How-to Financially Survive The Holiday Shopping Season

Christmas is almost here. You know what that means. Christmas shopping is also here. Aside from awkward work parties where you try not to get too drunk so that you don’t embarrass yourself and figuring out if you need to attend every party you’re invited to, you need to figure out how you’ll pay for the crazy amount of gifts that you’re going to have to buy. This year I wanted to take a look at how you can financially survive the Christmas shopping season without going flat broke:

Check out my posts from last year on Christmas gift ideas that don’t suck & How-to be the perfect Santa.

Set a gift budget.

You need to know how much money your going to spend on gifts this year. You can’t spend all of your money on your girlfriend (not that she would complain) and then have nothing left over to get gifts for your family. I like to set a dollar amount for how much I plan on spending on Christmas gifts. Then I set an amount of how much money will be spent on each person on my list. My Christmas gift hierarchy is actually pretty simple: it starts with parents, then two brothers, and then a few friends. How does your Christmas gift budget look?

Set gift limits with friends.

If anything you will at least save a few awkward moments that could happen. You don’t want to give someone a scarf and then find out that they got you an iPad in return. When you set a gift limit I find that it forces everyone to get creative. You also will know what range of items to look for.

Share experiences.

Go for drinks. Go on a trip. Take off for a few days. Do something fun. Sharing an experience can be much memorable than some shirt that doesn’t fit someone properly. I would much rather go for drinks with someone then have to spend all day at the mall trying to find something that suits them.

Pick your battles.

Just because every acquaintance you have under the sun decides to invite you to a Christmas party, it doesn’t mean that you have to show up. I personally try to only attend events where I know I’ll have a memorable experience with good company. There’s no point of going to awkward parties where you spend the whole night making sure you don’t get drunk because you don’t trust the people around you. Save yourself some time and money this holiday season by picking which events you choose to attend.

Shop smart.

I know that nobody attempts to “shop stupid.” What I mean is that you need to be prepared. Doing all of your Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve won’t work out too well. Waiting until the last minute to get your gifts will never work. You either won’t find what you need or you get something stupid as you rush. If you shop smart and plan early, you can definitely financially survive the holiday shopping season.

Hopefully now you’re ready to financially survive the holiday season. What did I miss?

This article was part of a “finance and holidays group project” coordinated by Go Banking Rates.

(photo credit: asimulator)