The holidays can be a tough time of the year, especially on your wallet.  It’s the time of the year to get together with family, which includes buying gifts, food, drinks, or a combination of all if you are hosting the party, which is all more reason to save any money wherever you can.  Some wait until the last minute to make all the purchases, which can be a huge strain on your bank account by making all of the purchases at once, while others plan so far in advance that they can buy little by little throughout the year so it’s a little money each time and will hardly feel the burden by the time it’s done.  Whichever works for you, as long as you have saving money in mind.

Buy the Things You Need

For those that do wait until the last minute to make holiday purchases could be in luck with other items that you need.  Around the holidays is where you will find plenty of sales in November and December, so it can be a good time to stock up on items you need around the house.  While you may not think about spending money when we are talking about saving money, but if you have procrastinated in making purchases you need around the house what better time to make the purchase now while on sale.

A Great Time to Get Married

Marriage is a huge expense so wherever you can save money will help.  Between the venue, food, band or DJ, let alone the bar, the bill can add up pretty quickly.  You can never assume to make any money based on wedding gifts, as you’ll be lucky if you even cover partial payments of the total.  Getting married around the holidays can actually add up to huge savings compared to the peak of getting married in the summer in the prime month of June.  If you get married even the weekend of Thanksgiving, you can enjoy a discount off all pieces, not to mention you’ll have more family in town for the holiday weekend.

Buy or Lease a New Car

On the subject of spending money on household items and planning a wedding, why not mention one more time about a huge purchase that you can make; a new car.  While you shouldn’t make an impulse purchase on a new car but if you have been waiting for a new one or your lease is coming due, the end of the year models is getting their last push to get off the lot so you can find a great deal on a purchase price or lease on a new car.

Make a Budget

Now comes time to watch your money, as during the holidays is where money can seemingly fly out the window if you are not watching.  Not only should you have a household budget to allocate funds to food, gas, and spending, on top of your normal monthly bills and saving for the future, you can drill down your spending money a little further and budget for holiday spending, hopefully at which you can break up into a few different paychecks between October, November, and December, instead of all at once.

Track Your Spending

If you make all of your holiday spending at once you can cross everything off your list, but with all those charges at one time you may struggle to pay the full statement balance by the due date, at which then if you are carrying over a balance you will get hit with interest payments.  That’s where you could into trouble, and could eventually lead to years of debt, I know from experience, so if you are not able to pay off the statement balance by the due date, you’ll need to cut spending.  Around the holidays it can be a little difficult, so maybe this is where it may be better to spread of the spending.

Use Cash Instead of Credit

One way to reduce spending is to use cash instead of a credit card.  When you make a purchase, you hand cash to the cashier, at which you see the money leaving your hand and going into the register, so if you allow yourself a certain amount of cash to spend before the next paycheck, and when it runs out it runs out, so it could give you time to think about each purchase you make.  With a credit card you virtually have an endless amount of credit available and there are really no hard stops.