The excessive spending begins just after Thanksgiving and the damage keeps impacting your financial well-being through Christmas. By the time you get your credit card bills in January, you are lamenting the fact that you were even in the holiday spirit the month prior. This time, as you are sitting at home preparing to send a stack of Christmas cards out to friends and relatives through the mail, you silently pledge to yourself that you will not overspend this year.
The retail outlets may have convinced us that this is the season for spending and giving, but honestly, who can afford the luxury? Then again, maybe adopting the idea that it is the thought that matters, more than how much you spend on the gift, will make all the difference? If maintaining a stable financial statement through the holidays tends to be challenging for you, then here are some tips that might help to cut your spending down to a fraction of what it usually tends to be this time of year.
Setting Limits on Holiday Spending
Before heading off to the retail stores to do your holiday shopping, you may want to begin by establishing a budget. There may be fifteen people on your gift list this year, but if you limit spending to around five or ten dollars per person, that can potentially reduce hundreds of dollars from your credit bills. A gift does not have to be expensive in order to be enjoyable. If you keep looking for deals, long before the last minute shopping craze, you may cut costs well below your preset limits, which always translates to more money in your pocket.
Avoiding Big Box Retailers
Once you get inside a big retail store and you are blown away by meager discounts, only to find yourself spending way too much for presents that you can hardly justify purchasing. To eliminate this temptation, try shopping at your local Christmas gifts market. Especially when it comes to picking up party snacks and food items, you can often get a huge variety of items for a very low price. In addition, if you save huge on the purchasing of certain gifts, this means you might be able to reallocate some money towards higher ticket items you wanted to get for the children on your list, remaining within budget in the process.
Avoid Last Minute Shopping
Often times, the problem that is going to hit people in the finances the hardest is when they try to shop for gifts at the last minute. It becomes a mad dash for any gift you can get before time is up, and that pressures many people to spend more than they should. As with any system of responsible financial planning, you want to avoid this problem at all costs, giving yourself time to make rational money saving decisions. If worse comes to worse, it may be best to put off Christmas spending until after the holidays are over, when the stores are in a pinch to get rid of old inventory to make way for next year’s product lines. This is a spending maneuver that others have been using for some time now to save themselves from financial hardship during the holiday season.
