If you are also facing the problem of throwing away all your cash and maximizing the limit on your credit card, follow these 8 useful tips that will help you stay on track and control your impulsive spending this holiday season.
Set up limits
You have to decide what things are needed and how much you are willing to spend out of your credit card or your bank account on them. You should utilize this advice to create a budget that can go through it all without emptying it.
Making budgets for the holiday will help you in making purchases that are essential and enjoying your holidays vividly. This will help stick to a limit and save you from being burdened by a lot of credit payments.
The money that you contribute towards your gifts should be the money that you won’t need for paying off your bills. This doesn’t just have to be the extra money but the money that you would usually spend on other miscellaneous things like morning coffee, or eating out. You should just focus on not spending the essentials like on rent, etc.
Create the gifting list
Santa may be distributing gifts to the whole world, but you only need to exchange gifts with a few people. Hence, you need to cut down the list of people and make sure only your immediate family and very close friends stay.
Now, you can create some DIY gifts like cookies, or brownies to present to the people you snipped down from your list. This will spread your holiday cheer while also maintaining your budget.
Be candid with yourself
If your brother gets fancy gifts, it doesn’t mean you have to splurge on luxury too. In case you are financially well off, then the case is different. There are many ways to control your impulsive spending behavior this holiday season.
If you think your family and friends won’t like your gifts, then think about what they gifted you when their budgets were not as expendable as now. Creating a debt burden is not efficient enough to keep friends, as the bond is from love and not money.
Be the coupon hoarder
Sales are the most important thing for the holiday season. But, do you know what’s more important? The coupons that have been lying around in your drawer somewhere. They help you buy gifts at a much affordable rate and make your friends and family happy. You can visit search engines and look for coupon codes for the online stores that you usually shop from.
For local stores, look in your mailbox for coupon codes. While you are scouring the envelopes for these exciting offers, compare and contrast the offer on your item and save more.
Gift your time
More than any materialistic gift, your parents, or long-distance friends would love the gift of your time. You can visit them or plan an outing. You can provide them exclusive ‘Free babysitting’ cards or ‘Home-cooked meal’ vouchers which they can redeem anytime. Here’s how you can afford Christmas when you’re struggling with finances.
Reform your spending habits
While there are ways for you to spend your money wisely this holiday season, You have to build better spending habits if you don’t want to worry about paying off your credit card bills after the holiday is over.
For instance, a dollar on your gift can be removed from the total spending that you do. You can then utilize these savings to buy gifts when the time comes and then save again until the next season.
DIY your gifts
A gift is not measured by the size or price, but the intention behind it. Hence, instead of buying an over-the-top gift, how about creating a thoughtful hand-made gift? You can start this process by thinking about what your friends and family need right now and how you can create it by hand.
For instance, if your mother loves baking but cannot create that crusty base, you can give her a $10 pastry-making tool that also comes with the recipe.
Organize group parties
Just like you, your friends might also struggle with finances in the holiday season. You can lift a burden off them by organizing group volunteering days instead of gifts. At the end of the day, you will be more fulfilled rather than regretting overspending.
Final thoughts
Don’t let the impulsive buying turn into Grinch that will siphon off your happiness in the merry season. Buy gifts based on your financial position and avoid being drowned in debt the whole year. Hence, when you receive your credit card statement in the new year, it will set off a smile on your face!
