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How to enjoy the holidays without breaking the bank
While children anticipate the holidays with giddy delight, parents often feel an extra dose of stress. Shopping, meal planning and attending all those events and get-togethers can take its toll—on your time and your budget.
Before the shopping season starts in earnest, check out our holiday budgeting tips. These tips will help keep you from overspending, so you can enjoy the holidays with a little more peace of mind.
Holiday shopping on a budget in 6 steps
Hold the cart while shopping online
The internet has made shopping as simple as the swipe of a finger. But, you’ll want to pause before tapping the “Buy” button. Fill your cart with all the things you want to gift but save the checkout for later. When you’re ready to check out, take advantage of daily deals and promo codes to keep your budget in check.
Follow this important rule
The “something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read” rule is a great way to shop. If you start this rule early in their life, you can save your child from having high expectations from year to year. After all, you never know what your budget will look like in the future. For tweens, the something they want will probably be a video game, cell phone, or some other electronic device. If these items seem expensive, use weekly sales and coupons to help you fit those big-ticket items into your budget.
Don’t forget small retailers
While it’s easy to have big box stores top of mind, one of our favorite holiday shopping tips is to make small local stores part of your holiday shopping excursions. Not only do these independently owned retailers provide customized service, they often have locally sourced, handmade clothing, jewelry, toys and more. These artisan products are often less expensive and better quality than mass-produced counterparts. See our “Benefits of Shopping Local” blog to get more benefits.
Skip the boxes and bows
There are a ton of hidden costs that you probably won’t factor when holiday shopping on a budget. Instead of making your gifts stand out by covering them up, make gift-giving an adventure. For instance, you might provide your child with a series of envelopes containing clues about their present. If you love the look of wrapped gifts, save money by using sites like Coupons.com®.
Give your children an experience
While your children might count down the days until Santa shimmies down the chimney, what they really want are reliable traditions and time with family and friends. Material gifts rarely last, but memories made together will stick with your kids forever.
Set limits and start saving early
While it’s too late to put money aside for this holiday season, you can begin preparations for next year starting now. Set a limit—for example, $200 per child—and save a small amount of money each week. If you have two kids, all it takes is $8 saved each week to eliminate your holiday worries next year. Now that’s a great holiday budgeting tip!
Start saving today!
We hope these holiday budgeting tips will let you breathe a sigh of financial relief. To take the stress out of 2019 holiday shopping, start putting away money away in our Holiday Club Savings Account. We make it easy by giving you a number of ways to deposit money into the account. To learn more, contact us or call (888) 554-2328, ext. 280.
Our “Back to School Shopping Hacks” blog also has many money-saving tips that can be used every time you shop!