HOLIDAY BUDGET

🎶 It's the most wonderful time of the year 🎄🎁⁠

But with the most wonderful time of the year, often comes as the most stressful time of the year for most; mentally and financially. ⁠

The first thing you need to do before anything else during the holiday season is put together a HOLIDAY BUDGET 🗒️ 💵 it is an absolute must!

Most of us do put a budget together, but it usually only includes amounts for gifts. We usually forget to include the other things that can end up costing just as much as the gifts, like decorations, food for holiday dinners, snacks for the get togethers, holiday attire and beverage for the parties, and donations to local charities.⁠

So how do you put together a budget? Follow along these steps and you will come out with a full proof budget:

1. Make a list of the following:
   1. People you need to buy gifts for
   2. Decorations you need
   3. Meals you need to prepare and what you serve at these meals
   4. Holiday parties
   5. Donation list
2. Now, next to these lists, put dollar amounts you would like to be able to spend next to each. Be realistic in this exercise, don't just throw $50 on the grocery list, go through and think about how much each item will cost. 
3. You will now have an idea of what Christmas is going to cost you, it might come as a shock, or it might be what you expected.
4. Next go back through the budget and think about your overall financial goals, ask yourself if those gifts, decorations, or holiday attire are important enough to cut into your overall goals. If they aren't go back and make adjustments to your budget.
5. Next tip I'll help your create a holiday shopping list that fits in with your budget.

After you have created your budget you might realized you don't have the available funds to cover it, you may need to look at going into debt for Christmas. We always want to plan and avoid this from happening, but we need to be realistic and often debt is inevitable during the holidays (and trust me, you aren't alone!).

The worst thing to do and what we must avoid is saying, "Ahh screw it, I can't afford Christmas so I am just going to have a good time and spend as I want and not keep track of it." Trust me, this mind frame will put you in debt further than you except or will be prepared for.

BUT what we NEED do is control the debt. If we know ahead of time the debt we will need to create, we can manage it throughout the holidays bu sticking to our budgets and lists and after the holidays we won't be in shock and can then build a plan to manage this debt.

And this is called being financially responsible (YAY!). 

​So even if your holiday budget puts you in debt, stick to it! You will be thankful after the holidays when you open your credit card statement and see exactly what you were expecting and have a plan to manage it!

Happy Holiday Financial Responsibility!

Jennifer H.
Xo