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Have a Holiday Spending Plan: Don’t Dread January

December 7, 2011 By MelissaB 19 Comments

Its beginning to feel a lot like christmasHoliday shopping is in full swing now, and you may be feeling the financial pressure.  Shane recently quit his job and is working on a tight holiday budget.  My husband and I are in the midst of being gazelle intense, so we don’t have much extra money for gifts.  Yet even though we don’t have much money to spend this holiday season, I feel great about what we are giving because we are not overspending.  We can truly afford what we are giving.  Instead of overspending, we are empowering ourselves by spending exactly what we are able to spend.  Follow these tips to rein in your holiday purchases this season:

-Freeze the credit cards.

Literally.  Put them in water and freeze them.  Better yet, put them in peanut butter as we did.  Vow not to use your credit cards this month.  There is nothing worse than opening your credit card statement and staring at the large number you now owe.  The presents have been opened, the holiday is over, but you still owe for the holidays.  If, instead, you put the credit cards away, you have nothing to dread come January.

 

 

-Set a budget and fund it with cash.

Determine exactly how much you have to spend and withdraw that money from your bank account.  Pay for every purchase with cash.  Feel the pain as you part from the cash.  Acknowledge what you are spending, and feel empowered that you are sticking to your budget.
If you want to shop online, get a debit card.  Just avoid using credit cards.

-Shop the bargains

There will be plenty of deals to come this holiday season.  Stay focused on the deals and only buy items you can get on sale.  Take advantage of buy one get one free sales such as buy one toy of a certain brand, get the second toy from the same brand free.

-Buy sets

For children, especially young children, buy toys that come in sets such as a baby doll with a stroller and a high chair.  Take those out of the package and break them into three different presents for the price you paid for the bundled gift.

-Look in unconventional locations

My children get presents from Santa and from me and my husband.  Since they were little, the toys that get from us are often gently used.  I shop garage sales throughout the summer and hide gifts away.  This year my three year old will get a new in the box baby doll that I picked up at a garage sale for $3.  My son will get a wooden box with five different games in it that I found at a garage sale for $5.

Obviously you may not have time to go to (or even find) garage sales now, but you can shop children’s resale stores for quality toys at a steep discount.

They say ‘tis better to give than to receive, and that is true more so when what you give is what you can afford.  Why not enjoy watching your family open their presents this Christmas without worrying where the money will come to pay for everything in January.  It is possible.  Beating Broke and I are both proof of that.

photo credit: aussiegall

Filed Under: credit cards, Frugality, Saving, ShareMe Tagged With: christmas, frugal chritsmas, frugal holiday, Holiday, holiday spending, spending

We Conquered Black Friday

November 28, 2011 By Shane Ede 16 Comments

With the recent changes in my employment, it’s become pretty darn important for us to not only keep to our budget, but to reduce our budget as much as we can in order to keep from sending our finances into the whirlpool of red ink that is broke.

One of the ways that we’ve got to cut back, because of the time of year, is in our Christmas present shopping. We’ve already come to the agreement with our extended family that we wouldn’t be exchanging presents with them. However, with the wonderful consumerism myth that is Santa Claus, it’s a bit more difficult to completely cut off the kids from any presents whatsoever. With that in mind, we decided that we’d still be getting the kids a few things, but would have to take advantage of as many great deals and coupons as we possibly could. And, you all know what that means.

 

 

 

 

 

World Class Traffic JamAs a general rule, I avoid the masses of people that throng to the Black Friday specials. I don’t have the patience for all those people rushing around the aisles, searching for that one last electronic door buster special, or digging through the mountain of cheap DVDs in the middle of the aisle. But, when you’ve got to save some money, sometimes you’ve gotta take a few risks. 😉 Late Thursday night, after all the turkey had been eaten, we went through the flyers for the stores and decided on a few things that we should pick up to give to the kids.

Luckily, for us, our kids are still young enough that they are satisfied more by quantity, than by amount, so it’s easy for us to buy a few bundled items and pack them individually and still come away with as much present opening satisfaction as we would have otherwise.

We took the tips that I wrote a week or so ago, and put them to good use. We went into the day with a detailed idea of what it was we were looking for, and where we were looking for it. We had a list of what we wanted to get, and a budget to spend on that list. If the stores were out of something, we didn’t substitute with the similar, more expensive, item that was conveniently set up next to the empty shelves.

And, we conquered Black Friday. We stuck to our list, only buying one extra item. We not only kept to our budget, but we beat it! When we were done with our busy morning of shopping, we had everything on our list, and we’d spent less than $150! Christmas will be a little lighter under the tree than it has been in previous years, but I’m pretty sure the kids will be happy with it, and we’ll all have a great time, like usual.

Now, we just have to avoid the impulse purchases that will come today in all the Cyber Monday emails and ads, and we’ll be all set. 😉 But, we conquered Black Friday, and that’s something!

How did you all do this Black Friday? Did you go out and shop with the masses? Did you stay home and polish off the turkey leftovers?

photo credit: joiseyshowaa

Filed Under: budget, Frugality, Saving Tagged With: black friday, christmas, Consumerism, shopping

Avoid Temptation on Black Friday

November 18, 2011 By Shane Ede 11 Comments

November 16, 2006: I See Crazy PeopleIf you’re like almost every other American, after you’ve gorged yourself on all the Thanksgiving day feasts, you’ll be headed out to do a little gorging of a consumer variety.  Black Friday is well known as one of the largest shopping days of the year.  Most every retail store has some huge deals for the turkey-drunk shoppers that wander to their doors.  And, like most every other American, you’ll likely spend way more than you had planned on spending.

 

 

 

 

 

As your favorite personal finance blogger, I urge you to not do that.  I’m all about buying what we need at a price that is below the normal retail price.  Sales, coupons, and rebates are the way to go when buying things that we need.  But, chances are, the things that will be on sale on Black Friday will not be things that you need.  In fact, they’re likely to be things like big-screen televisions, computers, and the hot toy of the day.  You’re going to be tempted to buy them all, because the marketing department makes it look like such a incredible deal!  Here’s some tips for avoiding that temptation, and coming away from your Black Friday shopping with a happy account balance.

  1. Have a budget.  This should be the only tip you need.  But, you’ll get in the store and be tempted.  But, having a defined budget for how much you are planning to spend is still a good thing!  Even if you go over that budget, you’re much more likely to at least stay close to it if you have a budget, than you are if you don’t have one at all.
  2. Make a list.  You’re likely shopping for gifts for everyone, hoping to make them all happy while saving some money on what you buy them.  Make a list of the people you’re planning on buying for, compare it to the flyers that will be inundating your vision over the next week, and then make a master list of people, with the things you plan on buying for them, and where you’ll be buying them.  Now, stick to your list!
  3. Be aware of prices.  Just because the marketing department put the price in big yellow letters over a big red starburst does not mean that it’s really a good deal.  The stores will be full of items that they are marketing as a big savings, when they really are not.  Be aware of the prices of competitors, sure, but also be aware of what the price for that item was last week and be wary of artificial sale prices that aren’t really sale prices.
  4. Don’t fall for the swap.  Many of the places will have a very limited amount of the big sale items on hand.  When they run out, they’ll “swap” the sale item for a similar item that’s more expensive.  You’re there for the big sale item, and you can’t leave without it, so you pay the little bit extra to get the similar item.  Usually, that “swap” item is regular priced, and not on sale at all.
  5. Free can be bad.  More than any other day in the year, the stores will be pushing free items.  “Buy a tickle-me-broke, and get a free tin can!”  The free item is usually a low cost item (loss leader) that they can afford to give away, while the item you have to buy is usually not on sale for as much as they’d like you to believe, and is a much higher profit item.

The biggest thing to remember while you’re doing your shopping next friday is to be aware.  Be aware that the store isn’t out to save you money.  They want to make money, so they will do what they can to bring you in the doors with a huge sale and then sell you all the high-profit items that aren’t on that huge sale list. We’ve all seen the videos each year of the people trampling each other trying to get one of the ten of those super cool kitchen gadgets, or video game systems.  Don’t be that person.  Be conscious of what you want to buy, how much it sold for before, and what the price should be the day you’re buying it.  Have a set amount you want to spend and stay close to that amount.  You’ll be happier that you did.

What are your plans for Black Friday?  Gonna be in the crowds at midnight?  Or wait until it cools off later in the day?  Or, are you a Cyber Monday shopper?

photo credit: Matt McGee

Filed Under: budget, Consumerism, Coupons and Discounts, Frugality Tagged With: black friday, Consumerism, cyber monday, Saving, shopping

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