How To Spend Less This Holiday Season...

Hola, Fierce Feminina,

The two ladies I’m about to introduce are budgeting rockstars⭐. I first met these ladies as personal trainers and immediately knew they were women who thought just like me.

The ladies of Ideal Balance Shana and Vanessa, are the kind of Fierce Friends that will tell you like it is. Slap an overpriced item out of your hand and give you that look. You know the one.

We all need those friends!

They have a very successful Ideal Balance podcast and financial coaching business. Please enjoy their guest appearance.

How To Spend Less This Holiday Season from Ideal Balance

Shana & Vanessa here. We’re best friends, business partners, and financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. Today, we want to talk to you about how to marry (merry?) Christmas and your budget this year.

When you think about the holiday season, what comes to mind? For so many of us, it’s not the peace and joy the Christmas carols sing of. Instead, what immediately comes to mind is how busy we are and how much the credit card bill is racking up.

Today, we want to share some ways to flip the script this season.

First up, some real talk: what can you realistically spend this Christmas? That doesn’t mean looking at the available credit on your credit card balance. No, you want to look at your overall budget and goals and see what’s left to spend. That’s how much you can “technically” afford.

Sure, you might want to set aside $2,000 for Christmas, but you have to balance that against your other money goals, including getting out of debt, traveling, buying a new home, or whatever else is exciting you about 2024!

So, let’s say you did your monthly budget (Income - Debts, Bills, Spending & Savings), and you had a fair amount of wiggle room to budget for Christmas. How much should you spend on Christmas?

One interesting exercise to do is to go back and look at how much you spent last year and use it as a starting estimate for this year. Speaking of estimates, we often underestimate how much we spend during the holidays. When possible, it’s better to overestimate than to have to scramble in the moment to find more money!

In order to figure out how much to spend, you can also break down your Christmas spending into categories. Don’t forget to factor in all the holiday extras - those secret Santa parties, teacher gifts, family photos, travel expenses, and sparkly decorations. They all add up!

By considering your current budget and your past spending habits, making certain to include every type of Christmas spending you’ll encounter, you’ll then be able to come up with a number that makes sense to you and your family’s budget!

The best-case scenario for budgeting for Christmas is to take the above amount and divide it by 12. From there, you’ll open a separate savings account, naming it “Christmas.” You will then deposit that monthly amount into your Christmas savings account. This will allow you to be totally ready to afford Christmas next year.

For example, let’s say you settle on $2,400 as your total Christmas budget. You’ll want to transfer over $200 monthly into your Christmas savings account. You get bonus kuddo points if you 1) Set the transfer up to happen automatically and 2) Rename the account to something like “Santa's Savings Sack” or “Jingle Bell Bank.”

However, we know that you may not have been doing that already. Our clients funded Christmas this year in many different ways, knowing that they would be able to follow the above system once January 1st came around. Many of them had to set aside $500 or more a month starting in October. Others were able to use a bonus, and still others deferred a car payment to pay for Christmas without using debt. You do have options! Just remember to set that savings transfer up for next year!

By the way, you can get the kiddos involved too! Have them create a gift list within a mini-budget. A trip to the dollar store or some homemade crafts can be a great learning experience in budgeting and the joy of giving.

Now that you know how much to budget and how to set up your Christmas budget and savings accounts, let’s talk about affordable and clutter-free gifts.

But first, we need to talk about Vanessa’s mom’s curio cabinet. Inside sits dozens of different Charming Tails decorative mice that do nothing except require a lot of time spent dusting. You don’t want your gift to be like one of those mice! Just say no to the mice, Fierce Feminina!

One way to avoid being a “mice-giver” is to be intentional about useful & clutter-free gifts. Think experience tickets, classes, subscriptions, or even gourmet treats that disappear deliciously and leave no trace.

One way to avoid being a mice-giver is to be intentional about useful & clutter-free gifts. Think experience tickets, classes, subscriptions, or even gourmet treats that disappear deliciously and leave no trace.

And for those big family gatherings, why not draw names for gifts, go kids-only this year, or opt for a family-wide present? For example, Shana gives her step-sister’s family a gift certificate to the movies to enjoy that together (bonus: it saves on postage!).

Another strategy is to buy certain gifts in bulk so that you can pay less per unit and save that way. For example, maybe you buy certain beauty or health products that you give out to everyone. If it’s cheaper by the dozen, grab that and hand them out. This works especially well with things like teacher gifts.

When it comes to your own household, you might consider limiting gifts to this fabulous four: something they need, want, read, and wear.

This holiday season, ditch the stress, clutter-inducing gifts, and credit card woes Fierce Feminia! As you settle into the holiday season, look at how you can truly enjoy yourself and focus on the season's spirit. If last year was a spend-fest that you aren’t super proud of, hopefully, you can use some of the strategies to make this year's gift-purchasing better. And, if you’re already crushing it when it comes to Christmas budgeting, maybe one or two of these tips can help you take it to the next level.

Here's to a holiday season that's as fabulous, fun, and financially fierce as you are!

Check out these great resources!

Financial Coaching For Women Podcast: https://apple.co/3SGU8h0

Free Christmas Budget Planner Link: https://www.myidealbalance.com/2023Christmas 

100 Clutter Free Gift Ideas: https://www.myidealbalance.com/2023Christmas   

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