Gearing up for the holidays can be a mix of emotions; the anticipation leading up to all of the festivities can be exciting, but it can also lead to stress. As we enter the holiday season, I wanted to provide some daily tips to alleviate some of the stress and feel better organized during the busy time.
Today, I will be discussing the importance of setting a budget. I believe that this is a great practice to implement at the beginning of the holiday season. It allows you to not only determine the monetary ties to doing certain things, but also allows you to list out all of the purchases and events that will be done during that time.
It can be helpful to differentiate the costs between food, travel, and gifts. Some things like groceries for Christmas dinner may be unavoidable, but when mapping out what the costs are, you can plan other places that you may have to cut back on.
Finally, leave yourself an emergency pool of money. The holidays never go as perfect as you planned, but if you run into an issue where more money needs to be spent, it won't feel as draining.