How To Enjoy The Holidays Without Breaking Your Budget

We share a simple plan to enjoy the holidays without debt or stress, from setting a real budget to spotting fake sales and making meaningful gifts. Practical steps help you find last‑minute cash, use credit wisely, and start saving for next year now.

• setting a holiday budget at 10% of take‑home pay
• using last‑minute tactics like no‑spend weeks and canceling subscriptions
• automating short bursts of savings and round‑ups
• comparing prices and separating real deals from hype
• leveraging gift card bonuses for instant value
• using credit cards only with a clear payoff plan
• choosing homemade and low‑cost meaningful gifts
• opening a Christmas Club or dedicated savings for next year

Subscribe to the Money Matters Podcast, and visit neighborsfcu.org slash financial wellness for more tools to help you build a strong financial future

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome And Holiday Focus
• 0:23 Set A Real Holiday Budget
• 1:35 Last‑Minute Ways To Find Cash
• 3:15 Sticking To The Plan And Price Checks
• 4:00 Gift Cards, Deals, And Real Discounts
• 4:28 Using Credit Cards Without Regret
• 5:49 Meaningful Gifts Over Expensive Buys
• 6:15 Prep Now For Next Year
• 6:54 Closing And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need, and save the money you want. Now, here is your host, Ms.

SPEAKER_01: 0:12

Kim Chapman. Welcome to the holiday edition of Money Matters, and I'm your host, Kim Chapman. Are you ready for the holidays? Did this time sneak up on you? Well, guess what? All isn't lost because hopefully today I can share a couple of tips of how you can salvage the holidays without breaking the bank. So the first thing that you want to do is start with that holiday budget. You really want to have a plan before you go out shopping. So, how do you do that? What do you do? Think about what it is that you need for the holidays. Is it food? Is it gifts? Is it travel? Is it entertainment? Make a budget based on what you normally buy. If you can't remember, look at last year's budget. Look at what you spent. Ideally, you don't want to spend more than 10% of your bring home income. Make that budget and then you want to stick with it. Make sure if it's$500, that$500 has to include everything that we just mentioned. Like I said, travel, food, and gifts. Stick to that budget and commit to it. And so how are we going to do that? Think about where you're going to shop, when you're going to shop. But before I even go there, you may be thinking, is it too late? What if I don't have any money? How can I put together a budget? Well, think about these last-minute tips, things that you can do. There's such a thing called no spend November. And it's about pausing a lot of your extra spending for the month to make room for the holidays. So what can you pause? Think about those non-essential things in our budget. I want those stops to Starbucks, maybe the extra evening out with the girls, those extra meals, or even look at some of your subscriptions. Are there things that maybe you can cut out and cancel or even pause for the next two months? Those are some easy ways to go ahead and add money back into your budget to get yourself ready for the holidays. If you're not saving for Christmas already, it's never too late. Go ahead and set up some automatic savings. You still have time to add maybe$50 a week over the next couple of weeks to help boost what you have available for savings. It's never too late. Round up is an easy way too. And this is a good way to start preparing for next year. If you round up to the next dollar and have that change automatically go to a savings account, it's an easy way to boost your savings. And then if all else fails, you could always look at selling stuff. We've done several podcasts on how you can make good money off of everyday items that you have in your house that you're probably not using. So now that we've got some tips on making that budget and where the money is going to come from, how do you stick to a budget? I think that's usually the harder part. Putting it down on paper can be really, really easy. You've got your list$500, you know who you want to buy for, what you're going to do with it. Now it's time to go shopping. Well, be really, really specific before you get started. Do some price comparison. We have the technology now to where you could look at items now and see what the prices are, and actually do a comparison, especially if we're looking at days like Black Friday to see is it really a deal? Every time you hear something that says it's a special, it's not. I can tell you from experience. I've put items in my cart at several different stores, and there'll be one price, and then they'll advertise that it's the price, the best price of the year. And believe it or not, the price may actually even go up 10%. So use the technology, shop online, even if you're just looking at the prices, so you'll know when a sale truly is a sale. Another thing is if you're looking at buying gift cards or cash for gifts, those can be really cost-saving purchases. A lot of stores, retailers, and restaurants at this time of year will offer you specials. If you buy$50 worth of gift cards, they may give you a$10 gift card free. Hey, you just got a gift for somebody at the office for free while you were taking care of your loved ones. So take advantage of those specials. And while we would never want to use credit cards or get credit cards to buy our presents, if you do have credit cards, if you're planning to use them, make sure that you have a plan that you're going to pay it off in full. But there can be some advantages to using a credit card. And I'm going to stress again if you're going to pay that balance off in full, because a lot of stores will offer you an additional discount, 5% or 10%, if you put that same purchase on the credit card versus paying for it with cash or a different credit card. So take advantage of those credit card offers. Again, I have to keep stressing, only if you want to be able to pay it off. And you may be saying, hey, I have credit cards, but I'm not going to be able to pay it off right now. I understand that's the reality of life. If you're going to do that, still make a budget and then make a plan before you use those credit cards. Can you pay it off in January if you can't pay it off immediately? What about February? Have a plan in place so that you can pay it off as quickly as possible so that you're not carrying a balance for a long period of time and paying extra interest and fees on those holiday purchases. Because again, we want the holidays to be fun, stress-free. We don't want to have to have buyer's remorse come January and February. And while we're talking about buyer's remorse, it's the holidays. Remember the real reason for the season. And so, do we have to go out and buy everybody a gift? Consider your talents. Is it something that you can make somebody, make for somebody? Sometimes a homemade gift, something that really comes from the heart, can go a lot further than a$500 toy from the store. So keep those things in mind. And then finally, I want to talk about let's get prepared for next year. I hear over and over again how Christmas sneaks up on us, even though it's December 25th every year. So now is a good time to leverage savings accounts or Christmas Club accounts at your financial institution. It's a savings account where you specifically have money automatically put into that account specifically for the holidays. You can automate any amount you want, and generally that money is available the following year in November. It is a great way to start preparing for the next holiday so that you won't get caught up in the last minute rush. So happy holidays, and I hope these financial tips help you out.

SPEAKER_00: 7:00

Stay on track with your financial journey. Subscribe to the Money Matters Podcast, and visit neighborsfcu.org slash financial wellness for more tools to help you build a strong financial future.