BUDGET FOR THE HOLIDAYS AND SAVE A FORTUNE

Now it is time for some specific ideas to help you save lots of money over the holidays. I will start by talking about shopping. The first thing you need to do is to draw up a complete list of the people you will need and might need to buy for over the holidays and, place by each name a dollar amount of what you will spend on this person. Also, jot down some ideas as to what this person might want for a gift. After you have your list of potential persons to buy for separate the people into two lists. One will be those you have to buy for (relatives) and the other are those you may have to buy for (co-workers, friends, and neighbors).

To be specific, people you might have to buy for are those that show up with gift either at work or at your doorstep. These people you will hand you a gift and then you can say, “Oh I have something for you too.” The best thing to do in this situation is to have one or too really generic gifts like a box of candy or nuts. The generic gifts should be something you can use as a stocking stuffer for family members should you not need to come up with a gift for your neighbors, co-workers etc.
Once you have the list of people you have to buy for and have a targeted amount of money to spend on each person, add up the amounts of money to get an idea of how much money you will need for Christmas. If you think the total amount will be too much, start going through your list and eliminating a dollar or two from each persons allotment. Do this until you have a total gift expense that will keep you from going into debt. It is a good idea to include what you think you may have to spend on people you might have to buy for. Now you have a total amount of money that you can spend for gifts.

Next, you must figure out how much money you will need to spend for entertaining. This cost will in most cases be primarily for food. Here you will have to use your knowledge of food prices. You may need to look around the local grocery store to see what the prices are for holiday items like hams, turkeys, cheese etc. You should be able to get many of these items on sale right before the holidays but, don’t count on it. Instead use the normal prices to come up with your entertainment budget.
When it comes to entertaining for the holidays, use what you have in storage first. Then, perhaps in the case of parties at least, you might be able to borrow say, a fancy dish for the mashed potatoes or a punch bowl. Many times parents can help out with these items. Do not go out and buy such items for a one time use unless you have no other choice and you cannot find a substitute item. Remember, there are places where you can rent a lot of items such as large coffee pots for parties or chocolate fountains.

Decorating for the holidays should not be expensive. Use what you have first. Borrow from others if you have to and of course, try to make your own decorations. I will soon have a new blog on this site dedicated just to saving money on decorating for the holidays. Until then, try to have a really small budget dedicated for decorations. Maybe you could make up a list of must have decorations and go from there. I would include table settings and napkins with decorations so, you might want to just budget $10.00 for such items and shop early at the dollar stores. Decorations are items most stores only order in once or twice during the holiday season so, if you don’t buy them early, you might not have much choice and what I think is worse, it may cost you more money. The cheaper items always sell out first.

Overall, make budgets for gifts and entertaining over the holidays. Add up your budgets to see if you can afford what you have budgeted and cut a few dollars here and there until your overall budget does not put you into debt. You might also budget some money for travel expenses. Whipping out the credit card at the last minute because you forgot to allot funds for that trip to Wisconsin, will definitely keep you from saving a fortune.