Learn to spend less with The Pricemakers’ holiday overspending tips!
Welcome to the season of joy, festivities, and, unfortunately, frequently overspending. The holidays bring a magical ambiance.
But they can also cast a financial spell that leaves our wallets much lighter than we planned. So, we came up with a list of holiday overspending tips to help you out and reveal valuable insights on where your hard-earned cash might easily be slipping away unnecessarily.
These holiday overspending tips aren’t just about budgeting. They can be a roadmap to financial mindfulness during this special time of year, considering it’s easy to get carried away with the spirit of decorating and giving.
But understanding where you might be wasting money is the first step toward a merrier and more financially responsible holiday season.
So, grab a cup of hot chocolate, get settled into your favorite comfy blanket, and uncover the secrets to smart spending amid the holiday cheer.
Brace yourself for a reality check as we explore 17 holiday overspending tips and common areas where many of us fall victim to overspending during the festive season.
Holiday overspending tip: You don’t really need an enormous Christmas tree
Suppose you’ve had a really terrible year. You might’ve lost family or moved to a different location, and your children or grandchildren are troubled.
So, to cheer everyone up, you go out and get an enormous tree that doesn’t actually fit in your home, and now you have to obviously go back to the store for more lights. You’ll all talk about it for years.
But you only really need that experience once, and part of what makes it fun is the grinning realization that having a humongous plant dominate your living area is a terrible idea. You don’t need a Clark Griswold-sized Christmas tree to have a memorable holiday season.
You might even be able to have a great Christmas with an artificial tree, as blasphemous as that may sound to some Christmas die-hards! Our holiday overspending tip is to leave the giant trees in the forest and picking something more appropriate for your own home.
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t rely on credit cards
Unless you’re assertive about paying off your credit card on time, using plastic for your holiday expenses can leave you in a mountain of debt once Santa’s gone and the glitz has cleared. We recommend establishing a clear budget for the season.
This includes everything from food to decor and gifts, and sticking to it as best you can. Use debit or cash to help you stay on track and give your credit card a much-needed break.
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t overdo it with greeting cards
Stocking up on holiday greeting cards can leave you shocked at what you’ve spent. And you’ll probably be left with too many anyway by the time you’re done with all that well-wishing.
We recommend making a list of people you’d like to send a greeting card to out-of-town friends, business contacts, and family, a breakdown of people you know will really appreciate the gesture.
This might mean skipping that 4th cousin whose name you can hardly remember. So get choosy! And don’t worry. Santa won’t kick you off the “nice list” for keeping your budget on track!
Holiday overspending tip: Not planning your shopping trips
Tackling the holiday crowds at the mall without a plan is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make during the holidays. Chances are, without a plan, you’ll end up impatient and exhausted, buying whatever you can to get yourself out of there.
This usually means overspending and missing good deals, leaving you feeling worse about what you’ve purchased and how much you’ve spent. You should make your list – and check it twice!
Before leaving the house, take the time to write down a list of each person you’ll be buying for and what you wish to find for them. Then, look at your list. What mall allows you to cover the most ground?
What stores will help you cover more than one person? Doing this will save you both time and money in the long run.
Holiday overspending tip: You don’t need to buy gifts for distant family
Many families do a “name out of a hat” gift exchange. Amid something like this, it’s easy to compensate for not knowing your extended family by spending too much money on something you think is ideal.
But why not put away all that money and look through your relatives’ social media pages to get a sense of their wants, hopes, dreams, and needs instead of wasting money on a juicer they’ll never use?
If your relatives are reasonable people, we imagine they don’t expect or want you to go broke because of them.
Also, going with an expensive gift for someone you don’t know that well can make things awkward if everyone else’s presents are much more affordable than yours. Set a spending limit when you draw names to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t over-spend… on yourself!
We’re not judging, but this time of year signifies A LOT of shopping, both online and in-store. And that can mean a lot of wasted time spent scouring the racks for promos and deals.
Coming across so many great discoveries, it’s only natural you’d want to pick up a little something, or a lot, for yourself.
So before you find yourself with more gifts “from you to you” under the tree, remember this holiday overspending tip: now is the time to stay focused on your loved ones and list, just as they’re doing for you.
Stay on track and, if you must, indulge in those post-holiday sales or maybe a post-holiday vacation after the chaos ends as a reward!
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t put up too many outdoor decorations
Blame it on characters like Clark Griswold, the overeager light-stringer of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” but one thing is for sure: Lots of us go over the top in decking our halls from Halloween to Christmas.
When you consider both their price and the cost of the electricity to power them, decorations, especially those for the outdoors, are one of the easiest ways to blow your monthly budget.
Reduce your expenses by DIYing your outdoor decor with simple garlands, natural wreaths, and only a few strategically placed strings of holiday twinkle lights.
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t overcommit to holiday social events
This year, your holiday social calendar might not be fully booked yet. Still, during the holidays, it seems like every time you turn around, there’s yet another neighborhood party, family get-together, or some other festive shindig.
For most of these events, you bring food or drinks to share or pick up part of the tab. To save some cash and free up your calendar, try to only commit to the parties you’re genuinely excited to attend.
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t buy too much alcohol
Some people buy a ton of alcohol to ensure they’re the best party host in their group. Others might need it to put up with Uncle Jack’s racist rants at the dinner table. Whatever the reason, be savvy about how much you’re buying and how much you consume.
We understand there’s no harm in getting a little inebriated for a special occasion like Christmas, but will the holiday be ruined if you’ve got no booze on your table, not to mention a little extra cash in your back pocket?
You really don’t need a fully stocked bar to throw an amazing Christmas party.
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t buy top-of-the-line wrapping paper
It’s very easy to spend too much money on wrapping paper. You might get carried away by your inner Buddy the Elf, or perhaps you got pressured into it by adorable kids or grandkids as part of a school fundraiser.
Whatever the cause, you’re likely putting too much money into something that will get ripped apart and instantly recycled if not tossed in the trash.
You could go the old-school route and scream at everyone to open their presents carefully so the paper can be reused, but that won’t win you any brownie points at Christmas.
Just go with the low-cost, dollar-store stuff and let everyone tear into their gifts without worrying about wasting cash.
Holiday overspending tip: Forget about those ugly Christmas sweaters
The “Ugly Christmas Sweater” was a beautiful tradition. But it was ultimately over-commercialized and ruined.
The true meaning of the Ugly Christmas Sweater was that it was given to you by a great aunt or found at a thrift store and worn out of sheer respect and wonder at its awfulness.
But in our post-irony society, you can now buy “hilarious,” deliberately ugly sweaters from companies for terribly elevated prices. At this point, they’re so cliched that they aren’t worth the cash you spend on them. If you want an ugly Christmas sweater, try taking up knitting!
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t be fooled by express shipping
Don’t pay too much for shipping during the holiday season. If you plan on shipping gifts to your family and friends this year, you’ll already be burning a hole in your wallet. And this cost can increase if you make any of the classic shipping mistakes.
If you cannot be with your family and friends during the holidays, you’re probably intimately familiar with the headaches that shipping Christmas gifts across the country can create. However, there’s no need for all the stress and expenses of trying to deliver something quickly.
You have a few options for saving money in the shipping category. If you’re an early bird, you could get your presents shipped off long before Christmas, so you know they’ll arrive on time.
And if you’re a procrastinator, pick an inexpensive shipping option and warn your recipients that their gift may be a day or three late. We promise it won’t ruin Christmas for someone to open another gift a couple of days later!
Holiday overspending tip: Forget about white elephant presents
Gift-giving can be a wonderful opportunity to show someone how much you care and how well you know them. But then there are times when you have to buy a present due to social obligations somewhere.
The issue with the white elephant is that it’s innately senseless because you don’t know who’s going to get your present.
You either have to come up with something generically interesting within the price limit and risk it winding up with someone who doesn’t like it, or you can go the novelty route with a Christmas album or something.
No matter the case, the odds of filling a void in someone’s life with your gift are slim to none, so try not to overspend.
And since we’re on the topic, Amazon has some great finds if you’re looking for inexpensive generic gifts to give. Here’s one of our favorites: Yankee Candle Balsam and Cedar Scented.
Holiday overspending tip: Don’t be fooled by holiday flavors
Somehow, commercials have convinced us that peppermint and gingerbread are only acceptable for a couple of months out of the year. They know that if they keep a lid on these items until late November, we’ll gorge ourselves once we’re given the chance.
We all love a good mulled cider, so why not enjoy it all year round rather than splurging during the tiny window “society” tells us to? At the very least, stock up on these iconic Christmas flavors before the holiday.
As we mentioned earlier, companies love to throw a little green and red on their packaging as an excuse to mark up the price of their items. But will a wreath on the package make your cinnamon sticks taste any more Christmas-y?
Have YOU ever been guilty of doing the things we mentioned? Be sure to share your thoughts with us on these holiday overspending tips in the comments section below.
But don’t go away just yet. The Pricemakers has much more to offer its readers. For example, we highly recommend also reading: Do You Love Online Shopping? See Here the Major Pros and Cons
