5 Budgeting TIPS To Avoid Over Spending This Holiday Season
The holiday season is fast approaching and for many, it is a season of spending.
Christmas is about spending quality time with the people we love and showing them that we love them.
Gift giving is one of the most special and recognized way of showing love but most families go into financial bankruptcy and debt every New Year because of lack of proper financial budgeting as they tend to spend a lot of money on gift items for family and friends.
You don’t need to spend hundreds and thousands to have a happy holiday.
Here Are 5 Tips To Avoid Over Spending This Holiday
- Set A Budget: Setting a budget is the first step to avoid over spending this holiday.Create a list of gifts you would like to buy and give to your loved ones and find out what it will cost so you can set up a realistic budget.
2. Have a Spending Limit: Write down the names of all the people you will be giving gifts to this season and set a financial limit to how much you will be spending on each person and work within these limits to ensure less financial pressure for you and your family.
3.  Use the 4 Gift Rule: This is popular with parents for kids, but you can apply it to anyone. The key is to get something they want, need, wear and read.
- Learn to SAY No: The Christmas Season is when a lot of relatives, uncles and aunties will want to ask for financial favors from you. Learning how to say No to some of these financial requests would help your family remain debt free after all is said and done.
5.  Gift Exchange: Gift Exchange works well for people who have huge families. It’s one thing to have a small immediate family of about 5 or 10 people to buy gifts for, but buying gifts for 30+ people is a different thing all together. Your spending can very easily get out of hand when it comes to having that many people to keep track of! So instead, try suggesting to your family that you all get together for a simple gift exchange style, it will be fun, simple and less expensive for everyone to participate in.
Budgets may seem restrictive, but ultimately, they help you worry less about how much you’ve overspent this season or worse, worry about your card being declined while in a long line?
Spending money is not what this time of year is about, instead focus on spending your time on the people you care about