10/10/24 - Christmas on a Budget: 10 Clever Ways to Save Money in 2024
Hook
Are you ready for the holiday season? Yes, I know it’s early, but today we’re going to talk about how to have the best possible holiday while staying on budget and having fun with that. Join me as I take on the challenge of celebrating Christmas on a budget and show you 10 clever ways to save money in 2024 and still have a ton of fun. Also, stay tuned to find out about a great tool to help you with all of these tips and strategies.
Subject intro
Hello my lovelies! Welcome to the Moving Toward Better Podcast. I’m your host, Karen Bemmes, and today we’re talking about the best ways to stay on budget for the holidays so that when the bills come around in January, you’re not kicking yourself for overspending yet again.
Before we dive in, I want to make it clear that what I am about to share are experiences from my own life and what I learned along the way. Your situation may be different, and this is no substitute for financial, medical or mental health intervention if your situation warrants it. This podcast series is designed to help people understand themselves and others better based on their personalities. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any mental or physical condition. If you suspect you or a family member is at risk of physical or mental harm, please seek proper medical help immediately.
For those who are new to the podcast, when I talk about personalities, communication and relationships, I use the DISC personality model of behavior and refer to people as D or Driven, I or Inspired, S or Supportive, and C or Cautious. You can find links to take your own Personality Assessment in the Show Notes.
Presentation of Problem/Challenge
While doing research for this podcast, I came across some interesting facts about holiday spending.
Last year's holiday season sales totaled approximately $936.3 billion.
71% of US holiday budgets are assigned to gift purchases.
96% of Americans buy gifts for their families.
Americans spend well over $200 a year on non-gift items.
Canadians spend nearly $1,000 more than Americans during the holidays.
48% of Americans begin Christmas shopping before the end of October.
More than half (63%) of Americans shop online for holiday purchases.
The average family in the US spends about $1000 during the holiday season
We all know how prices have skyrocketed in the last year or two, so being financially savvy through the holidays is smart and sometimes a matter of survival. That doesn’t mean that you have to be Scrooge level of stingy and full of humbug. Rather it means that you are mindful of what you spend your money on and plan your holiday spending so you end the season feeling good about yourself and your holiday season.
Honestly, it just makes good sense to have a Christmas budget, so you can be ready for the holidays rather than scramble to pay for them after the holiday season and start the year ahead rather than behind in your finances, and I’m going to help you do that and still have a ton of fun, even if you haven’t done that for this year.
Exploration/Development
Look, I did not grow up in a household that planned ahead financially for the holidays. My parents spent a lot of money during the holidays to have fun and buy presents, but when the credit card bills came in January, it was not a pleasant time to be in our household. It would take months to pay off the Christmas debt, and then we would take a vacation, and the process would start all over again. It was a vicious cycle that I thought was typical of most families.
It wasn’t until I met my mother in law that I found out there was another way. You see, my mother in law raised 9 children, and she learned early on how to save a little bit of money each week, even if it was only a dollar to make sure she had money to buy her children Christmas gifts, and that is tip number 1, to have a plan to save for your for your holiday spending.
I know some of you are going to push back and say that you have a savings account, but I’m going to push back and say that if you’re anything like me, one of the most challenging things you do is to save money, and you hate to see that balance go down when you’ve worked so hard to save that money.
That’s the beauty of a Christmas or holiday account. It is literally meant to be spent. In financial terms, it’s called a sinking fund, and we have one for vacations as well as the holidays, and it keeps us out of so much financial turmoil.
There are a few ways that I know that people do this. First, they might have a traditional savings account that is separate from their regular savings. Second, they may start a high yield savings account specifically for their holiday spending. Third, rather than having a separate account, some people use a credit card that has a great deal with points, and they save those points specifically for their holiday spending.
Whichever of these you choose, and I am sure there are other options as well, it can help relieve so much holiday and post holiday stress. If you haven’t done that for this year, start this month for next year. Even if you save only $20 per month, you’ll still have $250 by this time next year, and while that’s well below the average $1000 most Americans spend, it’s definitely a start.
We started with $10 per month almost 30 years ago, and we added to that amount each year. We now save enough that we can buy gifts as well as pay for all of our extras during the holiday and smile when we open up the bills in January knowing everything is covered financially.
My next best tip, number 2, to stay on budget is to have a gift list. That may seem like common sense, but some people write the list every year and then throw it away, and they have to recreate it every year. They also wait until later in the season to write the list and forget things they already purchased and they remember them later, which means they may overspend. Don’t do that.
Give yourself the gift of that gift list and edit yearly when you add and subtract people. You can also decide early on, based on the number of people, how much you can actually afford to spend on people and not leave yourself in a financial lurch.
Strategy number 3 to save money on your Christmas budget in 2024 is to shop sales. I know this seems like a no-brainer, but there are specific times that stores have sales, and even if you shop online, plan to use those shopping days to your advantage.
Let’s start with the ones that we’re all familiar with, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If we’re being honest, a lot of retailers, both brick and mortar and online, use the entire weekend, if not the entire week of Thanksgiving in the US, for sales. If you’re an in person kind of shopper, do that. If not, use the online portal.
My husband and I went out exactly one time on Black Friday morning to buy all of our Christmas gifts because we were broke and needed the deals financially. My husband stood in line at a toy store for over an hour and a half waiting to pay for our items while I went to other stores to get other deals. We hated it and decided it was the last time we were going to do it. After that year, we still go out on Black Friday almost every year, but we wait until the afternoon, when all the shopping warriors are usually finished for the day, and we do not miss the stress of the crowds or the parking lots.
I do have one additional thought about sales, and that is Columbus Day. I know there are people who find Columbus Day and its sales problematic. I get it, and if that’s your choice, I honor that, but there are some retailers that have Indigenous Day sales if that suits you better, or you could shop indigenous owned stores and truly help the native population that way. No matter where you live in the US, I’m guessing you also have Native Festivals over the long weekend, and you can find several ways to support native culture and perhaps pick up a gift or two and support native artists at the same time.
Tip number 4 to save money over the holidays is to plan. Again, some of you will think this is something everyone knows, but I assure you, it isn’t. I’m not just talking about gifts. I’m also talking about groceries and meals. This past week, my local grocery had butter on sale for $3.49 per pound with an extra dollar off if you purchased 5 pounds or more.
Because we plan ahead, my husband and I know that we go through 10-12 pounds of butter over the holiday season. I know that sounds like a massive amount, and it is, but it’s also not all for us. We do use a couple of pounds of butter if we make our own Thanksgiving dinner, but we also do a lot of baking over the holidays and give most of it away, so knowing we do that, we buy butter in September and October when it tends to be on sale, and we freeze it to use as needed over the holidays. That can be the difference between nearly $55 worth of butter versus around $25 just for one item. Do that with flour, sugar and whatever other items you might use a lot of, and the savings truly add up.
Fun fact - you can put unopened flour in the freezer too, to keep it fresh as well. Make sure you let it come to room temperature before you use it, though, so you don’t end up with wonky baked goods. Stay tuned, because we may be doing a podcast soon about baking and/or cooking tips for the holidays that can definitely save you time and money.
Moving on…Strategy number 5 to save money is to make use of memberships. We have a membership to our local zoo and museum center, both of which have excellent holiday displays. The zoo’s holiday display is included in the price of our membership, and the museum center charges a small amount extra, but it’s worth every penny when we take our grandchildren to see the exhibit and let them play and run free in the children’s museum.
We also have an amusement park in my hometown that has a wonderful holiday experience, but we haven’t had passes there in quite some time. Here’s a way to save extra money on these types of memberships. Buy them toward the end of the season and purchase them every other year. Sometimes, if you time it right, you can still go to the park every year and only pay for the passes every other year. Pretty cool, huh?
Tip number 6 is to give homemade gifts. Now, before you come at me about homemade gifts, I am fully aware that handmade gifts like quilts, afghans and more, can be more expensive than buying a gift and take an enormous amount of time to make, so those items are not be the right fit for this list, but I have a friend who sews who made her brother a cell phone holder for his bike because he’s a cyclist and wanted something aerodynamic. She not only made him one out of scrap material she had, she also sold the pattern for a few dollars and actually made money helping out her brother and others who wanted a safe place for their cell phone that wasn’t on their body. Tada, an inexpensive gift that ended up making her money in the long run! Pretty cool, huh?
One year when money was tight in our household, we made cinnamon swirl quick breads for each of my husband’s sibling’s families to have with their Christmas breakfast. My husband is the youngest of 9 children, so we baked about a dozen loaves, and the entirety of the ingredients cost less than $20. Just for my own information, I decided to look up what that would cost today and based on what I found, 12 Cinnamon Swirl Quick Breads, name brand, not store brand, would run $36 because they’re on sale this week. Eggs would cost $6, and powdered sugar for a glaze would cost $3. That adds up to $45 for 12 loaves. The only other ingredient for this brand is water, so there are your ingredients sorted. If you prefer to purchase disposable pans to avoid having to turn out the loaves and make production easier, they would run $28 for a total of $78 total or $6.50 per loaf. If you really want to get fancy, you could add a tub of butter or flavored butter that you make yourself, which would add to the gift cost, but that’s entirely up to you. Again, we may do a podcast or video dedicated to affordable gifts, and if you would like that, please comment and subscribe so you are notified when that happens.
Money saving strategy number 7 is batch cooking now to save money later. I get so much pushback on this, but I absolutely mean it. When I make chili in the next month, which I know I’ll do, I’ll make twice my normal amount and freeze at least half of it. That way, when I’m in full holiday mode, I know I’ve got dinners waiting for me in the freezer. It keeps you from driving through or going out on those days you know you’re not going to be in the mood to cook later.
My husband will also be making a batch of meatballs and sauce that we’ll freeze at least half of, and we’ll probably make a batch of my husband’s goetta, which is a regional dish we absolutely love, and two of our children can’t get where they live, so having it here for the holidays is quite a treat for them. We purchase the items needed to make it when they’re on sale and freeze to make life easier when we’re scrambling for the holidays.
Along those same lines, money saving tip number 8 is to create a weekly meal plan, and here’s the best part; if you’re not good at that part of life, I am planning to offer a free meal plan in December for everyone on my mailing list. The meal plan will give you five meal options that are quick, easy and affordable to make. Several of them will be recipes you can double and freeze for later in the month or in January when you’re recovering from the holiday season. You’ll save time and avoid the dreaded 4pm question of “What’s for dinner?”, so if you’re not already on the mailing list, you’ll want to do that as soon as you finish listening to this podcast. The link to do that is in the description of the YouTube video and the show notes of the podcast.
Money saving strategy number 9 is to communicate with friends and loved ones if money is tight. Look, I know how difficult this can be, but if you and certain friends have exchanged gifts for years, and you’re struggling financially, those friends don’t want to add to your struggles. Maybe you do something different, like a cookie, soup, wine, recipe, book or meal exchange where you can get together and enjoy each other’s company without breaking the bank in the process. Notice not everything that I mentioned requires you to cook, and you can theme this out any way you want. You could even make it a white elephant exchange and really have a lot of fun with it.
And finally, money saving strategy number 10 is to remember that every dollar you spend is one that is not in your pocket or in your bank account, so make sure that every purchase is worth your hard earned money. It is so easy to get caught up in the moment and spend, spend, spend, but when you use these 10 money saving strategies, you’ll think twice about what you’re spending and can make sure that every dollar you do spend enhances your life or the life of those you love, and I think that’s an amazing way to get through the holidays.
Again, it still allows you to be generous and give, but the giving is not just for giving’s sake. It’s a well thought out plan that lets you get the biggest bang for your buck and get through the holiday season in great financial shape.
And if you really want a sense of what you spent your money on over the holiday season, keep receipts. Make a note in your phone of every time you make a purchase, and keep a running total, either on a spreadsheet or even a piece of paper. The first time you do this can be an eye opening experience. It certainly was for us, but we are better spenders and savers because of it, and that is a wonderful place to be, especially after the holidays.
Climax/Key Moment
Conclusion/Summary
To run through the list very quickly one more time. Here are 10 ways to save money in 2024 and keep your Christmas on a budget
1. Have a plan to save for your holiday spending
2. Have a gift list
3. Shop sales
4. Make a plan - for groceries and experiences as well as gifts
5. Make use of memberships
6. Give homemade gifts
7. Batch cook
8. Create a weekly meal plan and sign up at Moving Toward Better to get a free one in December
9. Communicate with loved ones if money is tight
10. Stay mindful of every dollar that you spend and maybe even keep a running total of what you spend
So which of these 10 was new for you? Which one will you add to your holiday season to make this season and all the ones to come, better? If there’s one you would like to incorporate, but you have no idea how to do that, sign up for our email list and hit reply on any of the emails I send you. I promise, we can find a way to make your holiday season more affordable and more fun too.
Call to Action
Not sure if you can do this all on your own? As I said, to get in on all of the great info and get your free meal plan in December, sign up for the Moving Toward Better email list with the link in the show notes or description and let’s make this the absolute best holiday season for you and the ones you love most.
Need some extra support? I’ve got you because my friend Jeannine Rose and I just published the Happiest Holidays Planner on Amazon to walk you through several of these strategies, plus so much more.
The planner is designed to help you get through the holidays with less stress, less debt, more fun and more money than ever before. The link to purchase your copy is in the show notes of the podcast and the description of the video. By purchasing the planner, you also have access to the Happiest Holidays Facebook group where we’ll have live videos to talk about everything we cover in the planner and make this your best possible holiday season.
Don't forget to like, subscribe, and keep moving toward better every day, whatever that means for you. Love you all!
