Holiday Season 2020

We are in November, and the holidays will be here before we know it.  Not gonna lie, I cannot wait for Christmas. I just love this time of year!

Last year, households spent an average of $1,536 during the Holiday season.

With the holidays come a lot of spending, especially for those who host or have small children. And every year people will say how Christmas snuck up on them. It is literally on the same day every year, it did not sneak up on anyone, you failed to plan. Are you ready for the holiday season? Did you prepare financially?

I have a friend who is not a planner or a saver and every year she would tell me how Christmas arrived so suddenly and she put all of her charges on her credit card. This family then had to start the year out with a cloud and burden hanging over them because they needed to figure out how they would pay off their credit card over the next few months. I finally sat her down and told her that they needed to save a little every month starting in January so that they had the funds to spend come Christmas season and they could start the year out right knowing they had the funds already to pay off any cards or pay cash for those purchases. Her and her family have now been doing this for years and they get excited about talking about New Year goals because they no longer have to worry about paying off holiday debts. If this sounds like you or your family, consider saving a little each month. All you need to do is figure out how much you need for the Holiday season, divide by 12 and start saving in January. It really can be this simple.

Our Christmas this year is going to be so much fun. We do not have children but are hosting my mom for 10 days. Plus, my mom is graduating from college in December, so we have extra celebrations and we are going big. I cannot say much on our plans because it is all one big surprise for my mom, so you will have to wait to find out in January. We have been detail planning this since June and therefore we had to start budgeting everything out and making sure we could save before Christmas. And with covid, we have had to make reservations, change our plans and who knows what else will need changing as we move forward this year, but we are ready. 

What are you doing to prepare for the holidays? Are you checking out sales and waiting for Black Friday? Are you already done with your Christmas shopping?  The first thing that we do every year is put up our Christmas lights right after Thanksgiving. I can smell the evergreen already, I cannot wait! Do you have any traditions you plan to carry over this year? Like chopping down your own Christmas tree? Because this time of year can be so costly and seems to fly by so quickly, you should start to plan when you will shop, decorate, bake cookies, etc. One of my brothers already wrote on their calendar what Christmas movie they will watch each day in December up to Christmas. One thing we will do this year is go shopping the day AFTER Christmas. We already know we are looking for a larger Christmas tree and we are hoping to find one on sale after the Holidays. If you are looking to save money this year and do not mind buying used items, check out Facebook Marketplace or Nextdoor. I cannot tell you how much we found on Facebook Marketplace for Halloween items this year. Black Friday is coming up, but often times stores will have a sale before this and sometimes those prices are lower than the Black Friday. If I had to buy anything specific, I would look up those items now and keep an eye on when those prices drop. Also, if you are a Costco member: Did you know that if you buy something at Costco, and shortly afterwards it goes on sale, that you can bring in your receipt within 30 days and they will give you the price difference? There are a lot of ways out there to keep more money in your wallet, everyday and especially during the Holidays. 

What are your holiday plans? Has covid-19 changed any plans you had? What do you do to save money? Have any tips or tricks on saving you want to share? Be sure to subscribe, comment, like and share this post.