Everyone is getting things ready for the holidays as they approach. We all want those great gift deals and opportunities that bring us ease and help us save money. So, if you want to know how to save money during holidays, and you want to enjoy less worry and spend more time having your best holiday moments, check out the ideas in this article to help you.
Ensure to avoid every temptation to overspend on parties, gifts, and travels. While the experience may be worth the memory, you do not want to start paying off debts after the holidays are over or grind into some financial woes in the aftermath.
By putting in place sufficient planning for the holidays with some creativity, savvy, and some holiday savings, you can achieve all the fun and debt-free holiday experience as possible. You will also be able to leave a positive impression on recipients of gifts and even still save some money during the holidays.
Here’s How To Save Money During The Holidays
1. Use Cash Instead Of Plastic
Yea, instead of going about with credit cards, just withdraw the cash you need for a particular experience. This is called envelope budgeting, and it means that once the cash budget is exhausted, that’s it, you’ll have to call it a day. But then, resist the temptation of fetching for more cash to spend for unplanned programs.
2. Make A List
You think lists are for kids alone? Nooo. You can consider making lists of people you’d be glad to remember for the holidays and effect it into your financial plans. When you make your plans with the fixed people you have in mind, it should help to identify and also prevent you from making unneeded expenses. Consider deciding on the amount you want to spend first instead of deciding on the gifts first. So, if you are really considering how to save money during holidays, this is one thing to do.
3. Set A Limit To Your Budget
If you are not careful to set limits to your budgets you will overspend without even knowing it. Set a limit – even if it’s $10 – it works! You may also consider budgeting apps to help you make the most of finances during holidays. Setting a limit to your budget puts your budget in control and increases the chances that you’ll spend less. Setting your budget limit is one way on how to save money during holdays
4. Make Your Orders Online
Consider how much you intend to spend and then go online to search for items that fit into the budget you have prepared. Search for bonus opportunities and places you can also get free shipping also. Put the items you have gathered into your cart, save them, and log out.It is very likely that you’ll receive an email a day or two after offering to provide you with free shipping. And there is a possibility that you’ll get discounts on items you surf into your cart. Holiday periods often come with lot of bonus and discounts.
5. Make Use Of Money-Saving Apps
You will be missing out a lot without harnessing money-saving apps that can help you affect your saving plans and budgeting for the holidays. These apps will help to keep tabs on your spending.
Apps like Rakuten, RetailMeNot, and Honey will also offer automatic discounts and cash-back deals to users for online shopping. However, it is important to be careful of ‘fake deals’ or ‘fake sales’ when you are doing your online shopping. The holidays are often targeted to get unsuspecting online shoppers to get sucked in a bad deal. Do not just make a quick assumption that anything is coming off as a great deal even when you see signs that indicate a ‘50% off.’
Ensure to check your phone to be sure that there is really a bargain. Make more efforts to go on Google to search about the items. Check on Walmart, Amazon, and eBay too.
6. Take Hold Of Special Offers
You will come across special offers on some special sale days during the holidays, take hold of them. For instance, Amazon Prime Day is held on 13th October. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season.
Cyber Monday comes on the Monday after Thanksgiving. 14th December is Free shipping Day, and the day you’ll find several stores offer free shipping with no minimum order. Many other special deals surface too.
The cost of acquiring small appliances, electronics, and several other items are slashed during Black Friday sales. So, it is only smart to grab this deal with both arms and stash them away. Another thing to consider is to take advantage of post-holiday sales.
7. Give Meaningful Gift
Giving gifts doesn’t have to be always expensive. Instead of looking out for stuff that will only make people merry for a short time, consider giving them meaningful gifts that will be useful to them for a long time. You will definitely find them less costly than you thought.
8. Cleanup Your Closets
Great gifts are hidden in the closet. Yes! There are special items that are in good condition but which may have been abandoned for quite a long time without being used. You’ll find people who are often especially in need of blankets and coats during winter.
9. Use Your Talent
If you’re wondering how to save money during holidays, put your talents to use in helping others. As a professional and skillful carpenter, seamstress, hairdresser, accountant, and plumber, you are imbued with special gifts that will be more appreciated than physical gifts. Use your talents as gifts during the holiday and put forth every other act of kindness within your power to use.
Thoughtful gifts often outshine expensive ones. There are people you can hardly satisfy with your gift items. These people may just not be appreciative or they think they have everything they need. However, there are still things they will very likely appreciate. A framed photo of a special memory isn’t bad. Ticket for an upcoming event, engraved letter opener, something nice from a local antique mart, or a decorative pillow or flea market.
10. Create A Shopping List And Adhere To It
Do you already have a budget for the holidays? Draw out your list of the people you intend to give out gifts to. Now, do not think of what you want to buy, but focus on how much you’ll be able to spend on each one of the family and friends on your gift list.
If the list turns out too long, review it and remove some names you can still meet up with later or better still, reduce your spending amount on each name.
11. Shop Early
Plan to shop early for the holidays. After going through the list of everything you have gathered, learn to stop, and avoid the temptation of going for one more item – even a little one – as that would lead to another, and you’d have breached your target on saving money during the holiday.
By shopping early, you’ll be able to plan ahead, take advantage of bonuses, and also enjoy more time with your friends and family during the holidays.
12. Collect Food And Gift Items
You should consider spending some time receiving gifts and food items for a food bank which would be delivered. Talk to your friends about giving you nonperishable items that would be donated to a shelter. Hold a party for food collection and deliver them.
13. Consider Using Rewards Points
Make use of reward points from department stores, credit cards, and other purchases you have made during the year. Pull together these reward points, cash in on them and get a nice holiday gift for someone or people special.
14. Free Concerts
While the holidays will be accompanied by lots of expensive events and performances, there are also several free performances you’ll find around to participate in. Visit local parks, malls, recreation centers, churches, community organizations, and several other places for entertainment, plays, and other holiday activities. Ensure you take advantage of the free ones you’ll find around. If you really want how to save money during holidays, take advantage of free things!
15. Take Advantage Of Black Friday Deals
Grab these deals with both hands. But ensure not to get caught up in the Black Friday hype. Be sure that you are getting a real deal and be more careful to acquire things you really need as these deals could be quite tempting and misleading.
Shoppers sometimes get entrapped and over-spend and buy on impulse. Go through the ads, detail the list, and plan on your strategy on shopping for the season.
16. Take Caution With Credit Cards
While credit cards can be nice financial tools to meet your financial needs, they can be cruel and unfair during the holidays if you become careless with them. Several cardholders have ended up becoming longtime debtors as a result of their poor credit card decisions.
It is easy for shoppers to lose their sense of financial caution when it comes to making use of credit cards. A consumer credit expert, John Ulzheimer, “Certainly there is nothing wrong with using credit cards for your holiday shopping, just as long as you spend within your means and can pay off any balances with relative ease.”
Another idea is to consider credit cards with minimal interest rates. It would also help in tracking your expenses.
Ulzheimer advised, “The safe bet when it comes to holidays and plastic is to use your credit cards for the things you would have paid cash for and then pay off the balances as soon as possible when your statement shows up,” Ulzheimer advises.
17. Keep Away From Last-Minute Shopping
It is funny how we sometimes run out of gift or food items and we start running about a last minute shopping. According to a Consumer expert, Freeman, ‘panic spending’ encourages shoppers to wait till the last minutes before making purchases for supplies and gifts.
The National Retail Federation also recommends that shoppers get started early to achieve a profitable shopping experience. They encouraged consumers to take off stress during the holidays by doing their holiday-shopping much earlier to ensure that whatever they are going for is in stock and can be received in time.
18. Plan Early For Your Traveling
How to save money during holidays? Plan everything early enough! This simple trick will help you to save a lot of money and also prevent unnecessary or unplanned expenses. Plan your travel early too. You’ll be open to cheaper bookings and discounts.
You can get deals on airfare, hotels, and other expenses. Plan your travel a few days earlier or maybe later than the actual date. You’ll put yourself at an advantage for better deals and you will also be able to avoid huge crowds, especially on Thanksgiving. Also go for odd hours when traveling. For instance, some airlines will offer you better deals if you fly at 5 a.m. rather than 9 a.m.
19. Decorate With Flair
Your decoration doesn’t have to be expensive and overpriced stuff for the holidays. Look around you instead, for some natural things you can leverage on in your decoration. Holly, tree branches, leaves, acorns, and a lot of other non perishable items can go into your decorations.
Create an old fashioned holiday trim using a bag of cranberries and popcorn. You can also consider pouring a bag of cranberries into a clear vase while you tie it up with a green ribbon. You will find out that these homemade decorations created with flair bring in more fun.
20. Place More Attention On Gratitude
If you put more focus on being grateful for the holidays, you’ll realize that there is no amount of expenses on material things that can really make this show. Pay gratitude at Thanksgiving. Forgo the gifts and spend time together with your family and friends. Many people think this too but do not want to sway from the old pattern of doing things. And since you need how to save money during holidays, then it is time to put first things first.
Finally
Avoid getting caught up in the atmosphere of the season and overpend. The big thrills, parties, huge nice gifts, and Christmas dinners will bring great experience, but only land you in some unplanned expenses, aside from the stress.
When you plan ahead, you’ll save yourself lots of unnecessary expenses and debts that would keep you on the edge even after the holidays are over.
