your family can stick to a budget and reduce your holiday spending and stress.

Tip 1: Make a Budget

There are a lot of different categories you can spend on during the holidays. Whether it’s gifts, food, transportation, hotels, traveling costs, etc., you will have expenses. Make some categories. Underneath each category, list out the individual expenses. If you don’t know prices, don’t worry. You haven’t created a budget yet, so you might not be able to decide.

Then, you want to actually make your budget. How much are you ok with spending? Make sure that that amount is flexible. You might want to make it 10% more than your ideal budget, so you can stick with it no matter what. Once you have your budget, you can roughly assign prices and smaller budgets to the individual categories you made above. When you go shopping, be sure to bring your budget list with you.

Tip 2: Consider Cash-Only

When you have your credit card with you, or even your debit card with you, it can be easy to overspend. Withdraw your budget from an ATM, and use only cash when shopping. You’ll find that you will probably spend less.

Tip 3: Dont Buy to Impress

If you’re thinking about buying expensive gifts “just cuz’ their expensive”, then think again. You may be trying to impress others. As you should know, impressing others and sticking to your budget don’t frequently go together. If you are buying for yourself, buy what you really want. If you are buying for others, think a little and consider what they really want, instead of uselessly spending money for something that you think would make you look good. People prefer to have thoughtful gifts more than expensive ones.

Tip 4: How About Homemade Gifts?

Speaking of thoughtful, considerate gifts, have you considered making homemade gifts? Maybe you can make a delicious homemade pumpkin pie just for someone, or maybe you’ll make crafts and cards. Remember that you don’t always have to spend money. By making something unique and original, your gifts will be remembered for a long time.

Tip 5: Practice Smart Buying

Some of this has been working up to the idea of smart buying. Smart buying is putting time and effort into analysis of products so that you can achieve price savings. Sounds like a fulltime job, but it isn’t. By comparing prices, buying only what you need, and following some other tips, you can be a smart buyer. Learn more smart buying tactics with our Smart Buying article.

Tip 6: Do Gift Exchanges

Having a party of reunion? Don’t want to buy gifts for everyone? You don’t. Gift exchanges are fun ways to surprise others while speding money on only a few gifts. It is where everyone buys a couple gifts, or just one gift, and then exchanges those gifts with one other person. In the end everyone has a surprising gift, without breaking their bank.

Tip 7: Have Potlucks

This is the same idea of tip 6, but with food. Having parties and family renunions during the holidays can mean a lot of grocery shopping and a lot of cooking. Consider doing potlucks. You can save money on grocery shopping, and save time on cooking. Plus, the party can have  a little variety and diversity with more than one person contributing food.

Tip 8: Take Advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday

After Thanksgiving comes two days that everyone can be thankful for. Those are Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The first Friday after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, and the first Monday after Thanksgiving is Cyber Monday. These two days are considered the best times of the year to save. Black Friday is where there are large decreases in prices, as the end of the season comes around the corner. Cyber Monday is where there are big savings for electronics. You don’t want to miss either one (that doesn’t mean you have to camp outside of a store on Thanksgiving, though).

Tip 9: Have a Few Extra Gifts

How is that saving? Sometimes people have last-minute holiday events that pop-up out of nowhere. That may result in last-minute shopping, which can be pricey. Instead, you should buy a few extra gifts even if you don’t know who you will give them to. When an event comes up, you’ll be ready without having spent too much. Be sure to get a generic gift that anyone can appreciate. If no events come up, you and other might enjoy the gift, or you can return it. Better yet, you can donate the extra gifts to someone in need.

Tip 10: Read Some Books!

To learn how to save money in any circumstances, you’ll want to consult some great books. Here are four I’ve found for you:

• The Money Resolution
• The Total Money Makeover
• The No-Spend Challenge Guide
• How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck (2nd Edition)
• Companion Workbook for How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck

With a little extra planning, you can have a little extra savings. If you liked this article, check out more on Plan and Organize. We have a wide range of topics, from smart buying and saving money, to birdwatching and trip planning.

Sources:

https://www.wikihow.com/Reduce-Your-Holiday-Spending

https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-stick-to-your-holiday-budget-2385688

https://www.thebalance.com/stop-making-holiday-shopping-mistakes-2385835

https://www.thebalance.com/christmas-saving-strategies-2385935

https://www.thebalance.com/christmas-gift-tips-2386032

https://www.thebalance.com/budgeting-for-gifts-2385703