The holidays can be expensive. It doesn’t matter if it is Easter, Halloween, Christmas, or another holiday. There are dinners, decorations, and the works. This may have you wondering how you can save money and reduce stress so that you are not paying the consequences long after the holiday is over. Holidays are a great time to build memories. All holidays from New Year’s Day to Christmas give families the opportunity to get together, talk, laugh and have a great time. In order to facilitate this environment, a lot of money can go into it. The money can go into decorations, gifts, and dinners.
Unfortunately, there are individuals who go into debt to pull off holiday events at their homes. In fact, it is not difficult to spend a few thousand dollars in order to host a dinner with family and decorate for the holiday. The expense can cause issues with significant others and result in people feeling regret for spending so much money. All of this is for the sake of trying to build memories that will last a lifetime. The question, however, is whether or not there is a way to create such memories without breaking the bank.
Build Memories Affordably
One of the common reasons why people go into extreme debt for the holidays is because they may not have had a lot themselves as children. It is a very common trend for someone who grew up in a home with a fixed income to grow up and wants to give their kids something better than they had. It is not fun to scrimp for the holidays in order to make ends meet. This results in parents giving their kids the Halloween they never had or the Thanksgiving dinner that they didn’t get to eat when they were children. When it comes to Christmas, many individuals find themselves in debt when January rolls around.
But you have to ask yourself what you believe your children will remember when they are adults. Are they going to remember the inflatable Santa Claus in the front yard or are they going to remember all of the candy they got that particular year? Chances are they are going to remember the year they brought home a bag full of candy and how they felt after eating too much of it. They are also going to remember running the streets with you and your friends while collecting that candy. This is something that you are able to do with your kids completely free.
It is also important to ask yourself how much you actually enjoy hectic holidays. When you work so hard to create the perfect day, you put a lot of pressure on yourself. If you scale back and make just a few different types of holiday cookies rather than twelve dozen of twelve different kinds, you can enjoy the holiday more. You also save a lot of money. You can even ask your attending family members to make something and bring it to the table. This will save you money and time. You will also have more variety at the dinner table.
4 Things To Try
While it can be very difficult to not get caught up in the emotions of the holiday, causing you to forget about the cost, you can prepare yourself for the next holiday. Go ahead and list the ways you can save some money. You may even want to list the things that make you feel stress over the holidays. That way you can eliminate those and enjoy it more.
- The first thing to do is think twice before you grab that eye-level can off the grocery shelf. It can be tempting and those items are at eye-level for a reason. However, there are better deals on the bottom shelves. Just because they may be the store brand or an “off-brand,” that doesn’t mean they don’t have enough quality for your holiday extravaganza.
- Second, sign up for retail store newsletters at your preferred store. You will get coupons and learn about the best sales so that you can save money. Just make sure you are going to the store to buy what is needed instead of letting a sale tempt you to buy something that you may not use. Unfortunately, many people find themselves buying things that they never take the tags off of because they are tempted by a sale rather than a need.
- Third, make sure you use your store rewards points and rewards cash to buy groceries and gifts during the holidays. It can be good to save up these points throughout the year and then use them around the holidays so you can save money. You may be surprised how useful these store loyalty rewards can be.
- Lastly, pay with cash if you are able to. If you have to use a card, make sure you pay the balance of in full every month. This will keep you from having to pay interest on those purchases. You will also avoid a large bill in January. If you have a rewards credit card, you will be able to accumulate more rewards points even if you pay your balance off in full. Rewards point balances are very useful during the holidays. For instance, you can use your points to buy a discounted gift card and then use that discounted card to buy gifts or fund your holiday party.
There are a number of ways that you can save money on the holidays so that you are not spending the rest of the year paying it off, only to go back into debt in the same way again. To figure out which solution is right for you, simply evaluate your individual situation. Your evaluation should reveal what you need to do.
Final Word
If you plan ahead and play your cards right, you will be able to save more than you have in the past. You can do this by spending less and also getting more for every dollar that you spend. In the meantime, you can spend more time with your family, enjoy your time, and build the memories you deserve.