A few days ago I posted Part I of my Holiday ‘Wrap’ … I wrote about where and how to capture the things I’ll do differently next year and specifically, approaching the Holiday-Card-making-and-mailing-process.
Today it’s about budgets… In my pre-holiday post, I wrote about budgets in a different way … (that we only have so much time and energy to spend – they are limited, like a financial budget …) but today is really about the $$$ budgets.
Personally, I have been in various financial “positions” with regard to how much I can spend at the holidays. In the many years where I felt a financial pinch, I did my best to set and stay within a modest budget. There were years where I executed a cool creative idea inexpensively AND it was received really well (like the year I developed framed photos from childhood slides; this was way before digital photography as we know it!). While the belt has loosened (financially speaking), my husband and I still set a gift budget and stay within it pretty well. I love that we’ve reduced the uncertainty around it all – we avoid denial and anxiety.
Even with gift budgets established, other factors lead to over-spending (this Forbes article covers some really well) … inevitably, there are people you hadn’t thought about…. there are extra events/reasons to spend money, and sometimes the “extras” are not factored into overall planning.
This season, I spoke with a friend who had withdrawn a lump sum early in the season, and had run out of most of it before she was even close to being ready! No matter what your situation, a little planning can help you and NOW (while it’s all fresh) is the time to think about what you’ll need and what’s reasonable for next year…
Spend Strategy – Holiday Season 2015
As bills begin to roll in in the next few weeks, (or maybe you’ve kept receipts) make note of the various ‘spend’ categories – look at the totals… assess if everything was necessary… assess if anything could have been “just as good” at a lower dollar amount… Here are some things I can think of – what categories can you add??
- greeting card expense
- restaurant spending – specifically, outings that happened to celebrate the holidays (not regular business meetings, or a “regular” date night, etc.)
- wrapping, ribbons, tape
- postage (stamps AND parcel postage)
- baking ingredients, containers, and tools (I bought an awesome new snowflake cookie cutter this year!)
- hosting costs – grocery bills, wine/booze
- decorations
- travel costs (air/bus/train fare…? extra gas…?)
- GIFTS!
So, add up what you spent! Assess again – is this reasonable (for YOU and your income/financial goals – NOT the expectations of others)? If you would like to reduce for Christmas 2015, are you going to be more creative? What will you decide is most important? If you are happy with the total, and feel it’s a good goal for 2015, divide the figure by 12 and start **saving that amount each month.
**///For specific savings needs, you could open a new account or you could even save it as cash – there is something pretty effective of separating money physically. When I was in my final (6th-ish) year of college, I was saving for a cross country trip and threw $20 in a box every Friday after my restaurant shift; it was fun to see that money grow.///
So, were there categories you hadn’t anticipated at all…? Will you eliminate anything for next year? Maybe you will be more “comfortable” next year and can plan to spend a little more! Please share in the Comments section below.
You can sign up to subscribe to my blog my clicking Home, look to the right column, and scroll down a bit (under the Archives listing). And/or, like my page on FB (please).
Early next week I’ll post Part III, the final of the Christmas Review series … I’ll talk about “special projects” snafus – what did and did not go as intended!!
Recent Comments