You may be wanting to run away from the thought of Christmas, especially this early, but fact is just like the stores, you should plan ahead. They get us to start thinking about Christmas early as then there are many more chances for us to make purchases from them. It's just part of their strategy. Take the cue and make your own plan! Begin planning for Christmas ahead of time too, and you can end up ahead. Make a savings plan if you haven't already. Don't go into debt over Christmas. There's absolutely no need. Of course your family and friends "deserve" the things you want to give them, but that's not what Christmas is about and do you really want to teach your kids that mentality? Change the way you think about Christmas, the gift giving and other spending. Start thinking about what kinds of gifts you would like to give -within the budget so you can begin looking around for good prices and options. Start thinking out of the box too when it comes to how to give. Maybe your coworkers could get a homemade gift. Homemade gifts can show infinite amounts of effort and care, but can cost much less, especially when making bunches of them.
Also, what's the possibility of making a fun rule between some friends or family members? I did this with a couple friends last year and we vowed to either purposely re-gift to each other, or make the gift. We had more fun this way taking the pressure off of money. We still thought carefully about what each other would want or need so we put no less effort into the gift, just less money!
Get those wheels turning and expand your horizons. So many people are in the same tight financial boat that you may be, so do them a favor by releasing THEM of gift-giving burdens by doing it for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment