EASY WAYS TO SAVE FOR CHRISTMAS

Let’s face it, no one wants to spend the holidays stressed out about money and worrying about how they are going to afford Christmas.

The more time you give yourself to save for Christmas will help you from feeling financially stressed with trying to find ways to pay for Christmas gifts and holiday expenses.

Honestly, its never to early to start saving for Christmas.

If your budget is already tight or if you typically are financially stressed around the holiday season, then it’s never to early to save for Christmas.

If you start saving money early enough, you can develop a Christmas Budget that you can actually stick to for all of your holiday expenses.

HOW TO SAVE MONEY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Christmas is the same day every year but the shopping season usually starts in November, unless you are an early bird. Your holiday shopping could start as early as September.

Shopping early enough will help you to beat the holiday rush.

You can also have a better selection of goods.

If you are one of those that shop that last week before Christmas, you may have noticed the shelves are usually bare. So sometimes you just buy what you can, even if it isn’t the gift you wanted.

So start saving for a Christmas budget early so you will have enough Christmas Money by the time you want to start you shopping so you can buy the gifts you actually want to give.

First you’ll need to figure out:

Who do you want to buy gifts for?
How much money do you want to spend on Christmas gifts?
How much money do you need for all of your Christmas Expenses?
How much money are you able to save per month?
When do you want to start Christmas shopping?

For example: Let’s say you want to save $1000 for Christmas gifts and holidays expenses and you want to start your shopping by the first week of November. You can only spare $25 extra a week.

In this case, you’ll want to start saving in January. That will give you $1000 by November 1. You will have saved all of your Christmas Money to start shopping on your target date.

Let’s say you can save $100 a week for Christmas Money. You can start saving Mid August and by the first week of November, you’ll have saved a $1000 for your Christmas budget.

When to start saving money for Christmas really depends on your personal finances.

If you don’t have any extra money to save then learn how to make an extra $1000 a month so you can stop living paycheck to paycheck.

In 2020, the average person spent $851 for Holiday gifts, which as down from $976 in 2019 according to the American Research Group.

I expect people spent less in 2020 because of the global pandemic so I expect people will spend more money during the 2021 holiday season.

TIPS ON HOW TO SAVE FOR CHRISTMAS

Here are some money tips on how to save for Christmas. Having a Christmas Savings is easier than you think and you won’t be financially stressed on how to pay for gifts this holiday season.

1 – SET YOU CHRISTMAS BUDGET GOAL

In order to figure out when to start saving for Chrismas, you’ll need to figure out what your Christmas Budget is.

Setting a Christmas Savings Budget will help you from overspending and staying on track with your Christmas Shopping.

So make a list of everything you expect to spend money on during the Holidays. This will include:

Gifts (list out who you want to buy gifts for and how much you want to spend per person)
Gift wrap
Cards
Decorations
Travel
Food

Now decide how much do you want to spend for each category? Then add up your total and you have your Christmas Budget Goal.

2 – HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE PER MONTH?

Once you have your Christmas Budget Goal, you’ll want to figure out how much money you can save per month for your Christmas Money.

If you get paid weekly and you can save $100 a week, that’s $400 a month.

So take your Christmas Budget Goal and divide by the amount you can save per month. That’s how many months you need to hit your Christmas Budget Goal.

But if money is already tight and you don’t have any extra money to save, you need to cut expenses.

You need to find a way to trim your budget so you can save money for Christmas.

It’s always good to look at your budget regularly so you are aware where your money is going.

Then you can find things to cut back on so you’ll have money to save for Christmas.

3 – OPEN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT

Once you have your Christmas Budget goal and know how long it will take to save for Christmass, you’ll want to open a Christmas Savings Account.

You don’t want to keep the money in the same account with your other savings.

You want to keep the money you are saving for Christmas in a separate account to prevent you from spending your Christmas Savings on non-Christmas related items.

You’ll see I also mentioned to open a separate bank account for the 52 Week Money Challenge.

Anytime you are setting a money savings goal for something specific, you should always create another savings account. You’ll earn interest while you are saving money and it will be kept separate from your other money. Out of sight out of might.

So check your local banks and look for one offering the best interest rates. Usually high yield savings accounts have the best interest rates for savings accounts. And look for a bank that offers no monthly fees.

If you would rather keep Christmas Money in Cash, you could get some cute holiday cash envelopes to help you store the money.