FYI: Once you have finished reading this article, be sure to check out more financial topics and ideas and other topics important to a BAM! Man, check the Categories section to the right of this article. If you are coming from a mobile device, scroll to the end of the article.
It’s way too easy to get carried away during the holiday season! Black Friday, holiday sales and most people being in a jovial mood can make it seem like we can shirk or simply forget about our responsibilities and especially our financial responsibilities.
Getting that new item on sale for ourselves, our kids or anyone else that we care about, now, without any regard to the impact on our finances happens too often and to too many of us men. The excitement of the season makes carefree living seems like the only way to go during the holiday.
As fun as the season is, however, it’s important to keep an eye on your budget during Christmastime so you’re not faced with a financial crisis later on. Come January the hangover hits when the bills start coming in, we are faced with the reality of our end of the year party purchases and we find ourselves deeper into a money pit that seems like we can never get ourselves out of.
“Financing your holiday expenses with a credit card costs about 20 percent extra because credit card rates are so high,” CreditCards.com industry analyst Ted Rossman said.
Men will outspend women by twice as much this holiday season, and nearly a third of 2,003 males surveyed in a holiday spending report from Debt.com with Tinuiti Marketing plan to shell out more than $500 just on gift cards. Women, meanwhile, are slated to spend $250 or less, according to the survey.
FOX Business
Now is the time to take control of ourselves and our finances and resist all of the holiday urges to spend, spend, spend and buy, buy, buy. Be A Man. Do the Right Thing. Take control of your holiday spending now before it gets out of hand.
Avoiding our financial responsibilities now, will only lead to stress and anxiety in the months afterwards.
So, how can you resist the urge to spend frivolously in the name of gifts and having a jolly good time?
Use These Tips To Manage Your Holiday Money and Budget Effectively:
1. Remember January Is A Long Cold Month.
Resist the urge to spend all your holiday earnings on gifts, parties and Christmas decorations. The sooner you spend it, the sooner you’ll start to stress out about living through a long January on mere pennies if you even have any pennies left to live from!
- Always give thought to emergencies which may pop up. Leave room in your budget for those spur of the moment things that could come your way in January.
2. Setup Bill Reminders.
If you have a constant reminder of the bills you need to settle during the holiday and immediately after, you’ll be more inclined to manage your money effectively. As you shop for gifts, decorations, and other holiday expenses, keep your financial responsibilities in mind to ensure you can cover them when required.
- Setup alarms on your phone that remind you days in advance of your bill due date.
- Write due dates for your bills on your calendar or on a paper that you always keep with you.
- Make a list (Check your regular budget – You do have a budget, right?) and every time before you shop check the list to remember the bills that have to paid.
3. Avoid Using Your Credit Cards.
There’s a couple of sayings that can help you avoid credit card disasters that you’ll regret for months and maybe even years to come: “If you can’t pay for it in cash, don’t buy it on credit”, and “Cash is king”. As simple as it seems, it’s very effective to ensure that you avoid getting in over your head with credit card expenses this holiday.
- If you plan to use your credit card, ensure your bank account has at least 90 percent of the purchase total in available cash.
- Aim to settle your credit card bill on time and in full. At least have a plan to pay your credit cards down as soon as possible.
- Do not take cash advances from your credit cards. Cash advances usually have criminally high interest rates and are the last amounts of debt to be paid off your credit card.
4. Keep Your Priorities In Check.
If you have your financial priorities straight for eleven months of the year, you should be more than able to keep them in check during December. Yes we covered some of this in point 2, above, but working from you budget is that important. Here’s the perfect guide:
- At the beginning of December, make a list of your responsibilities and prioritize them.
- Determine how much of your earnings to dedicate to each priority.
- Put aside the amounts decided upon.
- Whatever you’re left with after these priorities is what you can use for holiday spending.
5. Treat Yourself With A Gift To Alleviate Future Holiday Seasons Financial Stress.
Open a holiday account for next year with $10. Then, starting the first week of January, add $10 each week. You’ll have $500 to spend freely next holiday season. If you put in $20 per week, you’ll have $1000! Take the financial stress out of your holidays with this small weekly gift to yourself.
6. If It Is Already Too Late For You This Year, As Above Start The Fund For Next Year.
But come the second day of January figure out how far in debt you actually are in. Figure out and make your plan (budget?) and the steps that you will take in order for you to eliminate your holiday debt as soon as possible.
- Write out and realize how much you spent. Yes, this sucks. But BAM! Men take responsibility for their actions – good and bad.
- Write out the total amount in large on a full piece of paper.
- Selfie Time: Take a selfie of you holding the paper as a reminder and inspiration for better fiscal responsibility for next year.
- Each month or each week, take a new picture as the balance goes down. Yes, you got into a mess, bet seeing yourself get out of it can be inspiring and extremely motivational.
- On one half of the same piece of paper you can write the amount of your saving fund.
- Each month or week take a new picture and as your debt dwindles, you will be further inspired watching your savings grow.
Important Reminder: If you do this, and you really should, these funds are to be set aside just for next years holiday spending and is a savings fund that is in addition and not instead of any other savings plans that you have currently enrolled yourself in.
Section Conclusion
Look, all that it really takes is a little bit of discipline and a some focus and self awareness on what’s most important to you. You must take control of yourself and your finances during the holidays and any other time of the year, for that matter.
Remember that there are many more holidays to come, so you may as well leave some of the frivolity for those! Focus on getting your priorities taken care of before you take the holiday spending plunge. And if you do go too far set up your action plan to get back out of the pit.
Keep reading this article for more steps and details to better manage your money during the holiday season.
Be A Man. Do The Right Thing. Take Care Of Yourself And Your Finances.
Budgeting For The Holiday Season
As we have already pointed out, as much fun as the holiday season can be, the holiday season is one of the most stressful times of the year due to the added financial pressures placed on top of your usual financial pressures. Between the gift giving, holiday entertaining, and the regular monthly expenses, it all adds up to a very expensive and therefore, stressful time of year!
Get ahead of holiday financial stress and take back some control. When you budget for the holidays early, you’ll have a handle on your holiday shopping and spending throughout the rest of the season.
What Are The Benefits Of A Holiday Budget?
Keeping A Budget During The Holiday Season Will Benefit You In Many Ways. Here are two:
1) You’ll avoid overspending, which will keep you from playing “catch up” when the season ends.
2) You’ll reduce financial stress throughout the holiday season, which will make the experience more enjoyable for you.
A few simple budgeting practices during the next few months will have a positive impact on your holiday spending, which can help to prevent you from going overboard or becoming overwhelmed.
Use these holiday spending budget strategies to ease financial tension during this hectic season:
1. Create a Budget (Where have we heard this before?).
Determine how much money is available for you to spend based on your current financial situation. Be realistic with your holiday spending budget, regardless of how much or little you can play with. This is your spending limit, and your goal is to stay within it. Period.
- Remember that your expenses must be less than your income. There’s no need to get into extensive debt because of the holidays.
2. Make A List, Check it Twice. Scratch That. Check It Every time Before You Shop!
List everyone that you need to furnish a gift for so you can create a realistic plan to accommodate your gift-giving needs. Keep everyone in mind, including family members, friends, and anyone else you want to give a gift to, such as neighbors or other acquaintances.
3. Create A Budget Worksheet (There Is A Recurring Theme Here. Do You See it?).
Create a basic budget worksheet on paper or on your computer or phone or tablet. List every gift recipient in one column. Create a column to brainstorm ideas, a column for your planned budget for each recipient and a column for how much you actually spent on each person.
Track overall budget and actual spending as well to see how you do at the end.
4. Tweak As Necessary.
Make changes to your budget whenever you overspend on one person so you stay within your budget overall.
- Try to set realistic budget amounts for each of the recipients on your worksheet in order to minimize the need for edits to your worksheet, but do not be afraid to make edits as necessary.
5. Trim As Necessary.
Giving gifts to your neighbors, your children’s teachers, and service providers like the mailman is a nice sentiment, but not necessary. If your budget cannot support your list of recipients, trim the list!
- Consider giving stocking stuffer type gifts to these recipients if you insist on giving them something for the holidays. Small gifts, inexpensive homemade gifts, or simple greeting cards are just as sentimental and memorable but will not break your budget.
- Just because you have allocated a certain amount for someone on your list does not mean that you have to spend that full amount. You can spend less and unlike most governments in the world, end up, under budget! Now wouldn’t that be something!
6. Start Early. Start Now!!!
When working on a budget, starting early offers a definite advantage. The more time you have to get your shopping done, the more time you have to comparison shop, shop sales and look for deals. Avoid leaving your shopping until the last moment; otherwise you’ll likely pay higher prices and spend more time feeling aggravated in the lineups.
7. See Section One Of This Article About Saving For Next Year!
Section Conclusion – Get A Handle On Your Spending. Only You Can. And You Must.
It only takes a few simple changes in your spending and budgeting habits to improve your holiday shopping experience. By starting early and following a plan, you can overcome the obstacles of holiday shopping, budgeting, and spending with ease. BAM! men take care of their money.
Remember how horrible you will feel or how horrible you felt last year when you woke up the day the bills started coming in January. With simple steps and planning, you can completely avoid or at least minimize any holiday debt that you incur. You can do it.
Oh! Enjoy Your Holidays! Seriously.
With a plan in place, the holidays will be much more enjoyable.
About The Holiday Budget Plan For Next Year.
We have already mentioned a few times about savings for next year and having a holiday budget.
Keep reading the last section here on how to set up and manage this worthy financial project for yourself, for next year.
Be A Man. Do The Right Thing. Take Care Of Yourself And Your Finances.
Start A Holiday Savings Fund To Avoid the Holiday And Christmas Financial Crunch
The best way to get a jump on holiday shopping and avoid holiday debt, and credit card fees, is to begin with a holiday savings fund.
Having the holiday savings fund will ensure that you have the money that you need for holiday shopping before the very last shopping day and before you start racking up more credit card debt.
Rather than trying to squeeze holiday shopping into one or two months budget in December, and to avoid going (any further) into debt due to the added expenses during the holiday time, get a jump on your planning now, for next year and you’ll have control over holiday expenses.
What Is A Holiday Savings Fund?
Simply put, a holiday savings fund is money saved specifically for holiday shopping. You can put money away for gift giving, entertainment, food, decorating, and any other aspect of the holiday beforehand. This will ensure that you’re not scrambling to find bargains at the last moment when you should be enjoying the time of the year instead! No one likes a Scrooge and avoiding added stress and anxiety that occurs at holiday time can be minimized.
Easy Tips for Starting Your Own Holiday Savings Fund:
1. Make Your List Of What Is Important To You.
Start with basic categories, like Entertaining, Gifts, Greeting Cards, and Food. From here, you can make a list of what you need to buy for each category. List with as much detail as possible, as this will benefit you in the long run.
- Give each category a thorough list of items. For the Gifts category, include every gift recipient you plan to give a gift to. Then plan what to give each person or set a spending limit for each gift.
- Your Food list can include categories for different events and a full list of the groceries and other food items that you need for each event.
2. Formulate A Budget (Oh! Here’s A Totally New And Novel Idea!).
Now that you have thorough lists for each need during the holiday season, assign a rough estimated price to each item and formulate a budget. How much money do you need to fulfill all of your goals for the holiday season?
3. Figure Out A Savings Plan.
Now that you know how much you need in total, you can figure out how much you need to put away every month to achieve your goal. Divide your total by the number of months left until Christmas or any other holiday, for that matter. That’s how much you need to save each month.
- Alternatively, break your totals down into smaller chunks. For example, you can put away $20 per month for food for three months, or $75 for gifts per month in the lead-up to Christmas.
4. Put Your Plan Into Action.
Now put your plan into action. As you save money, keep a running total of what you’ve saved and where each saved dollar is going to go. This will help keep you on track from month to month as you prepare for the holidays. And keeping track is being aware. BAM! Men are aware. Also, watching the savings funds grow, you will feel better and in control with regards to even having the plan.
5. Tweak As Necessary.
You may need to tweak your plan for various reasons. Your budget needs may change, or the amount of income you’re bringing in may change. If this happens, just tweak your plan to address the changes and keep going.
- The closer you get to your savings goal, the better off you’ll be in the long run. Keep close track of your numbers so you can make tweaks and changes as soon as the need arises rather than after the fact.
Conclusion
Guys, as in all things having a pan and working the plan is crucial for control and success. A holiday savings fund will simplify the holiday planning process. The more details you put into your plan, the better the results will be. A holiday savings fund can be a lifesaver, preventing you from becoming overwhelmed stressed out and full of anxiety at the last minute.
If you plan and prepare ahead of time for the parties, meals, decorations and gifts, then you can ensure that you have the money early enough to make it happen.
For all of the topics that we have covered in this article the simple truth is that like most things in life, it comes down to you to Be A Man and to Do The Right Thing. No one will make you. It is up to you, only. Be aware. Have a plan. Take control. It is not that hard. Really. You can do it.
Reminder: From a full-screen device scroll back up to the top of the page or if you are coming from a mobile device, scroll to the end of the article and be sure to check out other topics important for men that you can read to grow and develop as a BAM! Man. BAM! Be A Man. Do The Right Thing.
Look for the Categories tab at the top of this page, to the right of this article. If you are coming from a mobile device, scroll to the end of the article.
BAM! Be A Man. Do The Right Thing. Take Care Of Yourself And Your Finances.
BAM! Be A Man. Do The Right Thing.
Be The DtRTy Guy!