Make a Holiday Spending Budget for the Holiday Shopping Season

ChristinaJ | Dec 14, 2009 |

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Holiday spending is one of the biggest worries facing consumers during the holiday shopping season. With an ever increasing number of people on the Christmas shopping list, many are looking for extra ways to save money this year. The best way to make sure that you don't overspend while Christmas shopping is to develop a holiday spending budget to control holiday spending. Here are some ways to develop a reasonable holiday spending budget that you can stick to.

Add up all of last year's holiday bills so that you will know how much holiday spending usually costs you. Some holiday spending categories to look at include: gifts, Christmas cards (and postage), gift wrap and bows, clothing for holiday parties, decorations (including the tree), travel costs and holiday food.

Decide whether the total amount of holiday spending that you spent the previous year is acceptable to spend again this year. If you or your spouse has experienced a pay cut or layoff, you may want to cut back on the Christmas shopping budget.

Decide what to eliminate from last year's holiday spending budget. For example, it is quite likely that you already have enough Christmas decorations and gift wrap. Resist the urge to buy more until you have used what you have.

Decide what areas to spend less on this Christmas shopping season. One category that can easily be cut back is holiday food. Use coupons this year, or buy food well in advance of the holidays and freeze or store it. Another area to reduce holiday spending in is clothing. Resist the urge to buy new clothing for holiday parties when you probably already have many outfits that are suitable.

Write out a new list of holiday spending categories for this year and place a dollar amount next to each category. This is how much holiday money you can spend, and not a penny more.

Make a list of every person that you need to purchase a holiday gift for. Ask yourself if there are any people that you can eliminate from the holiday shopping list. Also consider purchasing less expensive holiday gifts for coworkers or neighbors. Better yet, give homemade gifts or holiday snack foods. If you have a large family, this is the perfect year to suggest holding a drawing so that everyone only buys one gift. Due to the economy, many people will be more receptive to reducing holiday spending this year even if they haven't been in the past.

Although you can simply write your holiday spending budget on a piece of paper, a better idea is to use a computer spreadsheet. This way you can enter the receipts as you purchase items and you will know just how much holiday money is left in each category.

If you are married, develop the Christmas shopping budget with your spouse and get in agreement with each other that you will stick to the holiday spending budget.