Somehow, the holidays always seem to come as a surprise. The season approaches quickly, and it can feel like you’re doing nothing but spending money on travel, gifts, and parties.
The holiday season should leave you feeling sentimental, peaceful, and nostalgic. But many of us endure feelings of stress, whether financially or emotionally.
Luckily, there are smarter ways to handle your holiday spending that will lessen your stress. Here are 7 ideas for a more affordable (and enjoyable) holiday season.
1) Keep a list of who you need gifts for
How many holidays do you find yourself scrambling around for that last gift for someone you completely forgot about? Honestly, it happens to all of us!
You know you’ll need gifts for your immediate family, but who in your extended family would you like to give a gift to? What about friends? Neighbors? Coworkers?
And don’t forget about all the extra giving you choose to do during that time of year. Whether it’s a donation to a charity of your choice or an extra tip for your postal worker, there are a lot of small expenses that you may be forgetting about until the time comes up.
2) Save year-round
Saving year-round for the holidays takes a ton of the stress off, at least financially. Being able to predict your finances and save little by little is a whole lot easier than trying to come up with a large lump sum of money all at once.
Since you just made a list of who you need to buy gifts for, budget how much you want to spend for each person. Total that number up to figure out how much you will be spending on gifts. Then, simply divide that number by twelve months to figure out how much you need to set aside each month.
If you never saved year-round in the past, you likely weren’t even sure how much you were spending on gifts. If the total amount of money you need to save seems high, you’ll need to get creative with giving gifts.
Another plus of saving year-round is that you know exactly how who you need to buy gifts for and how much you can spend. You have all year to try to find gifts on sale, versus trying to scramble for the best deals on Black Friday.
3) Gift your skills, services, or experiences
Let’s face it – sometimes we are at a complete loss as to what to give someone.
Gifting your skills, services, or experiences is the perfect gift for someone who doesn’t ask for much.
For instance, one year I had no idea what to give my parents for Christmas. Instead of getting them some random gift they probably didn’t want or need, I offered to sort out their attic – a project I knew they were dreading doing. They were so appreciative, and it was free for me to do!
You could easily bake your coworkers some cookies, offer to paint your parent’s house, or take your friend out for a nice dinner together instead of buying something. It gives you the opportunity to save money while still giving your loved ones something they love and genuinely appreciate.
4) Delegate holiday meals
If you typically host the holidays at your place, you likely get stuck with the responsibility of cooking and paying for meals. Hosting can be expensive and exhausting!
Have an honest conversation with your family. Offering to hold the holiday festivities at your place is generous enough, so don’t feel bad about asking for some more help, both physically and financially.
One easy way to do this is to ask everyone to be responsible for paying for and cooking one meal. It gives everyone a little bit of ownership over the celebration and takes a ton of burden off of you.
5) Save on travel
Travel, particularly flying, during the holidays can be very stressful and expensive.
If you’re like me and live far away from your family, you’ll want to figure out your travel plans early on. Flights only get more and more expensive the longer you wait.
Though it’s less desirable, driving typically is a lot cheaper during the holidays than the upmarked price of a plane ticket. Plus, if you’re flying to or from a snowy destination, driving ensures less chance of weather-related delays.
If you have to fly, practice travel hacking throughout the year to save money on – or even score free – flights.
6) Reconsider your holiday gift giving entirely
Most of us have sentimental holiday traditions that we look forward to every year. But many of us also have traditions that frankly, we dread.
A few years ago, my family talked about it and realized that we no longer had any idea of what to give one another for the holidays. We all admitted that there were very few gifts that we received that we actually liked or found necessary. Plus, a few of us live far away and just getting gifts to our home was a challenge. Additionally, the financial strain of giving gifts and paying for travel was becoming a heavy burden.
So we decided that we would stop giving gifts and instead, focus on giving birthday gifts to one another throughout the year. It spreads out our expenses and makes the holidays so much easier and more enjoyable for us. We are just happy if we can all be together over the holidays!
Another option many people have started doing is doing a gift exchange within a family. You draw a name out of a hat and buy a gift for just one person instead of everyone.
Everyone has different traditions, but chances are, if you don’t enjoy one tradition, someone else doesn’t either. You can always start new traditions that are more applicable to your lives now as a family.
7) Save on gifts through deals when possible (but don’t fall into a common trap)
There are a ton of sales and deals throughout the holiday season. Retailers are trying to push a massive volume of product to maximize their profit for the fiscal year. Intense competition means deals are possible when you look hard enough.
The biggest trap that comes with all of the deals is spending money on yourself. Anyone who spends even ten minutes browsing the Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals is bound to find something they “need” or “could use.” Remember to stick to first prioritize buying the gifts for the people on your list before indulging yourself. Or better yet resist buying yourself anything and save the money instead!
Over the next week or so we will have a post about how to find the best Cyber Monday deals, as well as a post listing out some of the better Black Friday deals. Come back to the site to see these posts – or better yet subscribe to the weekly email newsletter – to make sure you see the posts.
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To reduce your spending and stress during the holidays, focus on planning ahead and rethinking your traditional ways of doing the holidays.
By saving year-round and buying gifts and travel well in advance, you’ll prevent your budget from taking a major hit during the holiday months.
And by being honest with yourself and your family, you’ll find that many of your traditions are no longer enjoyable or practical. Be open to new ideas and you’ll find yourself enjoying the season more than ever.
What have you done in the past to simplify your holiday season? Do you typically end the holiday season feeling burnt out and tired or relaxed and refreshed?
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Agree with entire post I tend to make a lits of people I going to buy gift because I WANT I use save a determinated amount each month then I start my personal research and in some cases I love add homemade detalis like cookies:D
That’s great that you plan ahead! So much easier on your wallet and it’s less stressful than shopping for everyone the month before!
Agreed! We save up $400 through the year for Christmas. We set aside $33.33 per month so that when December comes around, we’re all set and ready! We also institute limits – $150 each for me and my husband to spend on each other, and $50 each to spend on our family. We’ve never gone into debt for Christmas purchases (everything else is another story though…haha)!
$33 a month is so much more manageable than trying to come up with $400 in a month or two. Setting limits is a fantastic way to keep yourself in check!
GREAT tips! #1 and #2 are absolute necessities to guard against overspending and stress.
We have simplified gift giving over the years and it definitely eases the stress. This year, I’m using our cash back rewards on our credit cards to buy the majority of our gifts.
Great info Rachel!
I really like #2, but we also shop all year round. Takes a load off. One can find great after Christmas deals, plus we keep our eyes and ears open for gift ideas for the kids and mom in law.
As for #2. I’ve recently gotten a cash back credit card and the cash back is earmarked towards Christmas spending.
Thanks, Keith! Right after Christmas is my favorite time to shop. I’m amazed at how great of deals you can find then, especially on Christmas decorations and winter clothes.
Numbers 4 and 6 are really important as they deal with family – and for most of us, Christmas and family really do go together. I host our extended family dinner (as many as 27 people), and everyone brings something to help out – salad, cooked veggies, wine, even potatoes. I would find it an exhausting burden otherwise. We also changed up our gift-giving several years ago. Everyone over 18 plays a gift-exchange game, and so only one gift – valued at $25 or less – is bought for all adults (not each adult). The kids under 18 each get a gift from everyone. But they all look forward to the day when they will actually receive fewer gifts and be able to take part in the gift exchange game. It’s crazy fun!
Smart planning!
My wife and I started a sinking fund for Christmas a couple years ago. It has made a huge difference and has allowed to appreciate the holiday more instead of dreading it.
This was a great list of ways to prepare for the holidays! My favorites were #1, #2, and #4! I make a list for almost everything, so making a list for holiday gift shopping is a must! Also in order to pay for these gifts, you can’t start saving a month before! Saving the entire year for holiday shopping will make it easier to save! Lastly, to make the holiday meal less stressful everyone in your family should step in and play a part in cooking!