Holidays are a great time of year to celebrate family and friends, and enjoy spending time together and exchanging gifts. We all understand, however, that holiday gift-giving comes with holiday gift-buying, and that can come with financial hardship. The Christmas spirit can create a lot of emotional decisions and wanting to be the best gift-giver ever, whether you’re buying for your kids or your family, or your spouse. We all want to be the best provider, but it’s important to be fiscally responsible and set your own limits to avoid a big hangover after the new year, and seeing that credit card bill. Today on the blog, we want to offer up some useful little tips to help you avoid that holiday hangover!
Here are 7 little things you can do this holiday season to avoid overspending!
Don’t Buy the Black Friday “Doorbuster!” Hype
If you haven’t already noticed, “Black Friday” seems to move up more every year. Big box stores and other businesses tout the amazing deals that you can’t get any other time of year, but really, they’re just doing their best to off as much product as possible as the quarter ends. In reality, there’s often not too much of a deal beneath all the glitz and glam of sales around this time of year. You can shop for deals, but just be aware of the sticker prices around the “Black Friday” season.
Save Up!
You may not have a huge amount of time, but with a few weeks before the holidays left, ideally, you should set aside some holiday spending money throughout the year. You still have time to put a little away, and it might not be a bad idea to consider opening a holiday savings account to help set your budget for holiday spending. You could explore an automatic transfer or other online banking tool to help put a few dollars into a savings account for gift buying.
Set Your Limits Ahead of Time
Consider all your potential spending for the holidays, and set your budget. This will always vary from person to person, and consider things beyond just gift buying. Think about things like travel (gas, plane ticket, etc) to see family, groceries and food for hosting, seasonal decorations, and other expenses.
You can also track back to last year to see how much you spent on holiday gifts. You may be a bit more well off than last year, or you may be a bit tighter, but having an idea of how much you want to cap your spending at will make a HUGE difference on your final holiday bill. You know you need to spend, so spend wisely.
Have a Plan
The more organized you are with your holiday shopping, the less likely you are to go buck wild and go way over budget. Have an idea of WHO you need to budget gifts for. Have an idea of how much you’re willing to spend on each of those recipients. This way, when you do get out there in the stores or online, you can track how much you’ve spent or intend to spend on someone. This can avoid overbuying and forgetting what you bought or how much you spent.
Explore Your Credit Card Rewards
You may have some points or redeemable rewards associated with your existing credit cards. Why not consider using them this time of year? Check your cards to see if you have any offers like special deals at certain stores, bonus points, or cash back. You may also have travel points accrued that you may be able to use for travel.
Make a Gift List
Once you have an idea of all the people you plan to give a gift to, start thinking about what gifts you want to buy for each person based on their budget. The more prepared you are heading into holiday spending, the less likely you are to overspend! What is even worse is the feeling of waiting til the last minute, with no mental preparation, and you end up just buying a bunch of filler junk that you don’t even feel great about. Whatever you spend your hard-earned money on, make sure it’s something that the person wants, needs, can use, or deserves to have!
Shop Around!
There are plenty of online tools to help make sure you can find the product you’re looking for at the right price. You may get excited when you find the perfect gift, in-store or online, but it’s important to check other resources to see if you can shave off a few dollars. These savings can go to other gifts! Google Shopping is a quick, easy way to check pricing, but there are plenty of other tools as well!
You can accomplish being a great gift-giver and making your loved ones happy without overspending! With a little planning, some limits, and a proactive approach, you can certainly make this holiday season a great one! If you have any questions regarding setting up a new savings account or have an interest in any of our current credit card promotions, please give us a call at (585) 343-5627 or stop at our branch at 10 Jefferson Square in Batavia!
