4 Tips to Help You Save Your Budget this Christmas
Yeah, I know: We’re not to Halloween yet, so why are we talking about Christmas? Well, if you’re like the average consumer, Christmas represents a huge change to your budget. Many of us see things spiraling out of control during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With entertaining, buying gifts and putting up decorations, it can get quite expensive.
Before you bust your budget over Christmas, consider these 4 tips that just might save you the agony:
1. Set Aside Money Now
Look for extra room in your budget. Chances are you’ve let waste creep into your monthly spending. If this is the case, pinpoint it, and eliminate. Then, start setting aside money in a high yield account. This money can be a Christmas fund that can help you pay for gifts and other expenses without ruining your December budget.
2. Think about Layaway
Since the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession, layaway has been making a comeback. Instead of buying things all at once, you can set them aside, and make payments over the course of a few weeks. This will make your spending more manageable. After all, a weekly payment of $10 is more manageable, in cash flow terms, than one big up front payment of $80 or $120. Look for the ways that layaway might be able to help your cash flow issues between now and Christmas.
3. Start Your Gift Shopping Now
We’re actually already done with our gift shopping for our son, and we’ve started on our other relatives. We make a list of the gifts we plan to get, and then keep our eyes peeled for discounts and sales. We also shop for toys online before the Christmas rush drives their prices higher. We’ve found some great deals. Plus, spending a little at a time, spread out, is easier on our cash flow.
4. Use What You Already Have
Before you rush out for more decorations, or other items related to holidays, stop and think about what you already have. Do you really need another string of lights? Can you use last year’s wreath? Go through what you already have at home, and you might be surprised to see that you don’t need as much as you think you do. You can also look for DIY projects related to food, entertaining and decor. This will save you money over time, and cut down on the storage space you need for all the extras.
What are your best budget saving tips for Christmas?
Opening a high-yield savings account will sure help. Everbank has a good rates.
Oh i'm totally down with planning for Christmas now. From presents, decorations, travel expenses, right down to what clothes do I have to wear to parties. If you plan early, there is time to make, mend, and save for the perfect christmas on a budget.
Great article!
Kate
I would also set expectations early with family members. Last year my 4 siblings and I made an agreement that we would only buy gifts for family members 18 and under. Everyone was really receptive to the idea and it ended up saving everyone a good amount of money.
These are great tips. We are lucky that now that everyone is older no one really expects gifts anymore- we just get together and have fun with the families. I do think though that starting ahead of time with shopping and saving is a great way to stay on budget and limit your stress later on. Who wants to be going mad three days before the holidays cramming all of their shopping in? Not me.
Layaway will be successful now, with their new strategies. It was an excellent idea but somehow did't work well. These are some valuable tip which will surely help in saving few more bucks for Christmas.
I'm dreading Christmas this year. I've been pumping too much money into investments. So much so that I'm short in my checking account to afford a good Christmas this year...
I like the pre-planning aspect, making a list and a budget for each gift. That goes a long way towards the sick feeling in January when totaling up gift receipts.
I was a bit surprise to see layaway make a strong comeback, even at walmart, but I guess businesses have to find ways to allow people to still spend that money with them. It is a successful program and people use it all the time. Still is a bit shocking to me.
[...] Finance presents 4 Tips to Help You Save Your Budget this Christmas posted at Everything [...]
[...] nervous about spending $307 on a Lego Death Star we expect to give our son for Christmas (we do the holiday spending throughout the year to spread it out), the deal was great, and we’ve had such good experiences that we went for [...]