Preparing for Christmas in July

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Christmas in July

It’s July 5th and I’m working on a post about Christmas in July. It hasn’t escaped me that we’re in the dog days of summer. In fact, I just bought a $25 fan so that I wouldn’t sweat like a pig every time I went to bed.  But, this is a blog about personal finance and creating awareness of your finances which means not running around the last week of December like a crazy person looking for gifts.

Poor planning means that you will end up paying for more stuff, have a lot more unnecessary stress, and distract yourself from the importance of spending time with your friends and family.

According to the American Research Group Americans planned on spending around $882 on holiday gifts last year. My goal is to help you plan better, cut that amount by at least 25% and have a mellow holiday season.

I’ve decided to do a gift giving series to be published the next 4 Saturdays of this month. This is inspired by Unique Gifter’s amazing guides to gifts and a couple of other websites that share awesome gift giving ideas.

Start Now

Write down who you would like to make or buy gifts for this year. Set a budget. Remember the #1 toy for kids is a cardboard box. Seriously. So, kids are easy to shop for until you make it complicated.

Your family and friends can be a little more complicated if you don’t manage their expectations. If you’re in debt repayment mode it doesn’t make sense for you to spend tons of money on something that people may or may not like.

Set expectations and be very clear that you’re not going to feel guilty about doing what is in the best interest of your personal finances. If you can only afford $30 a person, there is no shame in that. It is what it is. And, any person stressing you out about the amount that you will spend on them needs to work on gratitude.

Use Apps or Savings Websites

When you begin making your purchases use apps to both save money or rock some discounts.  My 2 favorite apps and 1 website for this are:

• Ibotta-I tend to use this app more for grocery savings but it’s actually an app that you can use at retailers as well. Today I’m picking up a t-shirt and a romper from H & M and will get $5 back because I will use the app. I can no longer wear jeans everyday. It’s too freaking hot this year. I need summer clothes STAT.  Also, if you refer a friend you earn $5 the first time they redeem a savings and they get $10 the first time they redeem a savings towards their minimum payout amount of $20. Get your friends to sign up with your affiliate link!  Here’s mine! The LINK. I do think that for apparel Ebates.com has Digit beat.

• Digit-Is a super easy and painless way to save small amounts of cash every week. Basically, Digit is connected to a designated account and withdraws small amounts of cash and deposits it into a savings account. I love Digit. You can also earn $5 for every person that you refer as well. Here’s my LINK.

• Ebates.com-I’m not sure why I’ve been so slow in discovering the wonders that is Ebates.com but not that I have I’m hooked! It has a huge number of retailers that you can shop online with and save money. The other awesome part is that you can refer your friends and earn $10 for each friend who uses your referral link when making an initial purchase.

I very rarely shop in malls anymore because it is a huge time suck and I am better able to manage impulse shopping. Staying out of malls has helped me manage and basically eliminate my old shopping habits.

Let’s be honest, I would prefer that you barter, make, or just not buy a ton of gifts but that’s super unrealistic and not everyone has hit that zen-like moment of just not caring about what other people think when you don’t give gifts…and that’s totally o.k.!

Use Cash and Side Hustle

If you use cash (or a debit card if you’re on Ebates) it’s a heck of a lot harder to overspend. Withdraw cash at the end of October from your digit account that you opened in July and use that cash towards your holiday purchases.

Another great idea is to start doing side hustles now and allocate that earned income towards gift giving, Thanksgiving dinner, etc. In the next 4-6 weeks retailers will begin hiring for the following:

• Back to School

• Holiday help

Or, you can look into freelance writing as content providers ramp up their content calendars, running exercise classes, etc.

Barter or Swap Parties

Not that kind of swap! Throw a pot luck with a theme. Have friends bring clothes, kids’ clothing, kids’ toys, etc. (and food and drink) swap gently used but in fabulous condition items to one another and then gift those items for Christmas. Your kids won’t know the difference. I can speak from experience because I wore a lot of beautiful used clothes as a kid and had no clue (and didn’t care-I was a kid).

Yep, it’s already time to begin vaguely thinking about holiday side hustles, holidays, and gifts. No, you should not freak out. Have fun with it and I’m hoping that through planning and following this easy strategy you will stretch your dollar and save at least 25% from what you spent last year.

Good Luck!

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Michelle

I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.

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