Andrew
Create a budget early
TRY to anticipate how much you can afford to spend before the holiday season begins. If you estimate how much your holiday expenses might add up to, be ahead of time and start putting aside a bit of money towards your budget accordingly. By doing so, you can avoid overspending and unburden yourself of the stress that comes with it.
Do your research
You can avoid overspending and straying from your budget by doing some research before your holiday shopping. Start by pinpointing the stores that offer the best holiday deals. Finally, make sure you check your favourite brands on online stores and at other retailers as many of them will likely have good deals before and during the holidays.
Be aware of retail tricks
Even with budgets firmly established, many of us overspend. This happens because retail stores are shockingly good at getting us to part with our money.
Loyalty cards, retail credit, decoy pricing, loss leader strategy (think Black Friday), incentives to return to the store and constant sales represent tricks that retail outlets employ to get us to part with our money. Be on the lookout for them.
Consider home-made gifts
Sometimes, a home-made gift can be more valuable than any present money can buy because it is personal and comes from the heart. Nothing can quite show how much you care about someone like a thoughtful gift you made by hand.
Draw names for extended family
Most of us are guilty of buying mundane gifts for extended family members every year just to be polite or just because it is tradition. Why not break that tradition for once? Pick names out of a hat with your family and set a budget. This way, everyone is only buying one gift for one person.
Stay organised
The holiday season can get so busy that we sometimes tend to spend way more on everyday items than we normally do just for the sake of convenience, for example, paying to have your gifts wrapped. These are unnecessary expenses that you can dodge by simply staying organised.
One great way to at least tackle overspending on food during this busy time is to meal prep for the entire week. Where your actual holiday shopping is concerned, try to plan the gifts you want so that you do your shopping outside of peak mall hours to save some time.
Manage expectations
You either need to compromise on the quantity or quality of gifts. One way to do this and ease your anxiety as a result is to talk about your holiday shopping strategy with your friends and family beforehand to manage their expectations.
Track your spending
To avoid going beyond your holiday budget, you need to actively track your spending during the festive season. Writing down what you spend every day is an option, but, if you have trouble with that, there are several apps that can do most of the work for you.
Do not forget about additional expenses
Try to account for some extra costs such as work parties, wrapping paper, seasonal decorations, gifts for teachers and maybe a new outfit for a New Year’s Eve party.
These are expenses we tend to overlook while creating a budget, which leads to overspending.
Cut down on convenience costs.
Some of the most hidden costs of the holiday season are “convenience” expenses. The holiday season throws us out of
our usual family rhythms by adding
extra responsibilities and activities. — Wires
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter