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Top Ten Holiday Spending Tips

The Holiday Season has arrived!

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2015 Holiday Consumer Spending Survey, the average spending per person is going to be $805.65.

Whether you’ve been saving all year or just starting to think about it, use these tips to keep your holiday spending on track!

Tip #1: Want. Need. Wear. Read.

Maybe you only have to buy a couple gifts this year. Or maybe you have a list as long as Santa. To help save money, consider setting expectations for the number of gifts you plan to give. One way to do this is to buy four gifts per person – something they want, something they need, something they’ll wear, and something they’ll read.

Make sure you communicate your plans, ask for a list, and if you find that’s still too many gifts to buy, see if you can exchange names instead.

Tip #2: Get crafty.

Looking to save money? Make your presents instead of buying them. Take advantage of websites like Pinterest to find creative and low-cost items to make for the holidays.

Just remember that DIY doesn’t always mean cheap or low cost. If you have to buy a bunch of items just to make one thing, it’s probably not cost effective. To help save money, make multiples of the same gifts to give out.

Tip #3: Focus on experiences.

A gift doesn’t have to be a material item. Make a suggestion to spend time, not money, together. Some ideas include:

• Volunteering together
• Visiting family and friends at their home
• Drive around and look at holiday lights
• Host a game night
• Find free events and activities in your city and invite others to join
• Start a new low-cost/free tradition

Tip #4: Shop with your head, not your heart.

Surprise: stores want you to spend more money during the holiday season and they have many ways to encourage you to do so – including appealing to your five senses. During the holidays, keep the following in mind and remember to use your head, not your heart while out shopping.

Touch: displays are designed in certain ways to encourage you to buy the pricier items which are set in the middle. You’re also more likely to buy things when you can touch and feel them.

Sight: exciting displays attract multiple senses. The colors used are also picked for specific reasons as well. Red and green, the more popular colors of the holiday, have specific meanings. Red stimulates and energizes and encourage overspending. Green symbolizes wealth and creativity.

Hearing: stores play classic holiday to encourage nostalgia and positive moods which can lead to staying longer in stores and overspending.

Smell: pine and peppermint are used by stores to evoke certain emotions to encourage more shopping and spending.

Taste: there’s a reason stores offer even more free samples during the holidays. There’s also a reason stores have holiday-only food and beverage items – if you know it’s only available during a limited time period, you’re more likely to increase the frequency with which you purchase and consume.

Heart: not a sense, but stores use your emotions against you during the holidays. Long lines, crowded stores, one-day only sales, early bird specials, etc. are all designed to increase the likelihood of impulse purchases.

Best way to shop with your head: build a list and follow it.

Tip #5: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Reduce holiday costs.

• Travel: carefully weigh your travel options. While it might be more convenient to fly somewhere, with lower gas prices, it might make more financial sense to drive.
• Gifts: review your gift list and ask yourself – does everyone on this list really need a gift? Or could a card or baked goods be enough?
• Decorations: you don’t need to go all Clark Griswold on your house. Focus on what matters the most to you and your family.

Reuse items.

• Do you keep old holiday cards you’ve received or sent? Reuse them as postcards, decorations or even gift tags.
• Find old photos to use as gifts.
• Have a gift you’ve never used? Regift it (just make sure it’s not going to the original gift giver)!

Recycle.

• Holiday parties to attend? Don’t buy a new outfit! Find someone the same size as you and swap.
• Ready for a new holiday décor theme? Don’t buy new. Find someone who is also tired of their décor and swap.
• Shop at thrift and discount stores for unique items at a lower cost.

Rule #6: Get the best price.

Use deal sites to find discounts, deals, and best prices. Some deal sites include: dealseekingmom.com, retailmenot.com, ebates.com, groupon.com, livingsocial.com,pricegrabber.com, among others.

Know price match policies for stores you plan to shop. Many stores have made changes to their Price Match policies this year to include online store matching.

Use your resources to comparison shop. 82% of shoppers plan to do research online for products and prices. 70% of shoppers plan to “webroom” (go online first, then visit instore) and 52% plan to “showroom” (go to the store first, then look online) to find the best deals.

Rule #7: Treat yourself sparingly.

In 2015, 55.8% of holiday shoppers plan to splurge on themselves spending an average of $131.59. If you’re among that number, don’t let treating yourself ruin your budget. Add a “treat yourself” item to your list and include it in your budget.

Rule #8: Cook smarter.

When picking out recipes for meals or baked goods, take into consideration the ingredients required. If you have one asking for all-purpose flour, another needs cake flour, and the other needs whole wheat flour, consider finding three recipes that use the same type of flour.

Do you always have a large family gathering at your house for the holidays? Switch it up and see if someone else will host. Or make it a potluck dinner and have everyone bring a dish to pass.

When building your shopping list, make sure you look at deals and specials. Find coupons online or in the paper. Find stores that allow double coupons to save even more.

Rule #9: Evaluate travel options.

When planning your holiday travel, make sure you are comparing options to find the best deals.

• Compare various airlines and use multiple deal seeking travel sites.
• Be flexible with travel dates and consider flying on off-peak days.
• Use alternate airports.
• Set up travel alerts.
• Ask for a discount or better deal especially with hotel rooms or rental cars.
• Consider alternate transportation such as trains or buses.

Rule #10: Prepare for next year.

Keep track of what you spend this year to build a plan for next year. Add up what you spend and divide it by 10 (if you plan to start shopping in November) or 11 (if you plan to start shopping in December). Once you have that number, set up automatic transfers to a designated saving account for that amount. When the holiday season rolls around again, you’ll be ready to go!

For example, if you spend $800 on the holidays and plan to start shopping in November 2016, that means you’d need to save $800/10 = $80 a month. You can set automatic transfer each paycheck, each week, or once a month.

Keep your holiday budget in check with our free, downloadable, and fillable Gift List and Holiday Expenses PDFs.