As Christmas rapidly nears, I hear people continuing to talk about last minute shopping. Maybe they just hate shopping, maybe they’re terrible at coming up with gift ideas, or maybe they’re worried about how much it’s going to cost. I wonder how many people actually sat down and thought about how much they would (or could afford to) spend before the holiday season was upon us. It’s probably a little too late to setup a budget for 2018 holiday gifts, but it’s definitely not too late to make sure that you’ll be in a position to give all of the gifts that you’d like to in 2019.
The holidays are a time of giving and spreading joy, but that doesn’t mean you should let making others happy derail your progress and set you back from reaching your goals. There’s nothing wrong with spending money on gifts that you think will others happy, but there’s a better way to go about doing so than waiting until the holidays and hoping that your bank account can withstand the onslaught.
Here are a few tips to help you make a plan to spread joy in 2019 without sacrificing your goals along the way:
How Much Will You Spend?
Don’t just consider how much you’ll probably end up spending during the holidays (what you spend this year is a good place to start), but also take into consideration other gifts that you’ll likely purchase throughout the year such as birthday presents and wedding gifts.
How much did you spend on Christmas this year? Did you wish you were able to buy more? Was it too much? Will you spend the same amount next year?
Who do you want to give birthday gifts to and how much do you want to spend on them? Do you know anyone who is getting married next year who you’d like to give something to?
There are quite a few gift giving opportunities throughout the year to take into consideration, including some that I haven’t mentioned. Once you’ve tallied up how much you think you’ll spend on gifts in 2019, you’ll be able to come up with a better idea of how much you should be setting aside each month to make sure that you can meet your goal and give everything that you’d like to.
Create A Savings Plan
Make sure that you’re saving enough each month that when the time comes to purchase a gift you don’t have to cut back in some other area to account for it. You could setup a separate savings account for this money and name it something along the lines of “gift fund” or you could simply save it to your personal savings account and just know that it’s there for a specific purpose.
If you start in January and remain diligent throughout the year, then your budget (or savings meant for other goals) shouldn’t be impacted when the time comes to make a purchase. If you don’t want to have to save all year for Christmas, and you’ll be able to pay for any birthday presents or wedding gifts throughout the year from your budget, then you could begin saving for Christmas in July to give you plenty of time to make sure that you’ll be ready.
Spend!
You did everything right – you made an estimate of how much you’d spend on gifts throughout the year and you saved a little each month so that you knew the money would be there when the time came. Now it’s time to by the gifts!
If you’ve set up a separate account for this money, then it will be easy to keep track of where you’re at when you start spending. When you’ve spent all the money that you’ve saved, then it’s time to quit. You can feel proud that you were able to buy things for your loved ones without sacrificing your personal financial goals.
Enjoy Giving
The whole reason that you went through the trouble to consider how much you might spend on gifts next year, create a savings plan, and pick out the presents is to make others happy, right? But, you get something out of it, too. Giving gifts to others and seeing them happy provides us with joy as well. Take some time to appreciate the happiness of those who you gave something to and be proud that you were able to do so through wise financial planning.
Saving for gifts throughout the year probably isn’t something that most people consider in January when setting goals and creating a budget. Rather, most people probably think about paying for gifts when the time comes and find other ways to cut back in their budget to take care for them. Or worse, they purchase things on a credit card and run up a balance that they’re not able to pay in full when the payment comes due.
By making a plan now and preparing for the presents that you’re likely to purchase throughout 2019 (yes, even the Christmas gifts that are almost a year away), you can make things easier on yourself once the time comes knowing that the money is there for you to spend and that you don’t have to make any special adjustments to your budget that month to afford to buy someone something that you think will bring them joy.
