Saving for the Holidays

Sharing is caring!

Today, I want to talk about saving money during the holidays. Some families are large and some are small. If you have a list a mile long of people you want/need to buy gifts for, you need a plan to make that work.

First, grab some paper and make a list of all the people you need to buy gifts for this year. Do you have a budget so you know how much you can spend on holiday-related things? If not, that’s fine for this year, but hopefully, you will have a better handle on it next year after you read this.

Next, you need to remember what the holiday season is all about. It doesn’t matter which holidays you celebrate most of us believe the season is about being thankful and not just about doing all the things and buying all the gifts. It’s not about the gifts or the decorations or the food, well, maybe the food. Just kidding. The holidays are a time to get together with friends and family and celebrate spending time together and being grateful for everything you have in your life, including those loved ones.

Set an amount that you will spend on each person that fits in the budget you have without going into debt. That may be $1 per person or $100 or anything in between or maybe you are independently wealthy and the sky is the limit. You know your finances and what you can afford without going into debt. If you budget is tight, maybe you give gifts by family group. Maybe you pull names and each person buys for one other person. Maybe you play a game often referred to as Dirty Santa or White Elephant. The point is if it is too much either cut the amount you spend on each person or cut the list down to the number of people you can afford or some other creative way to stay within your budget and not dread the credit card bills that will be coming in January if you use plastic to stick to someone else’s idea of what a gift needs to cost.

Perhaps you are great at baking and want to make trays of cookies to share with each family or a loaf of banana bread or even a fruitcake, though that wouldn’t be my first choice on either the giving or receiving-end of things. Maybe you could make coupons or gift certificates for something you can gift without cost (your time) for things like babysitting, back massages, manicures, oil changes, car washes, house cleaning, taking down holiday decorations, you get the idea. There are things YOU can do that someone on your gift list would really appreciate having done for them. Maybe it is one on one time with a niece or nephew, maybe it is helping grandma clean out the attic or garage. You could record yourself reading a child’s favorite book so they can hear it every night without their parents’ sanity on the line.

Like to encourage reading? Find the perfect magazine for the people on your list. The subscriptions can often be less than $20 a year and then the recipient has future issues to look forward to and something new to talk about when they see you again.

Maybe a young family is struggling and would really appreciate a family membership to the local zoo or children’s museum. Maybe a teen would like movie passes or fast food gift certificates. There are so many things you can make or do for others that requires little more than your time and attention.

Make memories, not messes. Before giving gifts, consider whether the person will want to find room to store the thing and dust the thing you gift them. Consider giving clutter-free gifts. Gift certificates and food gifts are great because they get used up and can be a great idea again next year. Ask for ideas if you aren’t sure what to give someone. Maybe they would rather you donate in their name to a favorite charity instead of giving them a new sweater or tie.

Whatever you end up giving this year, keep track of it and think about how the amount you spent fit into your financial means. Should you cut back next year? Could you afford to do more if you planned better? Total everything up, and I mean everything that isn’t a part of your regular monthly expenses. Special clothing for holiday photos, special food for holiday gatherings, baking supplies, office pitch-ins, gifts for co-workers, greeting cards, stationery, postage stamps, decorations, live garlands or trees that can’t be reused safely next year, seriously everything. How much did it cost you? Can you afford that amount? Now, when do you want to start shopping for everything next year? August, October, November? Doesn’t matter when; that is up to you. Just figure out how many months you have between January 1st and the time you want the money to be in place so you have it to shop with. If that is August 1st, then you have seven months to save. Divide your budget number by the number of months and make yourself save that amount in an account that you don’t touch except to buy holiday gifts. It is that simple.

If you want to get even more budget conscience, add in the amount you need to cover the cost of birthdays and other celebrations for the entire year. Take that new year-long total and divide by 11 because you will have the money saved a little early and if you save 1/11th each month for the entire year, you have a little extra padding in your budget for things you forgot to add in or to splurge a little on yourself.

Here are a few resources I’d like to recommend:
FlyLady’s Holiday Control Journal
FlyLady’s Holiday Cruising Missions 
FlyLady’s Holiday Cleanup Missions

If you have other ways of budgeting for the cost of holiday celebrations or inexpensive gift ideas, I’d love it if you shared them with all of us in the comments below.

If you have been reading this blog very long it probably isn’t a surprise that I am pre-writing the November Thursday posts so I can focus on writing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (NaNoWriMo). Stay tuned and add yourself to the email list in the near the upper right of this page so you can be notified by email when I post something new and can read it right in your email if you choose.

Sharing is caring!