Beating Holiday Debt
No need to spend an arm and a leg on Christmas this year!
by Ellie Kay
The holiday spending levels of many military families will haunt them in the future. In fact, the average American family will not be able to pay off their Christmas charges until May of the following year. This overspending contributes greatly to holiday stress and robs most families of their future financial freedom.
One way our large family of seven holds debt at bay is to limit our giving to three gifts per person. We told the kids years ago that if three gifts were good enough for the baby Jesus, three gifts are good enough for them.
OTHER HOLIDAY BUDGETING TIPS:
Determine a game plan. The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, and it comes complete with loads of loss-leaders that are designed to lure you into the store. Get your holiday ads on that Thursday, and mark down all the sales you want to take advantage of.
Document your purchases. There’s nothing like buying Christmas paper to wrap those presents early, only to discover a month later that you have tons of paper you bought at the end-of-season clearance last year and forgot about. Write down your purchases—and where you stashed them—on a piece of paper, and tape the list to next year’s December calendar page.
Do it yourself. By preparing homemade goods, such as jams and jellies when the fruit is in season, you can save a lot of money. Present your yummy gifts in interesting baskets, boxes, tins or other containers you’ve found at garage sales or on clearance shelves.
Decorate early. If you decorate the day after Thanksgiving, you’ll save money. By organizing all the Christmas decorations, you’ll discover which items you need and which ones you don’t need. Then you can look for those lights that are on sale to replace the ones that didn’t survive the year.
Designate as you decorate. Wrap each gift as you get it. Don’t forget to label for whom each gift is intended. You may want to keep a master list of the gifts, listing the contents and numbering them as you buy them. That way, you won’t duplicate gifts or overbuy for any one person.