Are You Feeling the Financial Crunch of the Holidays?

The Christmas holiday is over and some of you may be looking at your pocketbook wondering where you’re going to find money for New Year’s Eve or rent for that matter. Well, I have a few ideas so you don’t feel the blow of the holiday season next year.

Set Money Aside Monthly. Take $20 or more and set it aside each month. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot but by December you should roughly have about $240 to spend on your holiday shopping, you can increase this amount to accommodate how much you would normally spend during the holidays. You can even cut the savings in half so you only have to worry about half of your spending amount.

Here are some examples: If you usually spend a total of $1000 on Christmas gifts and what not, try saving $84 a month, if that isn’t “doable” then cut that amount in half and save only $42, then when the holidays come around you only have to worry about $500 additional dollars instead of a complete $1000.

I learned a long time ago that I had to budget in order to stay financially happy through the holidays. My daughter’s birthday is one month before Christmas and I use to go shopping crazy for both, one thing I always did was separate what I got her so it wouldn’t be so bad (mostly clothes for her birthday and mostly toys for Christmas) but I wasn’t budgeting or preparing. What I decided to do was set up a layaway for each; a birthday layaway and a Christmas layaway at the same time. I would do this for school shopping as well.

Set Up Layaways. If you like to spend like I do, it’s always a good idea to set up a layaway 2-3 months in advance, get as much stuff as you can ahead of time and pay on it bi-weekly. Layaway isn’t just for people who have low income, even though my income has increased considerably over the years I still do a layaway, mainly because I don’t want to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to do a lot of last minute shopping but also because you can get a lot of deals on items when you shop ahead of time and if anything goes on sale while it is on layaway you will also get an additional discount.

Once Christmas comes you have all of your money in your pocket and the money that you spent isn’t making an impact on your pocketbook, plus you have somewhere to store all of that stuff instead of hiding it around the house.

Buy Gift Cards. I’ve never tried this, but a former co-worker of mines buys gift cards for the months leading up to Christmas. What she does is buys multiple $20 gift cards every payday then when it’s time to do her Christmas shopping she uses the cards to purchase her gifts.

My problem is I rarely use the gift cards I receive as a gift so I may have a hard time keeping track of ones I buy for shopping, Plus, I can’t imagine going shopping and pulling out 20 plus gift cards to pay for one order, but that’s just me.

These are just a few ideas to help you avoid feeling the holiday financial crunch.

And…It Is What It Is!