Tips for Saving for the Holidays

The holiday season can sneak up on us without warning. It seems every year, we are faced with buying gifts when we don’t have the money and then end up feeling miserable in January either paying off debt, or eating soup each day. Here are some tips to help save for the holidays and not feel the financial pain afterwards.

Save in Advance

There are many expenses during the holidays and gifts are just one of them. You can make a budget for the season. Sit down and write out all the expenses you plan to accrue during these months (food, gifts, attire, parties) and make a reasonable budget. It’s a good idea to put a miscellaneous category also to take up the slack on things that might pop up. Once you know what you will be spending, start saving money in an account marked just for the holidays.

If you aren’t used to saving, the best way is to set up an allotment directly from your paycheck to a designated account. This way, you never see the money, and what you don’t see you can’t miss. Figure out how much each paycheck you can afford to put towards holiday savings. If you can’t afford to save that much, you will need to go back to your list and see where you can cut costs.

Make Extra Money

Maybe not during the holidays, but if you plan early enough you can pick up a part time job to help with the holiday expense. There are many things that you can do from home, or just part time to pick up some extra cash. Think outside the box in this area. Maybe working at a boutique or the mall would work for you. You could earn a discount while earning cash also.

People during this time are also looking for help with menial tasks. Offer your services to people who are willing to pay for them just to take one more thing off their to do list.

Make Sacrifices

While you are saving, you may want to consider giving up some of the luxuries you have grown used to, but are costing you a lot of money when you add it up. Daily latte’s and frequent lunches out drain the bank account rapidly. Make some changes to what you usually do, and put the money you save into your holiday savings account. You might realize that you didn’t enjoy this habit as much as you thought, and give it up entirely.

There are many things you can do to save for the holidays and make the time less stressful. The motivation is the absence of bills in January. It just takes a small effort, and you will be happy you did. Contact Carolina Money Minders for additional holiday saving help!