How to Avoid Overspending During the Holidays

Holiday shopping can be exciting, but with proper planning it can also be costly. Make small changes such as eating out less frequently or investing in high-yield savings accounts or certificates of deposit to reduce spending and stay within your budget.

These tips can help you avoid overspending and avoid an overwhelming credit card bill at the beginning of 2019.

Create a Spending Plan

An effective plan can help keep holiday spending under control. After creating your list, set an amount to spend on each person. When something on sale catches your eye that wasn't previously listed on it, consider whether or not its purchase fits into your overall plans, and whether an alternative purchase could do the trick more affordably.

Keep all holiday expenses in your budget, such as decorations, food for parties and gatherings, greeting cards and postage costs, greeting card postage costs if applicable, travel costs as well.

Utilizing Simplifi can assist in the creation and adhering to your spending plan by automatically tracking funds allotted to certain categories. Credit card rewards should only be used when they align with your planned expenditure.

Have a Secret Santa

Utilizing holiday sales as a chance to shop for yourself may seem tempting; however, this spending could easily exceed even tight budgets.

Secret Santas can be an effective way to avoid holiday overspending. Simply write everyone's names on a piece of paper and place it into an open container like a box or stocking, before drawing one name at random and purchasing gifts accordingly.

Be sure to set a spending limit; overspending at Christmas can quickly lead to debt and set you back financially in the new year, so taking extra steps this holiday season to prevent overspending may pay dividends!

Make Your Gifts at Home

Are You Skilled at Knitting, Baking or Other Crafts? Crafting Your Own Gifts Could Be Priceless

Holidays can be an enjoyable yet stressful time of year; by planning ahead and staying organized with your finances now, you can reduce overspending this holiday season and prevent overspending altogether.

Tracking spending daily and comparing it against your budget is essential to successful budgeting. Even with an established spending plan in place, it can be easy to overstretch without realizing it.

Shop Sales All Year Long

Holidays don't need to break the bank! By shopping early for gifts and other expenses related to holidays like Valentine's Day flowers, electronics on Fourth of July sales, Halloween treats and other expenses you can spread the costs over time and take advantage of sales throughout the year - saving money all along the way.

Tracking your spending regularly is also essential to staying within your budget and protecting against credit card fraud or identity theft. Mobile banking apps or simply tracking cash spending makes this simple to do; compare results against your budget to ensure that you remain on course.

Try Cyber Monday

Holidays are an enjoyable time of celebration and fun, but can put undue strain on your budget. However, there are a few steps you can take to avoid overspending and enter January on solid financial footing.

Organization can help prevent overspending during this holiday season. You could create a spreadsheet to keep tabs on spending, deducting each expense from your total. Plus, using debit or credit cards with cash back or rewards could stretch your budget even further!

Make sure that decorations, special food items and travel expenses are factored into your holiday budget. Otherwise they could easily exceed what was initially anticipated - so cutting back on discretionary spending such as subscriptions and dining out could free up more funds for gift-giving!

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