Christmas is my favorite holiday. I just love the cheery Christmas spirit felt by so many people. I love celebrating with family. I love Christmas music. I love all the festive décor. And I love giving gifts, but I’d be lying if I said gift giving isn’t stressful. Trying to choose what to get people is one thing, but gift giving can also come with a lot of financial stress. I’m here to share some tips on how to avoid that financial stress during the holidays.
Set a Budget
Before buying any gifts for family or friends, determine how much you can comfortably afford or want to spend on gift giving in total. Then make a list of who you need to or want to give gifts to and allocate a certain amount to each person. It’s very easy to overspend on gifts when you have no threshold in mind before you start shopping. Having a budget gives you something to track against and helps you be mindful of your spending.
Be Open About Your Budget
I know several people who feel obligated to spend a lot of money of gifts for family members. A lot of times this is due to how much those family members are willing to spend on them. My advice here is to be upfront with family members about how much you are comfortable spending. Money discussions can feel uncomfortable sometimes, but if you are open about your budget beforehand it can avoid any potential guilt you may feel when gifts are exchanged if you spend less on someone than they spent on you (although the cost of a gift should never be what’s important).
Suggest Secret Santa to Your Group
Gift expenses can add up really quickly when you have a large family or large friend group that exchanges gifts. One way to help minimize the expense is to suggest doing a secret Santa instead. Buying a gift for one person is obviously much cheaper than buying gifts for a large group of people. Plus secret Santa is fun because of the element of surprise!
Go Homemade
Nothing beats a gift that is made with love. Whether you bake something, paint something, create something, write something, sing something or whatever your skillset may be, a homemade gift is so special. Homemade gifts are one-of-a-kind and the effort and thought put into them is unmatched. The plus side is they can be done as inexpensive (or expensive) as you’d like and more often than not, the cost is not known.
Only Buy What You Can Afford
It is SO easy to keep charging things to your credit card only to be shell-shocked when the bill comes due and you see the total amount you owe. Again, this is where a budget comes in handy because you have a plan to stick to, making it more difficult to overspend. I always like to encourage people to only spend as much as they can pay off in the same month on their credit card. It may be easy to charge all the gifts without thinking of how much it adds up to in total, but the stress will definitely come, and stay, when it’s time to pay that bill and you can only afford the minimum payment.
Skip the Gifts
Instead of exchanging gifts, why not all do an experience together? COVID-19 may make experiences or traveling a bit difficult, but you could always postpone the idea for the warmer months. Or instead of an experience in person with everyone, maybe do a Zoom wine tasting or virtual cooking class together. So while you may not be able to actually do things together in person, the pandemic is the perfect opportunity to really get creative with gift ideas.
So, there you have it: 6 tips to help you avoid the financial stress of gift giving. One holiday should never put you in the hole for months, let alone weeks, to come. If people have high expectations for the cost of gifts YOU are giving them, that’s on them. Don’t let someone else’s expectations cause you to go into debt or cause you any financial stress. The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy and love, gifts or no gifts!
Note: Obviously with the COVID-19 pandemic still looming, holidays may look extremely different for many families. However, just because you may not be able to celebrate with family and friends in person, it doesn’t mean you need to cancel the holiday altogether. Zoom holidays are gaining popularity rapidly and, if you want to/can afford to, you can still send gifts and open them together via video calls.
