The holiday season tends to be one of, if not the most, expensive time of year for most. The holiday spirit is alive and it’s wonderful to be able to provide gifts to others, donations to charities, and gather with friends and family. It can also be an extremely stressful time of the year financially.
I recommend before you even begin spending for the holiday season you set a plan, after all, failing to plan is planning to fail. I want you to be in charge of your money. Start by writing down each person that you will be purchasing a gift for and a budget for that particular person. Once done tally up the total to determine if you feel like it’s an outflow your budget can handle.
It’s easy to overspend on gifts during the holiday season. It’s a joyous occasion to see the smile on the face of somebody receiving a gift you purchased. There can also be undue stress created by the purchaser of the gift when they spend more than they can handle financially. For that very reason, I recommend tracking holiday gift purchases. You don’t need anything fancy. Pen and paper work just fine but my tool of choice is an excel spreadsheet where I track the date, description of the gift, recipient, price, and method of payment (debit card, cash, check, credit card).
If you can’t pay for the gift in cash or pay your credit card in full by month end, you are likely spending more than your budget can handle. One idea for next year may be to start a holiday fund, automatically saving a predetermined amount of each paycheck into a fund that will be utilized next holiday season.
From everybody at Pegasus, we wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season!