It’s July, and while Santa may have his toes in the sand, you can bet he’s already planning for the busy season, as should you! We know, it’s crazy to think about Christmas already; I mean we really just started enjoying Summer – but we suggest thinking about it now, to help prevent any stress, crisis, or lack of funds when Summer fades and then, suddenly, it’s holiday time.
Continue reading to learn 5 things you can do to tidy up your budget in order to embrace ALL of the comfort and joy this holiday season
- START SAVING
In order to pay for the holidays, you need money, and the best way to do that is to save for it beforehand so you’re not inundated with debt in the post-not-so-jolly season. CSE makes saving for the holidays simple with our Christmas Club accounts. We encourage members to set up distribution from their direct deposits in order to ‘set it and forget it. That way on payday your funds are automatically transferred into the Christmas Club savings account. If that’s not how you like to move your money, you can still manually transfer it throughout the year, whenever you want!
One of the first steps when saving money is to figure out how much you can afford to take out each pay. Don’t take out too much to where you’re then struggling financially. Once you know how much you can afford, set an overall budget goal that you’d like to hit when putting money back. That might be what you think you’ll spend on the holidays (or at least the majority), or maybe just enough to cover gifts. Ask yourself some questions: Do you want to spend less on the holidays than last year? do you want to spend around the same amount? Or, are your circumstances better to which you can and want to spend more? If you think you could still be strapped for cash, take a look at where you can make small cost cuts elsewhere. For example, you could cut back on getting coffee out every day, or better yet maybe not order that coffee for delivery for sometimes three times the cost!
- MAKE A PLAN & BUDGET
When you make a plan, it helps you see a clear path of what you need, or where you need to be. Start with writing out a list of people you typically, or plan to gift to this year. From there, set a budget for each person. It doesn’t matter whether you spend an equal amount for everyone, or if you spend more on one and less on another, just write it down and stick to it. For example, if you and your spouse agree to limit gift-giving to $100, stick to it and don’t go over!
- BE A SAVVY SHOPPER
The ultimate sign of a savvy holiday shopper for the holidays is spotting deals all throughout the year and jumping on them. You can also sign up for things like customer rewards or discounts (that won’t cost you anything in the long run). Doing these things can help keep your budget in check. You could even consider redeeming any built-up rewards for gift cards that you can use towards holiday shopping.
- GET CREATIVE
This isn’t a new concept, but sometimes consumers need to be reminded that you can get creative with your budget and your gifts. We all know how easy it is to get swept up in the ‘season’ and the fury of shopping sales, but you don’t have to spend a ton of money on something expensive for it to be a nice gift for someone. Consider something a little more meaningful, useful or use your crafting skills to make something homemade.
- CALL CSE WHEN YOU NEED IT!
Don’t forget, if these next few months come and go and your budget still isn’t quite where you want or need it, that CSE can help you with a loan for the holidays that can fit within your budget!
Now, go out and enjoy your Summer, but remember the holidays are looming just around the corner.
0 comments